Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 16:44:32 -0400 From: "Gary T. Corcoran" <garycorc@idt.net> To: lamaster@george.arc.nasa.gov Cc: multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: [murali@vsofti.stph.net: Videoconf. solution req.] Message-ID: <34525A30.75A63E22@idt.net> References: <199710231814.LAA27295@george.arc.nasa.gov>
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lamaster@george.arc.nasa.gov wrote: > > On Mon, 20 Oct 1997, Wolfram Schneider wrote: > > > Is there any Video Conferencing solution you know of on freeBSD. > > It should work both on Ethernet LAN and SLIP or PPP WAN at 28.8K. > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > I assume that you realize that you can't satisfy both requirements > within the same session. [At the present time - there is research > going on with layered codecs, etc., but, for the moment, you have > to choose your settings to match the lowest-bitrate.] > > The standard Mbone tools (sdr; vic; vat or rat; wb or nte) work > fine over Ethernet, and even passably well over ISDN with some > care used in choosing codecs (e.g. DVI4 or GSM audio) and parameters > (keeping video bitrate down). > > Over 28.8, however, you have very limited options. One option > is to use proprietary hardware and software, rather than FreeBSD. > Even then, quality is limited. [snip] > Corrections welcome. No offense taken, but having worked on H.324, I feel compelled to point out that that H.324 is an international _standard_ solution to videoconferencing over dial-up modems at speeds below 33.6Kbps. It uses (usually) the H.263 video codec, which provides much better video quality than H.261 at such low speeds. Sure, the quality is "limited" compared to the luxurious stuff you can get over a LAN, but hey, remember it's going over a 4KHz-bandwidth phone line! In my opinion it is quite usable, once you get used to the fact that it's not going to look as good as your television. :-) Unfortunately, none of the H.324 hardware/software solutions I'm aware of work with FreeBSD - they're all tailored to Windows 95 - except for the new stand-alone videophones that have become available recently (for example, the C-Phone box you can buy at retail) that don't require any computer. Gary Corcoran (personal opinions only)
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