General
Skype 2.0 Clarifies Video Chat Picture
By
Dec 3, 2005, 08:26

Skype Technologies, the Luxemburg company famous for its free Internet telephone calls, today launches an update that brings us closer to an elusive technological dream — the videophone.

The new Skype 2.0 software provides the ability to see as well as hear computer-to-computer callers — provided both parties have webcams.

Video chats, as part of instant messaging services such as one sponsored by Yahoo, have been around for years, but they offer only postage stamp-sized, jerky, pixilated video that looks as if it was transmitted from Jupiter during a sunspot eruption. These seem to be mostly popular among the cybersex crowd, but I'm not sure how they can see anything well enough to get excited.

With the Skype 2.0 update, the picture is far clearer, larger and more stable. So much so, this may be the long-awaited application that brings video telephony to the masses, especially now that webcams can be bought for as little as $30.

It doesn't hurt that the software is free, like the computer-to-computer calls that allowed Skype to build up a subscriber base of more than 60 million. (The company makes money by selling other services, including prepaid plans for computer-to-traditional telephone calls at low rates.)

Version 2.0 retains the Skype desktop contact list that can be used to store info on people with which you regularly Skype (the name has reached the status of a verb). If someone on your call list has the updated software and a webcam plugged in, a little video camera icon shows up besides his or her name. You double-click the name and if your call is accepted, you'll see in a few seconds the live video of your friend.

At first the image, although clear, is a tad disappointing — nearly as small as those on the instant message sites. But you can drag the image onto the desktop and enlarge it with no serious loss in visual fidelity. I found that I could expand the picture window to about 5 inches wide and 4 inches high for comfortable viewing.

The audio quality, always good on Skype, remains excellent — usually better than on a landline phone.

Because I was using a prerelease version of the software (the update was still officially under wraps) I could use it only to speak to folks connected in some way with Skype. But we video-chatted from/to various locales, including offices, living rooms and bedrooms. The synchronizations of voice and lip movements were very good — that's usually a big problem on the video IM systems — and the image was quite clear.

After several minutes of testing and talking about the system, we invariably fell into easy conversation about family members (photos were held up to the cameras), pets (dogs and cats were held up to the cameras, amid some protest) and hobbies.

Nevertheless, the image was hardly perfect, even when both parties were using high-speed Internet connections. There is a general haziness to the images, and the picture quality washes if the chatter is in low light. Movement causes some pixelization.

Indeed, the image quality is not quite as good as that achieved by the iChatAV system that Apple Computer Inc. debuted in 2003. But iChatAV was a marginal development because it works only on Macintosh machines, meaning it can be enjoyed by only a relatively small number of computer users.

The significance of Skype is that it's the first quality, online video communication regimen for the masses.

There have been numerous attempts to bring to life the age-old, sci-fi dream of person-to-person video communication. But this time it's cheap (actually free as long as you have the equipment), accessible and fairly easy to use.

But get ready for the little downsides, too. I checked myself in the mirror before every video call. Wouldn't you just know that the day I was trying it would be a bad hair day?


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