adsl-384, webcam, skype?

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vespax

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General question.

Hope some can give advice to me on this before buying a webcam and getting frustrated when I need it working the most.

My wife is having a baby boy (1st child/grandchild on all sides) in about 3 weeks time. I want to get some video chats going around the family that live in different parts of the world. This will mostly be between SA and the USA.

I have bought a webcam for my parents in the US and am having it delivered to their house. I haven't bought one for us here in Cape Town, but need to get a good quality, yet cheap in price cam for our end of the chat.

I usually use skype to speak to my parents over the internet, so it would be easiest to continue using skype to video also, from what I can tell.

So my questions are: What webcam would you suggest? (I can use either PC or Mac, usually use my ibook to skype with)
How well does it work with 384 ADSL?
What webcam can you suggest I get and where do I buy it? Suggestions to make this as painless as possible since my parents are not good with computers?
How much bandwidth does skype video chat use for say 30 minutes?

thanks for the advice, from me and my family. :)
 
a Telkom 384 ADSL line should do the trick just fine. I can't vouch for a particular webcam for you, however, an entry level Logitech or Creative webcam should do the trick. Try to avoid cheap, no-name brands.

www.sybaritic.co.za has some, or just walk into yer local PC shop and get one.
 
Last year this time, I was in Australia visiting family. We used Skype to chat, but Yahoo for the webcam portion. It worked incredibly well. That was of course before Skype's webcam option was there. Or at least, not great (can't quite recall). What was really nice about the setup is that we could maximise the yahoo webcam image to fill the TV screen (was connected that way via a laptop) and my old grandfather could at least see my dad clearly and hear him clearly too.

I haven't had any problems with "generic" cams to be honest. The advantage with some of the cams having a built-in microphone may be worthwhile to investigate though.

Good luck!!
 
If you can use Mac to Mac I'd say iChat beats Skype hands down for video.

Skype Video on Mac and PC is still pretty good though. Keep in mind a 384 line isnt going to give you much in the way of upload speed. You're only ever as fast as your slowest connection.
 
Bandwidth Consumption:

My wife too has a basic web cam now, and now we have video calls! The quality of the video is really amazing. Its a lot better then yahoo messenger or other software. Even the voice quality is very good. gTalk comes close.

So, do try it out! But, be warned that…video conversation is a bandwidth hungry affair. Just to give you an Idea, we had a 1 hr video call today, with bidirectional video and audio. And, we ended up with 100MB upload, and 100MB download. So, 200MB bandwidth used up in one hour!. So, if you are on a connection which has bandwidth limit/cap, keep this in mind! Else you might end up getting billed like crazy!
Click to expand...

http://www.arjunprabhu.com/blog/archives/2006/01/15/skype-2-video-rocks/
 
thanks for all the suggestions so far.

The chat will be from me to a PC (failed to convince dad to buy a mac :( )

I am worried about the bandwidth killing the ADSL budget, but the future baby has already broken most budgets, so what's one more? ;)

I don't need pro quality, just some live action of baby burping for the grandparents to decide if it is still worth them flying all the way down here!

Heading out in search of a webcam soon. Thanks for the links.
 
I am on adsl 1024...4mb....and I have had stuttering problems with skype video on local calls (I think their implementation of video is still rather crud, good quality picture though if it worked). Thus, use skype for voice and msn (I know it has degraded picture quality but does not lag) for video.
 
I'm on a 384K connection. Skype video works 100% from me to my brother in the US. Not stuttering at all.
 
I have the Logitech 961459 Quickcam Connect Webcam. I'd recommend it. basic cam with built in mic, works well.

Skype video works well provided you throw enough bandwidth at it, I'm on 384, and it's a bit dodgy to the UK. Running it over the LAN is a dream (no surprise)
 
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