Re: [GnomeMeeting-list] juste for info : Skype video

[Conrad Beckert <conrad_videokonferenz gmx de>]

> You mean even among
> http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=VOIP+Phones#SoftPhonesvoiceand
>video you could not find a SIP or H323 (video over IAX .. ? )
>chat+voice+video  solution  ?
> Could we know which of them you tried and compare ou results ?

Of course, you can. Let's see:

1. - Eyeball Networks - Audio/Video/IM/Dialpad. SIP-based Soft Phones 
commercial, no demo available

2. Comdial - Audio/Video Soft Phones 
commercial, no demo available

3. CPhone H.323 
really old and unmaintained - not bad though

4. GnomeMeeting H.323 now migrating to SIP with new version, Zeroconf support 
Is here, it works, I have fun with it. I use it for many years - nowadays 1-2h 
a day :-)

5. Neos - Jabber client with whiteboard and H.323 video conference 
Tested extensively, use it for Windows. Good piece of software. Neos is 
Windows only, has H323, no SIP support, It is based upon OpenH323 - so Video 
Codec is H261 only, all the usual voice codecs, but STUN is missing as well 
as setting port ranges for RTP.  Connects well to Gnomemeeting.

6. Jajah - Universal VoIP client with free videotelephony, chat, text
 messaging, voicemailbox and is compatible to SIP, Skype, Gizmo and IAX/H.323 
Loud noise, advertised as the Best, Greatest. Finest - can't live up to its 
promises as it requires subscription to Jaja service. (everything said with 
Skype) Does not leave a serious and professional impression.

7-. MailVision : MailVision's Commercial SIP Soft Phone, a demo can be 
obtained. 
Haven't found the demo - perhaps someone else did

8. MCE SIP Phone A SIP softphone for Windows XP 
I don't have XP so I couldn't test it. Looks promising though.

9. Microappliances SIP Active-X Client Installable links on Websites 
Would require Internet Explorer - Showstopper

10. Microsoft Windows Messenger 
Well, I have W2K only - no XP. Couldn't get it to run.

11. Microsoft Portrait 
Downloaded it, installed it on W2K, tried to hook up to my Asterisk Server, 
failed misserably, browsed some howtos, read that (guessed it) SIP stack is 
not compliant with spec. Gave up as I realized that H261 is not an included 
Videocodec - so it won't connect to Gnomemeeting.


12. MythPhone SIP 
Good idea but requires big chink of installation (the whole Myth Framework). 
Haven't succeed to get it to run (well, I didn't invest time to compile 
myself)

13. Nortel SIP Multimedia Client 
Worksmart Multimedia Client: Provides voice, video, messaging, collaboration 
with Worksmart appliances and hosted service.] 
works with subscription service only - out of my focus 

14. Pulver Communicator Video, Voice, IM, and RSS/Atom reader all-in-one 
program 
Same - Pulver only

15. SIP COMMUNICATOR Java based 
That's a nice piece of software as it promises to do Video VoIP, even with 
higher VideoCodec (well, H263 but, OK), I managed to connect it to my hook it 
up to my Asterisk (needed to correct some lines in the code) and could issue 
an LAN internal video call. I encountered stuttering and interrupted voice in 
all codecs and a stamp sitze qcif H263 image. The software is very unreliable 
i.e. now it doesn't recognise my camera anymore. Still alpha/beta stage - one 
should have a look into the code.

16. Siemens Schweiz AG 
need to sign stuff to obtain demo. Didn't want to do this.

17 sMeet multi-platform, H.323 & SIP, MPEG-4, 3GPP, H.263+, AMR, Speex, iLBC, 
Looks promising, din't test it yet though

18. TABLETmedia iFon: voice and video for mobile PDAs 
Well, don't like Windows CE - I wait for a decent Palm version :-)

19. Xten eyebeam SIP video soft phone 
They used to have free versions but withdrew them. I still use a voice only 
xten for my sip calls (until Gnomemeeting does the job flawlessly) - couldn't 
get hold of the video version. Now  only crippled (provider locked) versions 
available, no demo  (High quality piece of software though)

20. OpenWengo: GPL, multi-platform, SIP, voice+video 
Not really video - actially one can only transmit images of vapour and hot 
air. Looks promising in the long run. (not much going on for video though - I 
follow the page for a while)


Though I myself edited some parts of that wiki it still lacks some:

21. OpenPhone - down to earth H323 clients without bells and whistles. Is 
based upon can do stun, UDP port ranges, gatekeeper etc.  Nice piece of 
software -> easy to install - just one exe and some dlls, one key in the 
registry. I could pack it into a self extracting, auto configuring package. 
OpenPhone does it's job though it is old and unmaintained. It requires a 
Visual C++ compiler to build (which I don't have and won't buy) The image 
quality is poor though. For some H323 endpoints which have some strange 
firewall/ NAT issues which prevent the usage of Netmeeting OpenPhone is my 
only choice - until Gnomemeeting Windows comes out. Connects well to 
Gnomemeeting.

22. Netmeeting
Everything said: bad citicen on the Net (random ports, sometimes calls cannot 
be established without reasons) but good image quality. Voice is patent 
infested G723 or G711 only but there are installable GSM codecs (available 
e.g. from Gnomemeeting website) and Speex (didn't work)
I installed Netmeeting with my mother to call her from Gnomemeeting.

23. Konference (berlios) SIP videophone for KDE
Promising but sparely maintained, impossible to build - only one developer.

24. Kphone with VIC
Vic doesn't  like my Philips cam and Asterisk doesn't like kphone. Works 
though - but unreliable  (and Green-Screen) Forthermore the user interface is 
ugly and hard to understand. (why do I have to restart after entering the SIP 
parameters)

No, this wasn't a careless post. I shopped around a lot in the search for a 
reliable video VoIP phone which I can send around without licencing issues. 

Anything else?
Conrad