[Ekiga-list] Bad video quality / bandwidth

[Conrad Beckert]

> I'm doing SIP video conferencing with a 640x480 webcam.  My supervisor
> is claims the video sent back by the echo test at 500 at ekiga.net is
> "shocking".  When I play images with xawtv, he says it seems better.
Well, nagging and complaining, that's what bosses and supervisors usually are 
for. :-)  (anything else???)

> I notice that the max video bandwidth ekiga allows me to set is
> 100kB/s - how do I increase this or increase the video quality?  Both
> offices between which we would like to video conference belong to a
> web company, so network bandwidth is not a problem.
Well, I don't unterstand this part of Ekiga. With Ekiga using SIP you 'd  only 
get QCIF image size - some 176 × 144 pixels which is not much - especially if 
your supervisor enlarged the display.  (no Nipkow disks involved 
though :-)   )

With the old Gnomemeeting I had CIF resolution and had a decent image and a 
tolerable sound on an 128kbit/s DSL line - not comparable what you have in 
your network. I wonder if it is possible to even reach 100kbit/s on H.261 
QCIF. 

Now - even with CIF (large) video mode switched on for H323 in the "registry", 
Ekiga doesn't perform as Gnomemeeting did (intermitted, stuttering sound on 
the same bandwith, strange sound card effects). 

That left me to abolish Video-Conferencing alltogether for the time beeing as 
it doesn't make much sense under such circumstances (QCIF is nuts, H323 
also).

OK, I could install Gnomemeeting again, but I'd have to compile myself which 
isn't worth the effort as new Opal with hopefully better video support is 
around the corner.

> I really would like a solution to this, as the supervisor wants to
> switch to something called 'webx' or even to Windows if the quality
> doesn't improve, and I really don't want that.
Well Webex goes through their servers  - I don't know if your 
supersupersupervisor would like that - I wouldn't.  Windows - well- the same 
crab. Probably some streaming solution (vlc) would help.

Let's hope the new plugin video makes headway quickly. That'd bring me back on 
the bandwagon.

Greetings from Hamburg
Conrad