[GnomeMeeting-list] GnomeMeeting / NetMeeting Voice Codec Problems

[Dierk Brunner <dierk_brunner freesurf ch>]

Hi all

I have a problem with voice codecs when using GnomeMeeting on one
side and NetMeeting on the other side.

I use GnomeMeeting under Suse Linux 9.0 to communicate with a friend
working under Windows XP and using NetMeeting 3.0.

Under Windows XP / NetMeeting we have installed and registered the
GSM-06.10 (from www.gnomemeeting.org) and the Speex voice codecs.
(You can find more information about the Speex codec on Windows and
with NetMeeting at http://mitglied.lycos.de/darkav/home.html.)

We have selected both codecs (as "user defined codec" in NetMeeting) on
our two computers (running Windows XP) under NetMeeting and the VoIP
connections did work fine.

Then I switched to GnomeMeeting under Suse Linux 9.0. I could not get
a voice connection working using these two codecs (GSM and Speex).

First we found out, that NetMeeting does not use the user defined codec
setting anymore when GnomeMeeting is on the other side of the connection.
A normal voice codec negotiation with all installed codecs is done instead.

The codec negotiation between both sides seems not to be affected by the
codec ordering in GnomeMeeting. By disabeling the codecs in GnomeMeeting
step by step, we could find out that the codec selection priority is:

- G.711-uLaw-64k
- G.711-ALaw-64k
- MS-GSM

When all these codecs are disabled in GnomeMeeting, no voice connection is
established anymore! It looks like that GnomeMeeting and NetMeeting do
not recognize that the GSM-06.10 and Speex voice codex are available on
both sides! No matching voice codec (beside G.711* and MS-GSM) is found
although these codecs are installed on both sides!

Currently I do not have any idea how I can get GnomeMeeting and
NetMeeting to communicate with each other using an acceptable voice
codec! I am also surprised that even GSM-06.10 did not work!

By the way, does anybody know what the higher quality Speex codec
in GnomeMeeting exactly is? Speex seems not to support 15kHz as
written in the codec list.

Not all Speex codecs work with NetMeeting because of software limitations!
The following higher quality Speex codec works on both platforms: 12.8 kb/s,
16 kHz, Q4. Is it possible to add this codec to the codecs GnomeMeeting
supports? I would prefer this codec that can be used on both platforms.

I would be glad if anybody could help me with this problem! Thanks!

Regards,

    Dierk

p.s. A practical tool for GnomeMeeting users is the dynamic domain
       service that www.dyndns.org offers. This service allows fixed
       domain name adresses instead of changing IP addresses as
       VoIP adresses, especially for users that don't want to be
       registered in a directory (e.g. ILS).