Improving picture quality on Video calls over the internet.

[Weacey]

I am trying to set up video calling between our office and another part of the company in a different country. We are using a Logitech Sphere camera and the Skype software but the picture is delayed and jerky. We have had a successful trial over the LAN but over the web it is a different storey. Any tips to help smooth the picture quality would be greatly appreciated.

 

[smah]

One thing that often gets overlooked is that good badwidth is needed at both ends & in both directions. While being able to download quickly is what most users 'see', the capacity to upload fast enough is also critical to video conferencing.

 

[Jamesfg02]

You could try lowering the color resolution.
I would also verify that all the appropriate ports are being forwarded in the router.

 

[technome]

Use Pathping command, pathping the remote office's router, the remote office to your router, if you have more than a few percent lost packets...

Search web for "TCP Optimizer", use it to adjust the MTU from both ends.

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[SamBones]

Depending on which countries you are going to and from, you may have to live with some delay. No matter how much you optimised, you can't go faster than the speed of light. If you're video is having to take a satellite hop or two, the distance the signal/data is travelling can be huge. This is what gives you the delay.

Also, I believe it's using UDP which gives you speed, but can cause lost packets, especially as the distance and number of hops increases. This is what gives you the jerkiness.

This would be hard to determine, but a different ISP/POP at each end could result in fewer hops to get to the other site, which should give less delay and fewer dropped packets.

 

[jneiberger]

Keep in mind that realtime applications require end-to-end control if you want to guarantee any sort of quality. If you try to run a realtime app over the Internet, over which you have no control whatsoever, you can't expect high quality. You may get it from time to time but I wouldn't expect it unless you have a lot of bandwidth available. If it is not interactive then I would suggest buffering the content to even it out.