Better than Skype?

Has anyone found better applications for video conferencing than skype?
My students and I are looking for something that will allow me to teach my them via video when they’re away on business trips or sick and have to stay home.
Short of using some whole system like polycom, I’m more looking for something that truly supports HD (skype claims this, but really doesn’t) is possibly fre, or just a small fee.
I’ve googled some stuff, but I’m looking for user feedback on other programs
Cheers!
Answer #1
.:RoKsTaR:. replied: Short of using some whole system like polycom, I'm more looking for something that truly supports HD
Not much out there for HD video that I can think of (although things might have changed).
.:RoKsTaR:. replied: (skype claims this, but really doesn't)
Skype does, if you have a Skype HD compatible camera.
.:RoKsTaR:. replied: is possibly fre, or just a small fee.
You might wanna check out Google+ Hangouts.
Answer #2
SmAsHeDr replied: .:RoKsTaR:. replied: Short of using some whole system like polycom, I'm more looking for something that truly supports HD
Not much out there for HD video that I can think of (although things might have changed).
.:RoKsTaR:. replied: (skype claims this, but really doesn't)
Skype does, if you have a Skype HD compatible camera.
.:RoKsTaR:. replied: is possibly fre, or just a small fee.
You might wanna check out Google+ Hangouts.
That’s the thing, I did buy a great HD camera. However, in the fine print somewhere (I’ll have to look for it again) Skype says they’re capable of supporting HD but you won’t always get it. Even if selected, they control whether or not it’ll be allowed for your connection. Sadly, most people get scaled down to 15fps regardless of camera and connection quality
S1driver replied: I dumped skype ever since I found out Trillian supports it. Plus I haven't used that app in years since they kinda ~censored~ it up last time. Its much better now and after I did a comparison, Skype memory usage 80k, Trillian memory usage 20k! And I have 5 IM's running at the same time.
Anyway, unfortunately this is not what you asked and I don't think you can find such app to be honest. A year ago somebody was nagging me to get a web camera to talk to them. So I used this awesome DV camcorder via Firewire interface. The quality was amazing but the video via skype would last 30 seconds and people just get black screen, but before that they tell me the image quality was unbelievable. Only reason this crash happens is because it requires a lot of data for the live streaming and skype ain't letting this happen. I take it most have tried downloading a file from friend on skype. It's ridiculously slow!
Your best bet is some sort of video conference software running on your own server. I mean you are thinking of paying for this service so might as well do it right and just pay for a server.
Agreed, I love trillian and use it all the time. Skype is a horrible resource hog and with all the throttle from their end, isn’t worth it even though it’s free ; )
Answer #3
Google+ is awesome,i’ve been using it. Not sure about HD video chat.
Answer #4
I dumped skype ever since I found out Trillian supports it. Plus I haven’t used that app in years since they kinda ~censored~ it up last time. Its much better now and after I did a comparison, Skype memory usage 80k, Trillian memory usage 20k! And I have 5 IM’s running at the same time.
Anyway, unfortunately this is not what you asked and I don’t think you can find such app to be honest. A year ago somebody was nagging me to get a web camera to talk to them. So I used this awesome DV camcorder via Firewire interface. The quality was amazing but the video via skype would last 30 seconds and people just get black screen, but before that they tell me the image quality was unbelievable. Only reason this crash happens is because it requires a lot of data for the live streaming and skype ain’t letting this happen. I take it most have tried downloading a file from friend on skype. It’s ridiculously slow!
Your best bet is some sort of video conference software running on your own server. I mean you are thinking of paying for this service so might as well do it right and just pay for a server.
Answer #5
http://www.filehippo.com/download_yahoo_messenger/
Answer #6
there’s heaps of propriety alternatives out there.
just Google ‘Live Conference Software’
Otherwise, Google+ Hangouts works a treat