Interface from telephone to computer - options?
Andy Evans
coaching calls. So I want to use a binaural headset and microphone. I
could get a seperate headset like the Plantronics ones, but it seems
to me that I could just link the telephone to my Mac computer and
listen and record (I'd like to record too) etc from the computer,
using the headset and microphone I use for Skype already.
Do I need an interface, or is the line in and line out to the
telephone just normal 2 volts type line level? In other words I could
make a DIY interconnect with just phono plugs for the computer line
in/
line out sockets?
All help welcome for this. I can solder connections and am handy with
sound equipment.
andy
Paul Russell
I do a lot of conference calls and I find that the quality with Skype is
a lot better than with my normal phone line (this is with the remote
party being a speakerphone in a conference room on the end of a
landline). The Skype calling rates are pretty good too. I just use
normal headphones on the Mac and the built in microphone. Previously I
had been using a Plantronics headest on the BT landline but the current
setup is much better.
Paul
Graham J
"Paul Russell" <prus...@sonic.net> wrote in message
news:7mnundF...@mid.individual.net...
My experience with Skype is very variable. From the UK to the USA, to a
customer with a business grade ISP, Skype is far better than the ordinary
telephone - less delay, no echo - a pleasure to use.
By contrast Skype from UK to Australia to a contact having only a domestic
grade ISP the quality was virtually unusable - significant delay,
distortion, broken connections. This was using the video facility within
Skype, whereas the USA tests were not. Its only advantages was that it was
effectively free.
--
Graham J
Richard Tobin
Graham J <gra...@nospam.zen.co.uk> wrote:
>My experience with Skype is very variable. From the UK to the USA, to a
>customer with a business grade ISP, Skype is far better than the ordinary
>telephone - less delay, no echo - a pleasure to use.
Years ago, there used to be a prefix you could dial to ensure a cable
rather than satellite route to the US, but I've no idea if it's still
available.
-- Richard
--
Please remember to mention me / in tapes you leave behind.
Dorian Gray
> My experience with Skype is very variable. From the UK to the USA, to a
> customer with a business grade ISP, [good].
>
> By contrast Skype from UK to Australia to a contact having only a domestic
> grade ISP, [bad]. This was using the video facility within Skype, whereas
> the USA tests were not.
Firstly, my experience with UK-USA and UK-Australia Skype calls differs
to yours, in that the call quality is equivalent for voice calls,
irrespective of the broadband bandwidth at either end. On the other
hand, adding video to calls, which is bandwidth intensive, causes
latency in both voice and video if the access bandwidth at either end is
insufficient, irrespective of whether it is to the US or to Australia.
Secondly, your comparison is clearly unfair/inappropriate, since your
calls to the US were voice-only, while your calls to Australia were
voice+video; the latter requires hugely more minimum bandwidth to work
well.
Flavio Matani
I use Skype all the time -ok; frequently, to call US, Venezuela, Italy,
France, Spain and South Africa. Nearly always call sound quality is as
good as ordinary phone line. You do get some echo some times.
--
flavio matani
guitar tuition
http://www.flaviomatani.co.uk
http://fflavio.com
Graham J
"Dorian Gray" <D.G...@picture.invalid> wrote in message
news:D.Gray-F7CA4F....@nntp-serv.cam.ac.uk...
Fair comment.
--
Graham J
Dorian Gray
"Graham J" <gra...@nospam.zen.co.uk> wrote:
> > Secondly, your comparison is clearly unfair/inappropriate, since your
> > calls to the US were voice-only, while your calls to Australia were
> > voice+video; the latter requires hugely more minimum bandwidth to work
> > well.
>
> Fair comment.
On the other hand, if we're comparing Skype video calls with Skype video
calls, probably they will work well for a larger proportion of a random
selection of US customers than a random selection of Australian
customers, simply because the average broadband in Australia is still in
the dark ages (Telstra "Faster" ADSL = up to 1.5 Mbps down, 0.25 Mbps
up, for $70 or $80 per month):
<http://www.bigpond.com/internet/plans/adsl/plans-and-offers/>
Dorian Gray
<1j9lky3.1vmmb811dbx9zfN%flavio_matani...@mac.com>,
flavio_matani...@mac.com (Flavio Matani) wrote:
> I use Skype all the time -ok; frequently, to call US, Venezuela, Italy,
> France, Spain and South Africa. Nearly always call sound quality is as
> good as ordinary phone line. You do get some echo some times.
The "echo" is likely because one of both of you are not using headphones
but the computer's speakers instead. The received voice then feeds back
into the microphone and without cancellation is received by the sender
of the voice as "echo". Skype is adaptive and if it detects this it
works hard to cancel it, however doing so means that the call quality
has to suffer in other ways, and if your CPU is already close to being
overloaded it might not be able to handle the extra processing required.
Also if the echo is too loud because the speakers are turned way up, the
echo cancellation might be unsuccessful or might severely affect the
call quality in other ways. If you haven't got headphones or don't want
to use them, turning down the speakers' volume can help with this a lot.
Flavio Matani
I do know this, but thanks:)
Dorian Gray
flavio_matani...@mac.com (Flavio Matani) wrote:
> Dorian Gray <D.G...@picture.invalid> wrote:
>
<stuff about cause of echo in Skype and how to help Skype avoid it>
>
> I do know this, but thanks:)
Okay, it might always help someone else reading though, now or a future
googler. :)
James Dore
wrote:
Indeed - I've passed it on to the admin people who want to know why their
Skype-based interviews don't work well. Crap hardware and environment
basically.
--
James Dore
New College IT Officer
james.dore@new / it-support@new
Dorian Gray
"James Dore" <james...@new.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:42:06 -0000, Dorian Gray <D.G...@picture.invalid>
> wrote:
>
> > In article <1j9ng98.6v0inxeyzkt7N%flavio_matani...@mac.com>,
> > flavio_matani...@mac.com (Flavio Matani) wrote:
> >
> >> Dorian Gray <D.G...@picture.invalid> wrote:
> >>
> > <stuff about cause of echo in Skype and how to help Skype avoid it>
> >>
> >> I do know this, but thanks:)
> >
> > Okay, it might always help someone else reading though, now or a future
> > googler. :)
>
> Indeed - I've passed it on to the admin people who want to know why their
> Skype-based interviews don't work well. Crap hardware and environment
> basically.
Oh, HTH then. Actually, let me give a breakdown of what I would do in
order to try to improve dodgy Skype quality (parse the list in order
until it gets better):
A: If video is not essential:
1. Turn off the video at the end with the slowest upload bandwidth (or
an arbitrary end).
2. Turn off the video at the other end.
3. Turn down the sound volume as much as you can without affecting the
actual conversation.
4. Plug in headphones (the iPod ones work fine).
B: If video is essential:
Start at step 3 in A above.
If you are using an external webcam for video and your link can't handle
it (or the links of people you talk to can't handle it) because of
access bandwidth limitations, some webcams use more bandwidth than
others, so you could look into buying a different kind that uses less
bandwidth.
Also, there was bug in recent Windows versions of Skype that meant that
there is gap of about 0.5 seconds in their audio transmission every
couple of seconds, at least when the person was not using headphones.
It was really annoying and make conversation almost impossible without
constantly asking them to repeat themselves. This bug has been fixed in
the current version of Skype for Windows, but if either party are using
an updated version for Windows, they might still have this problem.
BTW, the way that I found by trial and error to fix the bug was to get
the person to ctrl-alt-delete and using End Task kill the "System" task.
Drastic, but it worked. However at the end of the call the computer had
to be restarted because the computer became unstable, and they person
couldn't hear callers on any subsequent Skype calls.
Dorian Gray
Dorian Gray <D.G...@picture.invalid> wrote:
> This bug has been fixed in
> the current version of Skype for Windows, but if either party are using
> an updated version for Windows, they might still have this problem.
Of course, I meant "If either party are using an old version for
Windows..."
> BTW, the way that I found by trial and error to fix the bug was to get
> the person to ctrl-alt-delete and using End Task kill the "System" task.
> Drastic, but it worked. However at the end of the call the computer had
> to be restarted because the computer became unstable, and the person