Broadband Video Phone Service – What Are The Popular Ones Out There?
Broadband video phones are the next level of communication using the internet rather than traditional phone lines and services. The broadband video phone will allow users to talk, send and received real time video. This technology uses a regular high-speed internet connection to send up to thirty frames per second. Most also include a full duplex speakerphone for the audio component.
Motorola
Motorola and WorldGate are working together to market a broadband video phone that works very similar to many online communication services offering voice and webcam services. The benefit of this broadband video phone is that the computer is not necessary as it would be with the headset and webcam option.
D-Link
D-Link offers several different styles of broadband video phones. The desktop model looks very similar to a regular corded phone but includes a five-inch colour LCD screen. It is designed for videoconferencing over the internet and does not require any connection to a computer.
The other models offered use a TV to provide the videoconferencing. One is wireless that allows easy portability and quick set-up. The wired model, like the wireless, does not require a PC to run, but does need an ethernet cable to be run from the router or broadband internet connection.
Viseon
Viseon is one of the first companies to market a home use broadband video phone. It operates on all high speed internet connections including DSL or cable modems. It features two way video telephony and allows the user to manage the service via an onscreen display.
Wooksung
The Wooksung video phone is a desktop phone featuring a high resolution 3.5 inch screen and a digital camera. For greater flexibility/mobility the screen swivels around its base. These feature makes it an ideal for travel. This phone has AV in/out jacks in the rear which can be used for projecting the picture on a larger screen.
What the future holds
The future of broadband video phones is heading towards more portable and more compact models. Several companies in China already provide video cell phones and this technology is on the move and is the wave of the future. Current models of broadband video phones range from around two hundred dollars up to five hundred dollars.
Deciding to use or not use a video phone depends on your comfort with technology, your ISP’s VoIP technology, and your business or personal needs. Whether you choose to buy a broadband internet phone now or later, be prepared to see more options and models on the market.
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Several Popular Technology Related Product Reviews
What do cell phones, mp3 players and “as seen on TV” products all have in common? The answer, they are all products that stay on the cutting edge of technology. The fact that a footwear company and a computer manufacturer would team up together is astonishing. Nike and Apple joined forces together in 2006 to create the Apple+Nike shoe. This shoe fused Nike’s design technology with Apple’s innovative iPod. A Nano is contained in the shoes sole. With Apple selling over one million iPhones and over 3 billion songs on iTunes, you can see how Apple is leading the pack in developing technologically advance products. This is only a portion of what they have going on in the field of technology.
Blu Ray Technology
The blu-ray was developed by several consumer electronics groups including Apple, Hitachi, HP, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Samsung, and Thomson. There has to be a union amongst companies before new products can be made. Each company stands to make money from the various components that often compliment technology products. Blu Ray disk would be useless to produce without a compatible television that could deliver the quality that blu ray offers. Panasonic is now turning out blu ray recorders in addition to its plasma televisions.
Camera Phone Technology
Cameras technology has advanced past a professional level where consumers can produce the same traditional picture quality as photo studios. The Nikon D90 prosumer DSLR camera for instance can create stunning still pictures in addition to High Definition (HD) video. Nokia’s N85 Mobile Phone includes games, music, gps and a camera. Samsung’s G810 camera phone technology features wifi, gps and TV output settings. The i8510 by Samsung is a prime example of several technologies being incorporated into phones. According to Samsung’s Electronics sales and marketing assistant manager Philippe El Nakour, The Samsung Innov8 uses the latest in imaging applications, such as smile shot, blink shot, and face recognition.
Video Game Systems
Out of all of the video game systems on the market, Nintendo’s Wii is by far the most compact in size. This compact video game console with its Wi-Fi Connection allows users from around the world to compete against each other. Other features include two slots for memory cards and a 20GB hard drive on basic models. With the introduction of the Xbox 360 to the market, players were introduced to quite a few unique features with this console.
There is a marketplace were games and other entertainment content can be purchased. The technology that drives this generation of gaming systems is the online capabilities. They blend the standard game play with all of the latest computer technology has to offer. Cd and DVD play along with video games and USB 2.0 ports make this system a hot item. Sony’s PlayStation 3 incorporates the same blu ray technology mentioned above in its disc formatting. The PS3 was the first console on the market to offer a 2x speed Blu-ray Disc drive. In less than two years on the market, the PS3 has established itself as one of the best selling consoles out.
Whether it is blu ray, camera phones or video game systems, technology driven products are readily available to consumers at low rates. In fact, technology and knowledge are growing so rapidly that the market price quickly drops soon after they are released.
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The Six Popular Video Formats
AVI Format
The AVI format whose full name is “Audio Video Interleaved” is very familiar to peoples. This format is widely used in daily life, and its video quality is superior, while there are also many defects such as its large size, which takes too much hard-disk to store.
In 1992, Microsoft corporation developed the AVI video format, which is known by people with Windows3.1. Namely “Audio Video Interleaved”, the AVI file interleaves video and audio data and play them together. One of the advantage of AVI file is it can be used and played in different platforms. In another hand, to achieve the good quality, its file size is too large. Even worse, there are many different compression standards so that some AVI files can not be played if the system does not contain a proper codec. In order to play a AVI, sometimes, you have to download newer codec updates and that is very inconvenient.
MPEG Format
The full name of MPEG is ?Moving Picture Expert Group?, which is an international compression standard designed for moving images. MPEG algorithms compress data to form small bits that can be easily transmitted and then decompressed. Redundancy between subsequent images and previous images is removed while most similar parts are preserved to cut down the file size. Its compression rate can reach 50:1 and it is a video standard of good compatible. Currently, MPEG includes three compression standards: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. Additional, MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 are being developed.
MPEG-4 Format
MPEG-4 (MP4) is a moving picture compression standard which is used for Internet, broadcast, and on storage media. Relative to MPEG-2, MPEG-4 provides improved quality at a small size. Not only can it be used in narrow bandwidth but also in wide bandwidth. Currently, the most compression technology of MPEG4 are DivX and XviD. Videos processed by DivX or XviD lose a little quality but the size will be reduced greatly. It provides users a convenient way to store a movie in a common CD-Rom disc, while the quality is better than VCD obviously.
RM Format
RM format developed by RealNetworks Corporation is a video format for stream media. It includes RealAudio, RealVideo and RealFlash. To transmit and play real-time video files in narrow-bandwidth Internet, Real Media adopts distinct compress rate according to the bandwidth. RealVideo is used to transmit video data. Except being played as a normal video file, it also can be used together with RealServer. RealEncoder converts real-time video to RealMedia Format, which is broadcasted by RealServer. You can enjoy the video when you are downloading it. Not like many other video format, it is not necessary for RM format to download the whole video file before it can be played.
Currently, many websites provide RealVideo files. You can use RealPlayer or RealOne Player to play videos compressed by RealMedia technology. Another important feature of the format is video files can be played without downloading, if you use RealPlayer or RealOne Player.
RMVB Format
As the heir of RM format, RMVB format is developed based on RM format. The advantage is RMVB format abandons Average Bit Rate and use Variable Bit Rate to compress video data. By Variable Bit Rate technology, quality of video files is greatly improved while file size of them is acceptable.
DivX Technology
DivX developed by DivX, Inc. is a popular new video compression technology, which enables users to create and play high-quality videos in a fast and convenient way. For its outstanding quality, the DivX codec is one of the most popular MPEG-4 based codec. It integrates MPEG-4 and MP3 technology, namely it adopts DivX technology to compress DVD video data, while MP3 or AC3 is used to compress Audio. The quality is so superb that there is only a little disparity between DivX videos and DVDs. Another remarkable advantage is compared to DVDs, DivX videos provide the same image quality at only 1/10 the size. Especially, it is suitable for movie downloads. In a word, this video format is very popular and liked by many movie fans.
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