chrisandluke

Apologies if this has been covered before, but I'm looking for a cheap way to video call between Australia and the UK. My mum's not very well.. can't use Skype or any computer.. and I'm thinking of using a couple of Three network handsets (as it's the only mobile network I know that does video calling)to ring her in the UK, from Australia.

Has anyone had experience of this? I heard a rumour 3 will sell you a handset you can use in Australia, and ring back to the UK under your inclusive minutes. But the salesman in the shop was about 15 and had never heard of it. :curse:

It's doing my head in and I need to sort it out by friday (when I leave my job ahead of my move and lose my UK credit rating !)

Thanks all

The Bloke

Have you contacted 3 direct to find out if this is so?

h2oskineil

Hi Mate

I'm in the same position and have found a unit which I have nearly purchased.
It's called Beamer TV. You plug the unit into the telephone line, into the RCA connection on the TV and into the power supply.
It has a camera to take you picture and display it on the other persons TV via their Beamer Box.

You simply make the called and turn on the Beamer unit and the other person turns theirs on.

The cheapest place to buy it in the USA for a company called Vialta, here's the web....
http://www.vialta.com

Speak to a guy called Domonic Chan 408-455-3151 or email [email protected]

You have to specify "CE version" when you place your order. "CE" output PAL format.
Beamer-TV CE will have standard CE plug (not US plug). All our power adapter is switchable, input voltage is AC110 - 240Volt.
If you want drop shipment to two different country, the shipping charge will be US$70.00 ($35.00 for each country).

You can send on to Oz and the other to the UK.

I have rang all the distributers in NZ, Ireland and Hong Kong and they tell me the picture is 'OK', not as good as a web cam, but a good still picture which refreshes.

May be what your looking for.

Neil.

ozzieeagle

I've been with 3 since the Orange CDMA network closed down. I've had Video calling for 2 years approx now, I've only used it 3 times. My Daughter also has Video phone capacity in the UK. The problem with 3 is, the video part of the network is not, repeat is not, included in their package. You have to pay extra. At last look it was 4.50 Aud per minute to the UK. Little wonder it hasn't taken off eh ?

ozzieeagle

I'd be very wary If i were You, How they can compress videodata up a phone line at phone line speeds is beyond me. If they can do it "effectively" they will become multimillionaires. I'd guesstimate the refresh rate could only be at best once every 30 secs, and that would be pushing it. Or 2 frames a minute.


There hasn't been any discussion of this on Whirlpool, which is the main internet/tech site in Aussie, has to make me very suss.


Beamer probably only works cable to cable.

chrisandluke

Thanks for all the ideas. Three's head office confirmed what the 15 year-old said about video calling... seems utterly daft to me. Surely there's an untapped market- where's Sir Clive Sinclair or Alan Sugar when you need 'em?

h2oskineil

Thanks for your thoughts.
Even with a very slow refresh rate, do you think the picture would be clear? Really all I want is a way for our parents to see their grandson (& us), so we don't expect video quality, but would like a clear picture..... what everyones thoughts?

I have spoke to a few Beamer retailers, some no longer sell the product, but they have all said that it works well. They had none in stock and were no longer agents, which I found suspect, as if it was such a good product then why hasn't every home got one built into their telephone?

Hutch

I had a look online when you mentioned this last time round and I didn't find any glowing reviews of it at all. It piggybacks a video signal on a normal phone line which only gives very small amounts of bandwidth to play with. The end picture, once received, might be clear - but if it's totally static for long periods, what's the point?

I reckon the best bet for people with this problem - looking for a way of doing video calls to non-technical folks in the UK - is to get in touch with an Internet cafe near them. Speak to the people at the cafe, explain that your mum/gran etc doesn't understand a thing about computers and would like to make a Skype call - I know that the blokes that ran my the Internet cafe in my old town in the UK would have been more than helpful in this regard and I'm sure others would too.

The other option is to hire a video conference suite for an hour. It'd cost about $150 for the hour this end and the equivalent in the UK - but you'd got a TV quality signal.

znaylor1974

Depending how desperate you are you could do the same as me - I used a university video conferencing suite and their internet connection a few times. The hardware cost £7000 and they have a T3 internet connection costing about £40,000 per annum, but they let me use it for free.

Skype or something like MSN is probably your only realistic option. If neither of you can set up Skype (actually quite easy) or can't get anyone to do it for you, the other methods aren't much easier to use either, and can be very expensive.

I once investigated an 64k ISDN hardware video conferencing system which was actually ok, but the resolution only looked ok on a 2 inch screen. No good for TV where you need at least 1 megabit.

Z

discobay

What about asking a close relative or friend to take their webcam-equipped notebook around to your mum's on a set date and hook up that way? Having access to free wifi would help.