Which Messenger has the better video?

[Lu C]

For three years we have been communicating using American Sign Language via
webcams, lately with MSN Messenger 7.5 and DSL. We have XP Professional and
our deaf daughter has 98SE. She is upgrading to XP Home. We are looking for
the combination that produces the best video. Should we stay with MSN
Messenger 7.5? Upgrade to Windows Live Messenger? or, use Windows Messenger
that comes with both XP versions?
We would appreciate your sharing of any experience and/or suggestions. Our
daughter lives 500 miles away and has CP which makes it difficult and
confusing although not impossible to conduct our own experiment. We may end
up having to do it ourselves and will share the experience.
Thank you for your help.

 

[Jerry]

The best video is not a Messenger issue - it is a webcam issue. If what you
are using now gives a good enough picture then it will be just as good
upgrading from SE to XP Home. (Just make sure you/she downloads XP drivers
for whatever it is in use before the upgrade so they can be installed once
the upgrade is finished.) There probably are better web cams than what you
are presently using - check Best Buy, Circuit City, etc for one with a
higher resolution.

 

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Greetings,

7.5 and 8.0 (Windows Live Messenger) is the same video, you won't see any difference.

Windows Messenger 4.x and 5.x has video technology from last century and rather poor
connectivity options, it really isn't very good and certainly not used for this.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2007 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.

 

[Lu C]

Jerry and Jonathan,
Your responses are much appreciated.
Jerry you are right on, our webcams are four years old made by Intel no
longer in the business. We will upgrade them.
Jonathan you have saved us experimentation time. We will stay with MSN
Messenger and "Disable" Windows Messenger.
Thank you both and have a good 2007 helping others.

 

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Hi Lu,

To add, I use an Intel webcam from 2000 (the CS430 to be exact) and not only does it work out
of the box on XP since the drivers are included, but it's had better quality than all but the
most recent webcams.

As such, if you have something similar, I wouldn't upgrade them unless you -really- need a
new camera as nothing newer is going to be better than what you already have. Additionally,
you don't have to deal with drivers messing up as they're inbox Microsoft approved and don't
install any additional software.


--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2007 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.

 

[Lu C]

Hi Jonathan,
We appreciate the add follow-up to share your experience with the Intel
webcams. Ours are CS-330 and they are working very well. Good to learn about
the drivers being included and that they work out of the box on XP. We are
encouraged and will keep the Intel webcams for a while.
Many thanks.

 

[Pegleg]

Greetings,

7.5 and 8.0 (Windows Live Messenger) is the same video, you won't see any difference.

Windows Messenger 4.x and 5.x has video technology from last century and rather poor
connectivity options, it really isn't very good and certainly not used for this.

Hi Jonathon,
Your tips are invaluable!
How secure is WLM 8.xxx?
We received some Logitech web cams for Christmas (Fusion and Ultra
Vision) and would like to use them for video messaging but would like to
use the most secure method. We are on a home network (cable
modem/router).

Thanks!
-

Pegleg
U.S. Navy Retired
Support Our Troops,
Question The Policy!

All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words:
freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
Sir Winston Churchill

 

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Hi,

Besides the actual signing in process, no data from Messenger is encrypted. Although it
would be a bit of a feat to actually grab, combine and decode the video/audio data from
Messenger while in transport it could technically be done.

If you're looking for an encrypted voice/video method, I'd suggest you use Skype
(www.skype.com) as it supports this out of the box with no configuration.

--
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2007 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.