Video Softphone testing

blanchae

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I've been playing around with video softphones. The biggest problem is configuring the phones to work with PiaF. The PiaF side is easy. In /etc/asterisk/sip_general_custom.conf add the following line:

videosupport=yes

Then from the asterisk CLI> sip restart

You could add the video codec in there also (allow=h263) or in the FreePBX extension config where it says "allow". I've used just h263 for now.

The biggest problem that I've had is configuring the softphones to work with video.

I really like Xlite (free) but it chokes on my el cheapo webcam Creative Labs Vista Plus. Have to use the webcam because I have 8 sitting in the lab.

I tried Mirial softphone and it looks to be the most professional for image quality but it's a 30 day trial period with annoying reminders everytime you dial. This is the one that I would recommend if you are purchasing a video softphone for a business.

Another one is Mizu softphone. It is difficult to configure and I couldn't get it to transfer video. It does look promising.

One that was relatively easier to setup is Kanaga (free for personal use). Once you figure out how to register to PiaF, it automatically detects if it is a video call. Very easy to use. The interesting part is that it appears that you can do video conferencing by forwarding calls. Unfortunately, the video screen is very small and I seem to being having noise issues in the audio track - I'll have to play with the codecs. On a very nice point: it will calculate MOS scores real time and bw usage. This is one that techies will be interested in. :smile5:

I was surprised to find out that there is not a lot of info on how to use these video softphones with Asterisk.

Here's a good resource of 20 Free Softphones
 

mbellot

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I played around briefly with video and X-Lite.

As I remember it, we ended up having to go back several revisions (V3 4xxxx) before it would stop crashing on video calls.

FWIW - It wasn't with PIAF, but an asterisk based "proprietary" hosted system we use at work.
 

Bitnetix

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Why would you even want video phones? I don't want anyone to see me when I answer the phone at 9am GMT, when I'm 5 hours behind. :)
 

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