Please advice is it possible to select manually between High Quality and Standard video call with Skype 3.6.0.127 Beta ?

I have Logitech Pro 9000 webcam with QC 11.5 Beta and Skype 3.6.0.127 Beta installed. Everything works OK (with some usual works around ), but I could not find possibility for manual selection.

P.S. My system: Asus P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP, Intel Core 2 Duo, E6700, 2 Mb RAM, Windows XP SP 2, Home Edition with latest updates.

Well you can go into config and set fps to maximum 30.
BUT Skype will try to achieve that based on your system, bandwidth and the other end connection.

You can switch on tech display to see exactly what FPS and sixe you are getting

GLADIATOR.

Thank you for the answer.
I know the tricks with config.
My question more about how to reduce the size of video, which I send from 640 x 480 to 320 x 240, and how to do it from Skype window (if possible).

I should say that (from what I experienced) Skype automatic works well. It sends High Quality video to computer in next room (0 relays) with Core 2 Duo and sends Standard Quality to long away computer (4 relays) with single core. But one thing is the same - video which send from my computer in both cases = 640 x 480 (according tech. display).

I too hope that Skype will add some sort of control to at least limit video resolution. You are right, it does a decent job of adjusting it dynamically, but getting through that can be relatively painful during a conversation.

At the present time, I believe the only way you can adjust this is through the config.xml file, as you said. Until now, at least, if you defined either the resolution or frame rate there, that would be taken as a maximum value, so Skype might reduce it from there based on bandwidth and system load, but it would not exceed that even if it thought it could. However, I don't know if this is still true, particularly in the case where Skype think it has determined that your system is good for "High Quality Video" - would it then override what you had set in the config file, for example if you manually defined 320x240 resolution? It would be nice if Skype "Development" would answer this....

Also, you are right, adjusting this through the xml file is tedious at best, error-prone in any case, and the consequences of making a minor typo in the xml file are severe, not to mention that you have to be sure that Skype is NOT running when you edit the xml file or you are wasting your time anyway... so it really would be nice to have some user-level Skype controls for this.

Jamie Watson,

Thank you for understanding.
My reason for this question is very simple. If Skype sends maximum possible size of video (640 x 480) in all cases, it means that FPS would be reduced if the weak computer is on the other end and P2P connection is poor.

However in many cases users will prefer to have video 320 x 240 with higher FPS.

Sure, if you advanced user you could manually force Skype sends standard video by editing config.xml. I just tried it.

Here is a video part of original config.xml

</PropsManager>
<Video>
<AdvertPolicy>contacts</AdvertPolicy>
<AutoSend>1</AutoSend>
<Device>Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000</Device>
<Disable>0</Disable>
<Fps>30</Fps>
<RecvPolicy>contacts</RecvPolicy>
</Video>

If you insert two lines on capture size (as it shown below), Skype would send video 320 x 240 (despite excellent P2P connection and dual core computer at the other end).

</PropsManager>
<Video>
<AdvertPolicy>contacts</AdvertPolicy>
<AutoSend>1</AutoSend>
<CaptureHeight>240</CaptureHeight>
<CaptureWidth>320</CaptureWidth>
<Device>Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000</Device>
<Disable>0</Disable>
<Fps>30</Fps>
<RecvPolicy>contacts</RecvPolicy>
</Video>

Alex,

I absolutely agree with you on this, and I think your examples and logic are excellent. I also agree with what you imply about "advanced users" being able to force Skype to limit video settings - in fact, I have avoided posting any information about those possibilities in the xml file specifically because it was not something that I wanted to encourage average users to undertake.

It seems obvious to me that Skype should provide a user-level control to set the "maximum" values for video quality, either explicitly with resolution or frame rate, or implicitly by just making it high/medium/low quality selection. As long as Skype treats it as an "upper limit", and can still adjust it dynamically under that value as it sees fit, I don't see where this should be a problem for them at all.

I doubt if they will see it that way, however.

Jamie,

I also
But I hope that average users will not look in Technology previews, betas, Skype Garage, and try to play with config.xml without knowledge what they are doing.

I also hope that Skype developers will look in this topic and pay some attention for this small wish.

Keep hoping. But don't hold your breath. I suspect that they will decide that they "know what's best" without bothering to give the user any input. Never mind that they have already botched the calculation of system load and capacity by not taking all available and significant information into consideration.

Hi Jamie and Alex!
Good to know there are some ppl out there who's in the same boat!

TOTALLY agree with this:


By the way... do you guys know if there is a way to Manually Set the Frame Rate on the Quickcam Pro 9000 ???
They say it runs max at 30fps, but.. there is no way to set it manually on the Logitech Software?!

Aslo... is there a way to manually set it on Skype?

And.. about Skype_3.6_beta...
Well.. for the same reason that the HQ Video might not be the most desirable for the user on the other end, (who happens to be half way across the world in my case) I think I will just stick to 3.5 for now, untill Skype puts out a better version of the 3.6.
And.. maybe I can still mess with the config file and use 3.6
But Im just going to uninstall and reinstall back to the 3.5 for now and just reinstall 3.6 again when i think I wanna try actually making a skype call with HD video.

I dont have a dual core processor.
Only a 3.2GHz Intel.
What do you think my chances are or having a decent HQ Video call?

Alex? Jamie?

Hi Cliff,



Well, then you're going to be disappointed by the "Invalid Argument to Date Encode" thread, where Skype (so-called-)"Support" is telling people to do REGISTRY EDITING, WITH REGEDIT, as a "fix", when that has nothing to do with the problem, will not fix the problem, and the only real work-around (which DOES NOT INCLUDE REGISTRY EDITING) has been known for over two months!!!!!

Sorry for the rant, now back to your regularly scheduled technical discussion...



To the best of my knowledge, there is no way to do this within the QuickCam software. But I generally don't have the QuickCam application installed on my system, I only put it on temporarily from time to time when I want to test something. I think Alex might be a lot more familiar with it than I am. I do recall, however, that in the process of working with the moderator of the Logitech User Forums, determining some maximum frame rates for a couple of cameras, when I asked a similar question he told me QuickCam couldn't do it, that I needed to install Windows Media Encoder.



The only way currently is via the .xml file edits. I don't even know how far back that capability goes; it is obviously in 3.5, and I was never interested in it before then. If I had to guess, I would say it probably came in with 3.2.



Sounds like a reasonable plan. Honestly, I don't know if it would really be necessary for you to go "play it safe" by going back to 3.5, if I understand what you mean and why you would do it, but it certainly wouldn't hurt anything to do so. On the other hand, functionally I have seen very few differences between 3.5 and the 3.6 betas; the only "real" difference seems to be the addition of some sort of attempt to determine if your system is "capable" of "High Quality Video", and then if so start it up that way. In your case, since you don't have a dual core CPU and they are supposedly checking this, I would assume you won't be subjected to it. I understand very well what you mean about not even wanting it to attempt HQ Video mode on a call to someone on the other side of the world, but I believe that if you do nothing to the config.xml file, and your system is not detected as one of the "chosen ones" when Skype starts a video call, then it should start a normal 320x240 video call. In fact, I would hope and assume (but I don't know for sure) that even if Skype did decide to automatically attempt "High Quality Video" mode, perhaps you would be able to suppress that by editing the .xml file and explicitly limiting either the resolution or frame rate. However, one thing that Skype "Development" has said several times in these forums that is absolutely wrong (well, there are a lot of things like that, but one in particular that is of interest here) is that the frame rate is NOT limited to 15 FPS, as they say, it will go up to 30 FPS at 320x240 if everything else involved will support it (your camera, your computer, the USB connection between them, the network communication connection, the receiving system...).

I'm going to talk more about this in a separate posting in a little while, after I finish a bit more testing.



Sigh. I wish that I had "only" a 3.2 GHz Intel! I have a 1.6 GHz Intel, and a 2.0 GHz AMD.

If I understand correctly, you have a Pentium 3.2GHz CPU and a Logitech Pro 9000 webcam? I think your chances of a High Quality video call are very good (not to be confused with the much-hyped Skype and Logitech "High Quality Video" call!). You're going to have to be willing to make a small edit in the .xml file to do it, though.

Here's an example that is running on my two laptops right now, as part of the testing I'm doing for the post I mentioned above.

System A: Pentium-M 1.6 GHz, 2 Gb memory, Windows XP Professional, Philips SPC650NC webcam

System B: AMD Turion 64 2.0 GHz, 2 Gb memory, Vista Home Premium

Both system are Fujitsu laptops, and both are running Skype 3.6.0.159 beta

I have a video call running with A sending 640x480 at 15 FPS, and it has been running and stable for 15 minutes now. The video quality is very good, the resolution is obviously better than a 320x240 call when I put the video in a window, and is even "acceptable" (in my opinion) when I put the video full-screen on my 1024x768 display. There is a noticeable amount of "shadowing" if I move around much, but that is to be expected at 15 FPS, so then you get into a discussion of what kind of High Quality you want - with this camera on this computer I can have 640x480 at 15 FPS, or 320x240 at 30 FPS (and get rid of the ghosting).

I hope all of this helps. I would be very interested in hearing what you decide to do, and how it works. As I said, I will be making a longer post later today, with a bunch more information about the video tests that I am doing right now.