Speaking of reviews, check out the June issue of Netguide for yet another big feature on internet telephones. In this issue they review 7 different net phone products. In this review Digiphone, Webphone and Internet Phone tied for best sound quality. Freetel, Televox and TS Intercom came in second and Webtalk was rated as having the worst sound quality of the group.
Interestingly enough, (Tim please note) one of the main criticisms of Digiphone was the fact that it did not allow you to connect with a wide range of users via a server.
Some highlights of the review:
Digiphone: "After installation we had problems actually using Digiphone or, rather, making connections...In theory you're not supposed to have to track details like IP addresses: Digiphone's creators say the product is smart enough to figure out where another Digiphone user is based on his e-mail address. That's the theory, anyway...Connecting with Digiphone is a hit-or-miss-proposition...The documentation directs you to enter a range of IP addresses where Digiphone can find a user, but who really wants to muck around with a range of IP addresses, or even figure out what that range is? Once a connection is made, however, quality is good..."
Internet Phone: "Two things stood out when we put Internet Phone through its paces. One was good sound quality when discussions occured in full duplex...no gaps when both voices collided...sound quality is among the best...even when we sent music from a speaker to a microphone... The other nice feature is that users can "hide" if they don't want other users to know they're on the line."
Freetel Ver. 0.94: (this version has been upgraded since the article went to press) "The good lies in the relative ease with which Freetel installs and configures...was smart enough to discern our sound boards (including the installation of a full-duplex driver for our Soundblaster 16) and adjust accordingly...Connecting to another user is easy, and once connected , conversations can take place via microphone or keyboard, IRC-style. Keyboard also allows files to be transferred while chats take place...." The only criticism the reviewers had of the product was the fact that advertising cannot be disabled unless you buy the registered version of the product which sells for $29.95.
Webtalk: "In many ways Webtalk was the most disappointing product we reviewed. It is by far the most awkward of the products we looked at...After descending through at least 3 levels of Web pages, we finally connected to a server and were able to seek out others for chat...Webtalk requires a technically sophisticated user, a person who doesn't mind experimenting with compression schemes to see which works best...The typical user probably isn't going to be patient enough to try to match compression schemes with another user...In the end the tinkering was barely worth it...the quality was noticeable worse than the other packages reviewed here...The bottom line is that Webtalk needs a lot more work before it stands up to the competition in the Internet audio world."
I've mentioned these 3 products because they have been discussed in this forum. I've tried to be fair in the segments I have exerpted. See the article for the complete reviews on all the products. |
