Ask HN: What do you use for high quality video calling? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What do you use for high quality video calling?

5 pointssmusamashah13 comments

What do you use for high quality video calling these days between continents/countries/cities. Whatsapp video calls are OK, often low quality. Skype gives good quality only when it feels like. There should have been a WebRTC alternative by now but I can't find a free one. https://appr.tc is probably broken and always give room full error to other person (overseas) who wants to join.

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Something that will make a huge difference is good lightning, and secondary a good camera lens. A 720p video with good camera and lightning will look better then a blurry high iso 1080p video.

It sounds like you're dealing with poor connectivity at one/both ends, or poor peering along the route.

I suggest you try these, in order, and stop when one of them works for you:

- FaceTime

- Zoom

- Google Duo

- Whereby

- Jitsi

Apple and Zoom are highly incentivized to make their video calling work great, even if it costs them money in global infrastructure. P2P media transfer (like Jitsi does for 1:1 calls) is great when it works, but sucks if the IP routes between the respective ISPs suck.

Naïve question: You mention "Apple and Zoom"—I see Zoom on your list, not Apple. Is one of those things you list (made by) Apple? Or..uh..what did you mean? I'm confused.

I suggest pasting each of the items I mentioned into a search engine like google.com or duckduckgo.com, and spending a minute reading about each one.

Or you could've told me the answer.

That would have been easier for me, but would have been less kind to you:

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/give_a_man_a_fish_and_you_f...

The reality is, I'm not interested enough to google 5 things to learn the answer. I just wanted to understand your comment. So I'm left not knowing, and your apparently feeling pleased with your unfriendly unhelpfulness. Nothing kind about it. Sorry I asked.

Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? https://biblehub.com/matthew/7-9.htm

FaceTime is Apple's video calling service since forever. Always takes me a second to remember what that is, being an Android user in 3rd world...

It’s like that old sign in the barbershop:

“Cheap - Fast - Good ... pick two”

We use Dialpad (formerly UberConference) for formal calls where the quality is important, but often Zoom for impromptu / informal ones.

I just seek functionality like WhatsApp or whatever I have by hand.

I use jitsi and have minimal complaints.

Jitsi

jitsi

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