The company, a leading supplier of the computer chips that power consumer videophone and professional videoconferencing setups, announced that it recently shipped its 100,000th videophone system, selling through such mass outlets as Best Buy. 8x8 Marketing Director Robert Gulino said. The systems also feature a new, graphical interface. Both videophone models and the speaker phone are due in stores by April. Video calls are placed just like a regular phone call.
Users can achieve higher frame rates by adjusting the setup to a lower resolution setting.
Gulino said there may be some incremental improvement to be had over regular phone lines, but the limitation of those standard voice lines also is one of the products' greatest advantages. Pushing home videophone service to full-motion frame rates will require faster phone lines used for data, Gulino said. Sony launched a new line of digital camcorders at the trade show that can record digital video on existing, analog Hi8 video formats. The new Digital8 cameras can record a crisp 500 lines of resolution on Hi8 videocassettes and also can play Hi8 or 8-millimeter tapes. For downloading video and still images, Sony touted its iLink interface, which allows users to transfer images at up to a speedy 400 megabits per second.