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So Skype apparently thinks my laptop is slow for making high-quality calls...

Terabyte said:

So Skype apparently thinks my laptop is slow for making high-quality calls...

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Skype's high-quality calls are really terribly implemented. Even extreme high-end hardware with speedy Internet connections sometimes just refuse to send HD video nor audio... Skype was really badly programmed from the beginning, and while Microsoft has done their best to improve upon this, it basically won't be entirely correctable without a complete rewrite of the Skype code. On a side note, a Skype Universal App would be a great incentive to rewrite the entire thing. I'm really hoping for the whole universal apps thing to work out, because it would be a tremendous help for developers trying to create cross-platform apps.

Skype does make good audio quality calls, though.. especially when both parties have excellent bandwidth.

I can get a call in to Twiggy on crappy high school Wi-Fi on an older-gen Android with only a few skips, and video chat is cake at home on a laptop not wired in. Then again, my home internet is rather fast, boasting actual download speeds of around 25.6 Mbps from what I've observed in both HTTP and P2P transfers. FTP lacks though (only getting ~7 Mbps), but that may just be because my server is in Belgium. :3

If I ever tired making Skype calls from my laptop, they... wouldn't be that great in quality. :( Its microphone is sort of bad, and requires you to speak loudly, which, if you ask me, is sort of bothersome. Plus, my Internet's generally too slow right now, which would make these kind of stuff problematic. It's fast enough to load webpages with a few seconds, but when it comes to videos and whatnot, it could take ages.

Peitharchia said:

If I ever tired making Skype calls from my laptop, they... wouldn't be that great in quality. :( Its microphone is sort of bad, and requires you to speak loudly, which, if you ask me, is sort of bothersome. Plus, my Internet's generally too slow right now, which would make these kind of stuff problematic. It's fast enough to load webpages with a few seconds, but when it comes to videos and whatnot, it could take ages.

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Lowering video quality helps in most situations, but shouldn't most online video providers automatically adjust quality?

I used to be a heavy video and audio caller back in the days of when Skype was an independent company, and after Skype version 4 was released, I was just amazed at how good the audio quality improved. Nowadays, I just use Skype mainly for instant messaging, though I'll still go into the occasional call as well.

well that just happened. I could've swore it double posted, oh well

Skype's really maneuverable for me, and to be honest I didn't get into MSN until Microsoft butchered its UI with their laggy plasticy Steve Ballmer Web 3.0 interface that takes ages to load. Skype's cool. :)

The only beef I really have with it is that it forces you to put in your personal info and you can't hide it. Then again, it's funny being inquired about me being a 114-year-old woman living in a cave in Antarctica. :3

My computer could be better but it's not terrible, and Skype regularly goes non-responding on it when I'm trying to un-minimize it after a few hours of not looking at it. Even if I have no messages. It's terrible.

Oryx said:

My computer could be better but it's not terrible, and Skype regularly goes non-responding on it when I'm trying to un-minimize it after a few hours of not looking at it. Even if I have no messages. It's terrible.

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Skype's started to have a severe memory leak/hoarding habit of as of late, hence it's misbehaviour after a few hours.

I'm in three big group chats, and two smaller ones, and Skype seems to freeze every once in a while because of them. Sometimes, it'd stay like that for half an hour because of this, which is pretty… annoying. :( Tried finding a workaround, but there weren't any, unfortunately.

I guess I wouldn't be experiencing that problem with Skype, as even though my processor is a soldered piece of garbage, I have a generous 4 GB of RAM on a 32-bit OS. I did have to reboot out of overall lag once though, but that was after leaving my laptop running for God knows how long.

I'm not really part of any major Skype group chats (in fact I use IRC more often), and I pretty much only talk to like two or three people regularly. I was part of one Skype group chat that Luck Hax, Razor Leaf, and a few others were in on, though it didn't last long.

The computer I'm currently using is garbage so it's not surprising browsers crash when I use search engines that yield more than 2 results, Skype freezes at regular intervals, the fan is always on overdrive with any more than one program open, causing it to die... also at regular intervals.

I use an older version of Skype on my desktop. The latest version a few months ago kept pushing Skype up to 100 CPU at all times for some odd reason, and my desktop just did not like that at all.

Terabyte said:

I use an older version of Skype on my desktop. The latest version a few months ago kept pushing Skype up to 100 CPU at all times for some odd reason, and my desktop just did not like that at all.

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There's hardly even any noticeable changes whatsoever. The most prominent thing in recent updates was the inclusion of (hollest), then its removal. :P

Antemortem said:

There's hardly even any noticeable changes whatsoever. The most prominent thing in recent updates was the inclusion of (hollest), then its removal. :P

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Never actually heard of that one o_O

Though because I do use the latest version on my laptop (with better specs than my desktop and Windows 8.1 lmao), I know they made ":3" into a cat emoticon.

Terabyte said:

Never actually heard of that one o_O

Though because I do use the latest version on my laptop (with better specs than my desktop and Windows 8.1 lmao), I know they made ":3" into a cat emoticon.

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Indeed, which is frustrating because it's ugly lmao

(hollest) was a pair of walking female legs.

Some Skype icons are pretty adorable, while others are… not so much, haha. In my opinion, though, they're a huge improvement over old MSN smilies as all together, so that's good!

I disable all of them and change to 10pt Verdana. Looks better IMO.

Aww, MSN was great. I miss it sometimes, the customization was top tier. Nothing's topped it in that respect I don't think.