June 24th, 2005
If you "know Jack," you can hook up this VoIP video phone to your tv or DVD
I’ve been reading about VideoPhone Pro, a device that is a VoIP phone, a videophone and a videoconferencing terminal all in one. The two VideoPhone Pro devices most relevant to our conversation here are the ViewPoint 8220 ($399 with any of several videophone service plans, $499 for hardware only; and the ViewPoint 8210 ($349 with service, $449 without).
The coolest part for me is not the fact that these phones are both SIP and H.323-compliant. Lots of VoIP phones do that. Nor are the built-in video camera and videoconferencing bridge capabilities entirely worth stopping the presses for.
What really gets me going are the phones’ input/output jacks. These two jacks can hook up with a video camera, TV, DVD player - or even a VCR (remember them?)
So how about a VoIP conference call with input from the video you just shot, or even from a live television feed?
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
