Your Favorite Voice Communication Software

edited August 2011 in Tech & Games
What's your favorite voice communication software? I've dabbled with Vent in the past but I just couldn't really get used to it, so I'm pretty much a Skype guy right now. It's got some awesome quality, looks nice and has good chat features such as file sharing, games, etc etc etc. You can also do group calls with webcam support, as well as the endless fun which can be had by adding random people into the call. I'd quite like to try out something else though, and TDR's suggestion of Teamspeak sounds pretty cool. Anyone else got any better ideas?

Comments

  • Darth BeaverDarth Beaver Meine Ehre heißt Treue
    edited August 2011
    I have been using various voice commo platforms for over a decade. Back in the day when we played TFC (before DoD) we had to use the shitty voice features of LameSpy. The along came Ventrilo which has a minimal interface and good sound quality but not much else. In addition Vent is a pain in the ass to even share a link on. To this day you still have to click on a comment button to share you link and other must right click on your name, go throuh 2 levels of a context menu and then select copy comment URL. Now you have the link in your clipboard and must paste it into your browser. Far to many steps just to share a link IMO.

    Next up was TeamSpeak 2 and while it had a better interface than Ventrilo the sound quality did not measure up to that of Ventrilo. I am not sure but I think there was some sort of file sharing in TS2. ut sharing links was much easier as it had a chat pane at the bottom of the interface which which parsed the links into a click-able link right from the TS2 interface. Administration was a bit easier than early versions of Ventrilo but there were known security flaws in the TS2 server.

    Then along came TeamSpeak 3 with upgraded codex, improved security on the server side with a token system to elevate client privileges. It sounds better than any solution I have used to date, has file sharing, can hold up to 32 users without a license, and has great interface with minimal resource demands. TS3's is also very easy to use even for a novice as it's interface is very straightforward with plenty of features minus useless bells and whistles.

    As for Skype it does offer VOIP which none of the others can provide but the interface is cluttered and unresponsive even a fast machine with plenty of hardware resources. It also limits you to just 10 people in a voice session which must be hosted by one of the clients in the call. The voice quality is OK or about on par with the old TS2. So while Skype does hold the distinction of being the only VOIP capable solutions that I know of that is it;s only advantage over Ventrilo or TeamSpeak 3.

    In conclusion, other than VOIP, TS3 is the clear winner in my mind as not only is the client free so is the server for a single seat 32 slot license and you can easily get a free non-profit 10 server license in less than 5 minutes which will allow you to run up to 10 32 slot servers and has a remote admin tool which and query the servers and manage them instantly.
  • GoingNowhereGoingNowhere Global Moderator
    edited August 2011
    I was torn between TS3 and Skype. TS3 is better quality but at the same time Skype looks slicker and it has more functionality. However, as Totse was the only reason for me to use either I prefer TS3 as I the voice activation thing is pretty cool and its nice that you can log in any time of the day or night :)
  • Darth BeaverDarth Beaver Meine Ehre heißt Treue
    edited August 2011
    TS3 also has many addons for intergration with things like VB4, IRC and other stuff as well as mobile apps for the Droid and Iphone platform. Not to mention TS3 has push to talk which means you don't have to listen to Dfg mouth breathing.
  • JackJack Regular
    edited August 2011
    I don't use most of those so maybe my response doesn't matter so much. I mostly just use XMPP voice chat. I like it because all manner of clients support it and it's Good Enough for my purposes. I don't typically voice chat in groups so I don't even know if XMPP handles that. I remember Mumble and Teamspeak 2 were all right though.
  • LSA KingLSA King Regular
    edited August 2011
    Telephone/Cell Phone/Rotary Phone. I am not big on VOIP because it tends to shit out anywhere from your own computer/ISP crapping out, or anywhere in between each and every packet second hundreds of thousands of times per second. Perhaps it'll be better when everyone is connected to direct Fiber instead of Copper, and that'll never happen in our life times.
  • JackJack Regular
    edited August 2011
    How direct do you mean? To the node? Or the premises? In either case I think the last bit of copper wouldn't affect anything so I assume you mean straight copper from the RT. I never had issues with VoIP on FTTN/FTTP services, but I could see that happening on ADSL.
  • edited August 2011
    My ADSL kicks out every time the phone rings, it sucks boner so hard.
  • SlartibartfastSlartibartfast Global Moderator -__-
    edited August 2011
  • DfgDfg Admin
    edited August 2011
    Skype and the TS3. I don't need to explain the why here. I think it's pretty obvious.
  • Darth BeaverDarth Beaver Meine Ehre heißt Treue
    edited August 2011
    Mumble blows everything out the game. It's simpy the best.

    http://mumble.sourceforge.net/
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumble_(software)

    How many people does mumble support? Can you setup a mumble server? What intergration does mumble support? Waht makes it the best?

    C'mon Slartibartfast you can do better than just tell us it is the best, tell us why it is the best. What does it offer that the rest do not?
  • SlartibartfastSlartibartfast Global Moderator -__-
    edited August 2011
    How many people does mumble support? Can you setup a mumble server? What intergration does mumble support? Waht makes it the best?

    C'mon Slartibartfast you can do better than just tell us it is the best, tell us why it is the best. What does it offer that the rest do not?

    you're right, i should have provided more detail. Was lazy and linked to wikipedia.

    There is no limit on the amount of users. The only limit is your bandwidth. ~6 is the average but there is no artificial limit like in a lot of the other ones. you can try your luck based on the available bandwidth.

    A mumble server can be easily set up. Under windows it's as simple as running 'murmer' from the startmenu (the server operator than connects to localhost and gives everyone the IP address of the PC, making sure the right port is open). It's all GUI based, the server is an icon in your systray.

    It also comes with a lot ofa decent BG/noise filter.

    The main advantage with mumble is the speex protocol: it is the lowest latency, lowest bandwidth, decent quality codec for streaming. Google uses speex in some of its mobile services.
  • JackJack Regular
    edited August 2011
    trx100 wrote: »
    My ADSL kicks out every time the phone rings, it sucks boner so hard.

    Sounds like you're not filtering properly. Everything in the house that uses a phone line except the DSL modem must have a filter. If you already have it like this, it's possible that the filter on the phone is bad, so try replacing it, switching in a spare, or testing with another device's filter. If you have filters at the NID that are failing like this, then you should talk to the telco/ISP and get it fixed. I figure maybe you know this shit already, so I don't mean to insult your intelligence or anything, but maybe you overlooked something.
  • Darth BeaverDarth Beaver Meine Ehre heißt Treue
    edited August 2011
    you're right, i should have provided more detail. Was lazy and linked to wikipedia.

    There is no limit on the amount of users. The only limit is your bandwidth. ~6 is the average but there is no artificial limit like in a lot of the other ones. you can try your luck based on the available bandwidth.

    A mumble server can be easily set up. Under windows it's as simple as running 'murmer' from the startmenu (the server operator than connects to localhost and gives everyone the IP address of the PC, making sure the right port is open). It's all GUI based, the server is an icon in your systray.

    It also comes with a lot ofa decent BG/noise filter.

    The main advantage with mumble is the speex protocol: it is the lowest latency, lowest bandwidth, decent quality codec for streaming. Google uses speex in some of its mobile services.

    TeamSpeak 3 uses speex as well and at 32Khz stereo it only uses 7.57 KBps with a 20 ms delay. What are the figures for mumble? BTW speex is also in Ventrilo but it's interface is quite clumsy compared to TS3.
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