Installation

Before starting up the DVC-1000, you'll need to know what type of Internet connection will be available to it. As indicated, a broadband connection such as cable or DSL will be needed to satisfy the DVC-1000's data transfer requirements. Now, most of you won't be hooking up this directly to your cable or DSL modem, as that would prohibit you from using your connection with anything else, so practically the only other option is to use a home gateway/router to share your Internet connection among your network devices, as purchasing an additional IP address can be pricey or not even an available option. With decent home gateways widely available for low prices, this makes this option even more likeable. However, with this option you'll need open and forward some ports to the IP address that you assign to the DVC-1000; these ports are 1720 for TCP, and ports 15328-15333 for both TCP and UDP packets. I'm assuming that port 1720 is used as a connection port to establish a link between two devices, and that ports 15328-15333 are used to transfer the actual data as UDP is required. Anyway, this shouldn't be hard as most routers, such as D-Link's own, have an interface that allows you to do just this. The only caveat is that you'll have to specific a static IP address for the DVC-1000 so that your router will be able to forward these ports to it.

Personal Info.

Network Info.

DNS information. (So that the DVC-1000 can contact the directory server, get updates, etc.)

These are preset values for send/receive. (Can be manually adjusted later for your connection.)

Upon turning the DVC-1000 on, you're greeted by a first-time welcome screen that explains how to enter information via the remote control. You're then prompted to enter your personal information. Your area code and phone number can be anything, as long as they're 3 digits and 7 digits respectively. However, it's advisable to use your own so people will be able to contact you. This information will be registered in a directory server along with your IP address, possibly D-Link's own, and this service allows someone to call you by the phone number you've entered here rather than by your IP address. Since many of us have Internet connections that provide dynamic IP addys, this feature is very useful. It's sort of like the DNS service; the DVC-1000 will periodically update the directory entry with the phone number you've provided and your IP addy, so while your IP addy might change, your phone number won't, and when people "dial" this phone number, their DVC-1000 will check the directory for an IP address linked with your phone number, and that is how it will know what IP addy to make the connection to. The DVC-1000 will automatically detect your public IP addy, that is, the one your router receives from your ISP and use this one in the directory service; you can specify a public IP if needed, or just use the DVC-1000's private IP if you only want to use the videophone on a private network.

Next, you'll need to know your network information - here is where you can set a static IP for the DVC-1000, and if your home gateway is using NAT, this IP will be a private one, such as 192.168.1.13. After that, you'll need to know the IP address of your DNS servers. Usually a home router will provide some sort of DNS forwarding, so you can enter its IP addy here. The last thing that's needed is to select your connection. The presets of Cable Modem, DSL modem and T1 are merely suggested send and receive rates; each can be individually selected after initial setup. After that is done, the DVC-1000 reboots and installation is pretty much complete!

Restarting...

Boot-up screen.

The following diagram from D-Link does a pretty good job at explaining the connection between two videophones. Here home gateway/routers are used on both sides so that a single Internet connection with one public IP address can be shared using NAT amongst several network devices, one of them being the DVC-1000 videophone. Both sides are using a telephone so that they can both enjoy full duplex audio, that is, they can both talk and hear each other simultaneously. Again, the telephone is connected directly to the DVC-1000 and functions as a handset so you can dial each other and talk/hear from the receiver; it is not connected to a regular phone line, and hence cannot function as a telephone - it is now merely an extension (albeit a very useful one) that makes videophone usage very similar to regular telephone usage. Very briefly, when one side picks up the receiver and dials a number, the DVC-1000 will contact a directory service and check for an IP address corresponding to that phone no., and once it finds it, the videophone will attempt to make a connection to that IP address, and if successful, the videophone conversation can then begin. You can always dial someone's IP address manually if you know it, using the remote control.

Pic copyright D-Link

Ready for usage!

On-screen keyboard usage.

The only thing that's annoying is the use of the keypad to enter characters. It brings back memories of any number of older console games (since I don't own a modern console), and the process is slow. However, I'm being a little picky as you rarely have to enter anything but numbers, and those are provided for on the remote's keypad. Another was the lack of a dedicated back button - while the left arrow button on the remote acts as a backspace button, when you're using the on screen keyboard to enter characters, the left arrow must be used to move around, and so to backspace you have to get out the keyboard screen (by hitting cancel) and then using left arrow, or move all the way down to the backspace entry on the keyboard - which is very tedious. A dedicated backspace key could have been more helpful, but as with my first complaint, this only applies during the small times when you have to enter letters.

Remote control; the picture on D-Link's site shows a different RC.

Here is a page from D-Link's quick install guide explaining the remote control's buttons. The Audio and Video privacy buttons prevent the other side from hearing or seeing you when pressed; the 'A' key enables speakerphone mode using the DVC-1000's built in mic, and the 'B' key tells the camera to auto-adjust the contrast. The View buttons are also useful; the top one switches between a full screen view and a split picture-in-picture mode, while the Self/Remote button swaps the view between the remote view (person you are calling) and the self-view. All of these functions can be accessed in menus in the DVC-1000's configuration, but it is nice to have them on the remote, as during a conversation it's easier to adjust them this way. The numpad is similar to a telephone's, and this is no mistake as D-Link wanted the DVC-1000 to be as similar to a telephone experience as possible; the Asterisk (*) also doubles as a period or dot (.) when you are entering or dialing by IP addresses. The 'A' and 'B' buttons' functions were cryptic until the manual was consulted; even more strange is that the remote that is pictured on D-Link's site is different and has these buttons labelled; I'm not sure which version is newer but perhaps the buttons were labelled A and B so that if a firmware update changed their function the labels wouldn't be totally confusing.

Testing

I tested the DVC-1000 videophones with one at my end through my DSL connection, and another at my parent's through their cable modem. I tested the phones at around 3-4pm, not exactly primetime, but you should get an idea of performance in any event. I did not have any newer teleconferencing software to test with - but I believe any H.323-compliant client that supports the same audio and video standards ought to work with it - though it *seems* the DVC-1000 videophones will work best with one another.

I have included a video of the different menus and configuration available after the initial setup that you may watch; It's only around 1.75MB and requires DivX 4 or higher to view. (The video was captured using a Hauppauge WinTV-Radio TV tuner.)

DivX video showing menus: ~1.75MB

The first menu, Dial, offers the ability to add up to 10 names and their phone numbers/IP addys to your speed dial list. These entries can be added, removed or edited at will - each should specify another videophone, preferably another DVC-1000 user. Alternatively, you can manually dial a person not in your speed dial list. If you have a telephone hooked up to the DVC-1000, picking up the receiver will automatically prompt you to dial a number, either from your speed dial list or manually using the keypad on the phone - this is a VERY easy way to use the videophone that makes it accessible to all. Once the DVC-1000 is setup, this pretty much the only menu you'll need to use.

The View menu offers different options for display. The default view, which is what is shown, has the big picture showing the other side and the small one showing you; Full-screen removes the menus and leaves the entire screen for showing the remote side with a small picture-in-picture of what your DVC-1000 camera shows. As mentioned before, you can switch between these two views using a button on the remote, useful in the middle of a conversation. Checking the option, "Display Connection Status", replaces the bottom banner with information about data rates, packet loss, etc., while "View Connection Details" brings you to another screen showing what protocols are being used for the connection. These are too useful during normal usage but can be helpful when or if problems start popping up.

The Settings menu has four submenus. General allows you set certain things, among them turning off the beeping noises normally accompanying user input. Automatically Adjusting contrast will tell the DVC-1000 to re-adjust its contrast every 30 seconds - you can tell it to re-adjust its contrast immediately by pressing the 'B' button on the remote. You can change your Personal Info, which is stored in a directory server, allowing people to dial your number and contact you, and also adjust any network details if anything changes. A note about speed, you'll not want to set the maximum send speed too high; this can result in too many dropped packets and hence a lower frame rate for the receiving side. Lastly, the Update menu allows you to either have the DVC-1000 automatically check for firmware updates, or to immediately check for an update.

In Privacy menu you can turn off video or audio transmission, so that you can prevent the other side from viewing or hearing you - useful if you're making a call in the morning without anything on! (Video privacy can be enabled by default on each call in the General section, but I felt this option should have been here instead.) Do Not Disturb denies any incoming calls, a nice feature if you keep the DVC-1000 on all the time.

In actual tests, the performance was acceptable - actual performance more relies on the quality and speed of your Internet connection than anything else. Usually one's upload speed will be less than the download, and hence this will be the limiting factor. I am fortunate enough to have a rated upload speed of at least 384kbps; I set the max upload speed of the DVC-1000 to this value and didn't experience any problems, in that there was not abnormally high packet loss. At this rate, the video ranged between 18-24fps; the lower figure resulted from excessive movement and was accompanied by artifacting such as pixelation in the video - not very pretty. If you've watched those embedded reporters making their live reports from the field on CNN recently, you'll get an idea of what that pixelation is like, however I must emphasize that the extent of this on the DVC-1000 was no where near what was seen on those live field reports. However, you're not likely to be moving around a lot, and in most cases you'll be sitting down somewhere in front of the camera - where this gets to be a problem is if you having a lot of moving stuff in the background; in this case you'll probably want to reposition.

Before I go any further, I'll make a few points. The DVC-1000 supports a max resolution of 352x288; this format is called CIF or Common Intermediate Format. The videophone will transmit at this resolution unless for some reason the other side's client cannot read this format; in this case it'll step down to a Quarter-CIF resolution of 176x144, or a Sub-Quarter-CIF resolution of 128x96. All testing was done at the CIF resolution of 352x288.

Now because many cable and DSL companies unduly restrict their users' upload to around 16KB/s or a data rate of 128kbps, I set the max upload speed of the DVC-1000 to this value to test video performance. In this case the video dropped to between 10-15fps, an acceptable level. In fact, even with the upload rate set to the lowest value of 96Kbps, image quality was acceptable along with frame rates as long as there was not excessive movement.

Problems arise from the camera's image at low or room light levels. Frankly, images tend to be a little dark and so therefore it can be hard to see the person you're calling in the absence of adequate lighting conditions. Also, when using the DVC-1000's built in microphone in speakerphone mode, problems arise with half-duplex audio; if you're not speaking loud enough your voice won't be transmitted and consequently, if your room is too loud, your side won't stop transmitting so you won't get a chance to hear the other side. D-Link recommends you stay about 6-8 feet away when using speakerphone mode, and I generally found this to be okay, but nonetheless I fully recommend using a telephone as a handset for the DVC-1000, as full duplex audio is much more natural and the use of a phone receiver is much more conducive to communication. You'll probably want to use a cordless phone so that you can have some more freedom of movement. Audio quality was acceptable, and around telephone quality - expected since a telephone receiver was being used.

Conclusion

Despite the setbacks with frame rates at slower speeds and problems with low lighting, the DVC-1000 managed to deliver an easy to use, and user-friendly videophone in a standalone package - exactly what its aims were. The 352x288 resolution offered was more than good enough for real-time videophone communication - and the image quality was decent. Combined with an upload speed of at least 128Kbps or 16KB/s, the frame rates were acceptable. Setup of the DVC-1000 was very simple and because it doesn't require a PC you avoid the possibility of hardware or software conflicts. About the only configuration you'll need to do outside of the videophone itself is in your home gateway or router. This can be difficult for a new comer but once it's setup, little or no maintenance is required.

But the major selling points of the DVC-1000 are its availability and intuitive usage. Indeed, when used with a telephone and its receiver/handset, the videophone operates just like a regular phone - except that video is included, of course! This, along with compatibility with H.323 video conferencing standards makes the DVC-1000 a very viable option in the videophone market. I can only hope that D-Link will release a firmware upgrade that will allow some adjustment of brightness so that the camera will work better in room or low light.

Pros

• Easy to setup and use
• Can be used with a telephone handset for full duplex audio and familiarity
• Image quality is decent; frame rate is acceptable at ~10-15fps with an upload speed of 128kbps
• All necessary cables included
• Compatible with industry standards such as those related to H.323
• Integrates nicely with your TV/Entertainment center.

Cons

• Camera doesn't produce easily discernable images at lower light levels
• Speakerphone mode not ideal
• RCA and power cables can be a little short
• Pixelation results from excessive movement at lower data rates

Overall, the DVC-1000 is a very suitable product for home or small business users who want something a little more innovative and easy to use for communication. Many thanks go out to D-Link for making this review possible.

<< Introduction and Specifications | Back to VH Front Page>>

 

 

Got News? Send 'em in!