SightSpeed 3.0 Review by PC Magazine

By Cade Metz

The inaugural version of SightSpeed Video Messenger impressed us a year ago, proving to be one of most effective desktop videoconferencing tools on the Internet. Its latest incarnation, known simply as SightSpeed 3.0, is even more impressive. The new version handles multiparty conferences in addition to one-to-one calls. It sends video voicemail messages to almost anyone with an e-mail address—whether they're SightSpeed users or not. And it's easier to use than previous versions.

The first version of the product worked very much like an instant-messaging client. You weren't able to connect with someone unless both of you were online and both of you had the app running. Now SightSpeed works more like a telephone. If you try to ping someone and, for whatever reason, they can't take the call, you can always leave them a message.

The SightSpeed client is available for free from the company's Web site. But before you sign up, make sure you have the proper hardware. Naturally, you can't use the product without speakers, a microphone, and a webcam (it supports over 100 USB, FireWire, and DV models). And you'll probably need a PC that's on the newer side. We used the client on a 266-MHz desktop with only 128MB of RAM, but video and audio quality was spotty at best. The company recommends an 800-MHz processor and 256MB of RAM, and we had very good results on a 2-GHz system with 512MB of RAM.

To sign up for the service and install the client, you simply supply your name, an e-mail address, and a password. Installation may take several minutes as the client checks your network configuration. And there's always a chance you'll have to make changes to your firewall or router settings. But once the app is installed, you'll need no more than a few seconds to make a video call or leave a video voicemail message.

If you know other SightSpeed users, you can key their e-mail addresses into the client app's Contact list, and from then on, you can call any one of them simply by clicking on their name. Once a connection is made, their image will show up in a modestly sized desktop window, and your image will shrink to a small box in the window's bottom right-hand corner. If you like—and if you have the bandwidth—you can expand the window to full-screen. Even on faster systems, you'll see some motion artifacts—especially when you switch to full-screen—but considering that this is a software app operating over the Internet, performance is quite impressive.

If your contact is offline or unavailable when you call, the app immediately gives you the option of launching a separate window where you can record and send a video voicemail message. The message is stored on SightSpeed's servers for 30 days, and the recipient can view it at his or her leisure right in the SightSpeed client.

Alternatively, you can send video voicemails to any ordinary e-mail inbox. Such a message will show up as a URL inside the body of the e-mail message, and when the recipient clicks on the link, the video pops up in their Web browser. This works well enough, but we do have a quibble with the setup. The e-mail message will say it's from you, but your address is listed as sightspeed@sightspeed.com. Considering the Internet's virus and spam problems, more than a few recipients may be wary of opening the link. The "From" address should be yours instead. That said, if someone replies to the message, the reply will show up in your in-box.

You can just as easily make a multiparty call with up to three other SightSpeed users. Once all four of you are connected, each will occupy a corner of the client window, and here too, you can blow things up to full-screen. In our testing, video and audio quality on multiperson calls was passable, but performance decreased significantly compared with one-to-one calls. And even on a fast system, performance slowed to a crawl when we switched video to full-screen.

Unless you purchase a subscription, you'll be limited to 15 minutes worth of video calls and one video voicemail message a day, and you won't be able to make multiparty calls. For $4.95 a month (or $49.50 a year), you get unlimited one-to-one video calls, 15 minutes of multiparty video calls a day, and 100 video-mail messages a month. Need more than that? Other plans give you unlimited multiparty calls and up to 1,000 video-mail messages a month. And if you purchase a subscription plan, your minutes can be applied to any video call—whether you call someone else or they call you. Thus, you can easily purchase one subscription to talk with your entire extended family.

SightSpeed is marketed as a consumer video phone, but there's no reason it couldn't be used for business as well. Naturally, it can't match a high-end, hardware-based videoconferencing system. But it's just as good as, if not better than, most low-cost software clients—and trying it out is free.