Maybe it is just perspective.

If my car can pickup the blue tooth signals from my phone in the house, I would imagine that I should have a computer that could do the same job as the phone.

Shouldn't it be easier to turn a computer into a phone than a phone into a computer?

-Josh

-Josh

If you are talking analogue phones connected to the PSTN via POTS, then the grunt work of encode/decode is being done at the exchange, so even the simplest analogue handset will work ok.

However, if you are talking about office-type SIP-VOIP (as opposed to say, Skype-VOIP) then the handset (or soft-phone app) is doing the encode/decode work, and so there can be a vast difference in call quality depending on the device being used, not to mention all the other variables like Firewalls, Routers, PBXs etc.

I've installed SIP phone systems using CISCO and POLYCOM handsets, and the call quality is first-class, better than a classic analogue call, while the same PBX using a Lynksys SPA phone makes the caller sound like Darth Vader with a head-cold.

2 hours ago, elmer wrote

I've installed SIP phone systems using CISCO and POLYCOM handsets, and the call quality is first-class, better than a classic analogue call, while the same PBX using a Lynksys SPA phone makes the caller sound like Darth Vader with a head-cold.

We have Polycom phones in our offices (running what looks like Windows CE, no-less). They're IP phones that are integrated with Lync, it's quite cool to see Lync on my desktop interact with my handset, but I've found the call quality to be no-better than a POTS call.

I did have an audio-only Skype call with my mother (me using my iPhone 4S and my mum using a Nokia 820) and the call quality was... like nothing I've heard before, even when using Skype on my computer. I guess the 820 has a top-quality microphone.

EDIT: Just found that under WinXP, you have \Program Files\Windows NT\dialer.exe too.

3 hours ago, PopeDai wrote

*snip*

but I've found the call quality to be no-better than a POTS call.

With an IP phone, the analogue signal is encoded/decoded at the phone, whereas with a POTS service the analogue signal needs to reach the exchange before that happens. Where I live (and work) poor copper is common place, and noisy lines play havoc on all analogue services.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/48-cores-chip-cpu-smartphone-tablet,18811.html

It's a phone pretending to be a computer pretending to be a phone.

Shakespearean.

-Josh