In the next several months new HD televisions from Panasonic and LG will give the average consumer to the ability to make video calls, in HD, and via Skype, through those TV’s.
The particular models will be from Panasonic’s Viera-Cast enabled TV’s and LG’s NetCast Entertainment Access models.
While these TV’s will have the Skype technology built into them, user’s will still need web cams and microphones, which will be available at an additional cost. And obviously, a broadband Internet connection will be required too.
The point is that the average person (with this equipment) will be able to do HD videoconferencing at 720p. This is something that up until now, was really only available to corporate-types using hardware/services from Cisco or Polycom.
And what if you don’t have one of these fancy new TV’s? A new line of HD web cams will also be released in the coming months, allowing you to do higher-quality video calls via your computer.