Can some one please tell me how SKYPE works so good on Oprah and not good for me? Is it the lighting? The camera what? I currently have a 10x10mb internet connection, I have the High Def camera from Skype/Logitech, a Dual Core processing computer...


I want my skype to look as good as on the oprah show!

The connection is the key. While they might use the Skype software to compress the images, they have proper lighting on location, a good camera, good microphones and most importantly, a _very_ good and specially installed Internet connection.

Skype is not going to put their name on this segment and cross fingers the guest's P2-450 with common broadband won't freeze or otherwise make Skype look bad.

I wouldn't even put it past the producers to have a broadcast-based backup ready to go outside at a moment's notice. They could even do the whole thing as a normal live hit, then run the audio & video through Skype in the Oprah control room and still legitimately claim it's through a Skype connection. I know that is exactly what I would do. You got a few million people watching, with a big brand name on it.

It's all light and mirrors, snake oil, whatever. The average person is not going to have anywhere NEAR the same result.

A good car commercial shows the guy in the Mustang, open roads, going fast and pretty much being master of all. The reality is more like this: http://allworldcars.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/01/tokyo_traffic_jam1.jpg

Keep in mind, your internet connection is only half of the solution (or problem) - Skype measures the WHOLE line from you to your partner and adjusts the picture size/quality according to the overall bandwidth. You can have a 1Tbps connection, if you're connected to me via my lazy 768Kbps DSL, Skype will tune down the quality so I can watch you.

You can pump water from your lake into mine with your one foot diameter hose, but when connected to my one inch diameter hose, the throuput will only be one square inch... the analogy might not be perfect, but it illustrates the idea.

I am sure that skype throttles the bandwidth for the show giving them priority over anyone else.

Whatever they do, it's not bulletproof: this morning on NBC's Today Show Skype froze in the middle of a live viewer question. It came back in a few seconds, but it went black for a while, so they had to take it off the screen, then put it back.