[rolling smith]

Has anyone found the skype quality to be incosistent? Sometimes it's crystal clear and other times it's poor.

Is there anyway to improve the quality for skype calls? Is it best to use a mike and speaker instead of phone shaped devices? Or does it not matter?

[PDLM]

It's because skype works over the public internet and the public internet is fundamentally not designed for real time communication.

If you want good quality make a phone call!

[texasaxel]

I found that minimizing other activities that take up bandwidth while on Skype can improve sound quality. This means turning of the web cam / video transmission over Skype and no browsing the internet while on Skype. If sound quality is really bad, I hang up and call again. When this doesn't help, there is always the old landline.

[kostas]

Speakers and normal mike is the worst combination.

Having a good USB headset (which includes a mike) which does echo cancelation and noise reduction, helps a lot.

[hktraveller]

Originally Posted by kostas

Speakers and normal mike is the worst combination.

Having a good USB headset (which includes a mike) which does echo cancelation and noise reduction, helps a lot.

At times when Skype is too bad (doesn't happen that often in HK, but more often in Thailand and China) Voicecheap is a good alternative. You enter your own and the destination number and they connect the 2 landlines. Quality is mostly quite good.

www.voicecheap.com

[Skyhook]

Like whats been suggested already, plus having extra RAM, ( 1.5gb plus ) and a good quality utilities program like system mechanic professional that can free up lost RAM, which maintains a tidy defragmented hard drive, makes all the difference too.

A set of noise cancelling headphones and mic combination works pretty well.