About using voice and video in Windows Live Messenger

It's easy to add voice and video to your conversations in Windows Live Messenger. By using webcams, microphones, and speakers, you can:

Add video or voice to an existing conversation.
Use video conversation to synchronize video and voice.

The quality of video in Messenger can vary depending on your hardware, your operating system, and the data transfer capabilities in your region. For example:

Your webcam may not work properly across some network firewalls. If you have trouble viewing or sending video to someone on another LAN or outside your network firewall, contact your network administrator for assistance.
Dial-up Internet connections often lack the data transfer capacity to handle both video and voice simultaneously.

Required hardware and software

To make a Computer Call, you must have:
- Speakers and a microphone (or a headset).
- A half-duplex or full-duplex sound card. Half-duplex audio allows only one person to speak at a time. Full-duplex audio allows two people to speak simultaneously.
To make a Video Call or use your webcam, you must have:
- A webcam connected to your computer.
- The latest drivers for your webcam.

You do not need video equipment to receive and view video images in a conversation.

Video Call

Video Call is a feature in Messenger that creates a unique conferencing experience. It offers the following features:

Enhanced image resolution with minimal blur.
Full-screen view for full immersion.
Voice/video synchronization for a smooth experience.
Ability to connect to friends who use different operating systems.

Notes

If you're using your webcam in a conversation, you can invite only one person to that conversation. However, you can have several separate, but simultaneous, conversations with multiple parties.
Video Call works best with a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher.
A broadband Internet connection is recommended for audio and video. Performance varies with dial-up connections.
We recommend headphones or a headset for best voice quality.
Your contact might have a smooth voice and video experience, while yours is choppy. This might be because of your computer system configuration, or other tasks your computer is running in the background. For the best experience, close all other applications and background tasks, and limit your Internet browsing or streaming to preserve bandwidth.
If you are having problems with the voice or video connection, or with a slow file transfer rate, your computer or your contact's computer might be behind a network address translator (NAT) or a firewall. To fix this problem, you must enable Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) on your NAT or purchase a NAT that is UPnP enabled. Also, you may need to upgrade your NAT firmware.
Some features may not be available in your country or region, or may be temporarily unavailable for all regions.