D-Link's brought one of their newest desktop video phones last week at the Technews Lab. And surprisingly, it was the top of the line model in their i2eye series - the DVC-2000 Broadband Videophone.
This model boasts of its stand-alone capability - being able to operate without the need of a PC. The unit was a little heavier than a regular desktop phone but bigger and it has a 5-inch colored LCD with a camera on top.
The ports behind the phone include an Ethernet socket, an audio and video out socket - in case you want to connect it to an LCD monitor or TV. Good thing D-Link provided all the cables (Ethernet cable, standard composite RCA A/V cable and standard phone cable) needed for the DVC-2000 (there's a note in the Quick Installation Guide saying that "If any of the above items are missing, please contact your reseller.")
Setting up the phone is easy, and there's a sample diagram of how the phone should be connected when your broadband connection is shared with any devices. Although in our part, all we did is connected the phone and Ethernet cable with a direct internet access.
Setting up the network address depends on how you will connect the DVC-2000 to be able to call over the internet (either by DHCP, Fixed IP or PPPoE). DHCP (or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) connection is used when connecting directly to a broadband modem, router, gateway or DHCP server which offers dynamic IP addressing. You can also make a Fixed IP connection, or use it with a DSL Modem with a PPPoE connection
Once all the necessary connections are done, the switch located at the right side of the phone turns on the LCD screen. There are three LEDs above the broadband button which will tell you the status / mode the phone is at. The first LED will blink once the phone turns on. (When the light goes steady, better contact Technical Support).
When using the DVC-2000 at a regular phone, the PSTN (public Switched Telephone Network) will light up. If you switch to your broadband connection, the LINK LED will light up (which also means you have a good connection).
Even when the DVC-2000 has an internet connection, you can still make regular phone calls (just follow the instructions in the manual). When On broadband mode, you are able to make calls over the internet dialing the phone number you wish to call or by entering the IP address of the device you wish to connect to (as long as the device is an H.323-compliant device (meaning it's capable of videoconferencing over the net.
Since we were supplied with only one unit, we weren’t able to test a video conference call. As far as I know, you need a different phone line that offers videoconferencing for phones like this. And even though we can make a call over the net using a specific IP address, were still stumped. We don't know anyone who has an IP address that the phone can connect to.
One of the good features of the DVC-2000 is it speakerphone. Although what we experienced when we made calls to other departments is that our voice came out a little faint (you might need to speak a little louder). If the phone is to be used by a local family who will call relatives in different countries, it would be a cost-effective way of communication.
The phone is possible to be contacted by instant messaging with voice calls (like Skype or Yahoo Messenger), but it is requiring us to load credits (we’d loved todo that but I only have a few pesos… which they don’t accept also).
The success of the DVC-2000 will surely depend on the cost of broadband connection here in the Philippines (provided that the cost will be lessened and the service remains the same). The potential of the D-Link's i2Eye series is not just for big companies but with SOHOs and consumers. (Carlo Suerte Felipe)
|
