Microsoft Portrait 2.21 Released

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://research.microsoft.com/%7Ejiangli/portrait/">http://research.microsoft.com/%7Ejiangli/portrait/</a><br /><br />"Microsoft Portrait is a research prototype for mobile video communication. It supports .NET Messenger Service, Session Initiation Protocol and Internet Locator Service on PCs, Pocket PCs, Handheld PCs and Smartphone. It runs on local area networks, dialup networks and even wireless networks with bandwidths as low as 9.6 kilobits/second. Microsoft Portrait delivers portrait-like video if users are in low bandwidths and displays full-color video if users are in broadband. In low bandwidths, portrait video possesses clearer shape, smoother motion, shorter latency and much cheaper computational cost than do conventional video technologies. Microsoft Portrait pursues providing presence notification, chat/voice/video functions anytime, anywhere, on any device."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/hansberry/2004/20040301-portrait.jpg" /><br /><br />2.21 has been updated to support the HP Photosmart Mobile Camera and Hitachi G1000 Pocket PC Phone Built-In Camera.

[David C]

G1000 Camera! Nice. Especially consider Sprint's unlimited data, and CDMA.

[David Prahl]

I've used the older version of Portrait to do some simple voice-over-wifi application from PPC to PPC. Very nice!

[observer]

Once again the i700 is not supported. This is very frustrating - but is part of a bigger trend regarding the device.

3rd party software aside, you have to wonder how the G-1000 got support before the i700. I would bet anything the i700 is the market leading 'enterprise' PDA hands-down - in terms of sales and use. Yet here is another example of the inferior all-around support us i700 owners have recieved.

Every other major PPC 2002PE PDA has been upgrdaed to WM2003. Yet we are still waiting for some mystical date somewhere off yonder for our upgrades. We all paid premiums for the device and are relegated to inferior support. To those who would defend Microsoft and say 'it must be Samsung's lack of cooperation' in providing driver/SDK support for the camera - then I say shame on Samsung - which brings the argument full circle.

Why isnt this PDA getting better support from Samsung? WM2004 was in stable beta for over a year. Its been on the market now for over 6 months. Evveryone else is upgraded. This cannot soley be Verizon's fault. Beyond that, there is still no motion video software for this device which was sold to enterprise channels for use on a 'high-speed' network.

I am quickly losing faith in Samsung, and will probably never buy a product from them again.

[maximum360]

Here's one option for video on the i700: http://www.pdaphonehome.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25576&highlight=anycam

It's a program called AnyCam. It even has its own player as well.

It's a shame that it was never released for the i700 but instead for it's bigger brother in the Korean market.

It works, though it can be buggy for some. I found that turning off the phone actually make mine run....otherwise it's a no go. Others are more fortunate it seems.

Now if we can get this thing to work with M$ portrait that would be great. However, the downside is that if for some users who can't use the phone and the camera app at the same point it becomes more or less useless.

[gohtor]

I don't suppose this works with msn6's existing videoconferencing does it?

Well at least it's progress =)

[lmtuxinc]

I wish it worked with the Linksys Wireless Internet Video Camera. I cant find anything for pocket pc that will work for that.

[observer]

Thanks for the info about AnyCam.

I tried the progam last week, and its very cool. Sadly, it only illustrates my point even further. Why in the world wouldnt Samsung make this available to i700 owners? I am most curious to know what possible issue it could be. Legal? Marketing? Why are we forced to 'find' these programs on obscure sites, rely on word of mouth by ingenous PDA members who find this stuff and report back to the rest of us? Not to mention fiding 'stop-gap' ways to actually use the program. It does not make sense to me.

We paid over $500 for these PDAs and we get so little support. The next generation XSCALE hardware, OS and street dates from manufacturers have basically been announced - AND WE STILL DONT HAVE WM2003 for i700. Its crazy. Even if Verizon makes the 'ship' date for the upgrade this spring - the new hardware + OS will be around the corner.

Maybe someone here can explain the mystery in getting the upgrade out in a timely fashion. Its not like the XSCALE is a 1st gen device. Nor is flashing a PDA ROM new technology. Why is this such a huge deal?Between the hardware and WM2003 - they've had at least a year to work this out.

Its frustrating.

[Janak Parekh]

Maybe someone here can explain the mystery in getting the upgrade out in a timely fashion. Its not like the XSCALE is a 1st gen device. Nor is flashing a PDA ROM new technology. Why is this such a huge deal?Between the hardware and WM2003 - they've had at least a year to work this out.
Any device that's sold through a wireless carrier generally has a much slower update release schedule. T-Mobile hasn't even released the WM2003 upgrade for the original XDA! :|

--janak

[farnold]

Anyone tried it on an XDA II?

[iPaqDude]

Tried this out on my h2215 with my wireless card (no camera on the PDA). I used the MSN Messenger service and 2 different accounts - one on my h2215 and the other on my workstation. Video and voice from the workstation came in great on my PDA, and the voice came back reasonably well to my desktop.

Hit a snag when I attempt to run portrait using the GPRS connectivity on my TMobile 3650 - acts like it sees each other, but just can't make any connections back. Looks like it is TMobile's firewall that is preventing the return connection - both when the PDA initiates the Portrait connection and when the desktop does the initiation. Regular Messanger works fine, though - just not the Portrait.

So - not quite there yet... if anyone else has had better luck please post or shoot me an email.

[iPaqDude]

Ok, my last post indicated that I could not get connectivity when trying to use my TMobile GPRS. Figured out what the problem was - I had a firewall on both ends - TMobile and me - my Linksys router.

Once I took my desktop outside of the router so that there was not any NATing to be done and initiated the call from my desktop, everything worked. Well, the connectivity was there and I got both video and voice, but man was there lag - I changed the video bandwidth and that helped a little bit, but still some major lag.

[zeyeout]

I got microsoft portrait for pc and pda from download research microft. My pda dont have cam but only pc have cam.... I try use chat and cam for pc and pda two ways but mean my pda not need cam but just watch view on pda from pc with cam at like livingroom.... I search address ip number from help and about microsoft portrait show number address ip then i try dailing and call-ok show unaccept its not work... please help me work out... thank u

[Menneisyys]

I've just finished a review of the last (2.3) version of MS Portrait. Check it out at http://menneisyys.freeweb.hu/PPCmsportrait .