"Ring! Ring!"
Excuse me, my TV is ringing.
One day, this will be more than just a clever lead. We will be using our television to chat with people.
Yes, futurists have been prognosticating our video phone future for decades. But the video phone product geniuses haven't made it easy. You always had to buy two gadgets to video telephonate, one for you and one for whomever you wanted to video telephonate with.
The problem: there was no video telephony standard.
There is now – in fact, several, including Qik for Android smart phones and Apple's FaceTime.
But Skype is by far the most universal video telephony standard. Skype video calls can be conducted via Android smartphones and tablets, iPhones and iPad 2s, or PC or Mac desktop or laptop.
And now your HDTV.
You can buy an auxiliary camera/mic array to attach to so-called Skype-connected TVs and Blu-ray players from several manufacturers including Panasonic, Samsung and Sony. These connected TVs include both Wi-Fi connectivity to create the connections for Skype calls and the Skype software.
But your HDTV or Blu-ray player likely isn't one of these rare Skype-enabled models. That's where TelyHD comes in.
TV telephony for the rest of us
TelyHD is a webcam/microphone array with built-in speaker, Skype software and Internet connectivity, wired and wireless that can be connected to any HDTV. It's $250, with no monthly service fees or per-call costs – just the $250, period. You will have to get a Skype account, but this also is free (Skype only costs money to call non-Skype phones).
TelyHD can sit on top of your HDTV (mounted via an included kit) or in front. You connect the TelyHD to any HDTV or AV receiver via an HDMI cable (included), plug in either an Ethernet cable (not included) or establish a Wi-Fi connection to your home network (via a simple, guided on-screen set-up), and you can make or receive Skype video calls from anyone calling via a Skype-enabled device. (You can download Skype apps for Windows, Mac, Android and Apple iOS devices.)
Skype on TelyHD works the same as it does on a PC, controlled by a simple, small six-button remote control. The person you call has to accept the video call or audio-only (options you have at TelyHD's end as well).
From six feet away, TelyHD could see the entire width of my 72-inch-wide sofa and the entire room behind it, all in perfect focus. You can fine-tune your TelyHD's camera aim with remote-controlled tilt and pan.
You can zoom in to just you (if you're alone), but this lowers resolution – you'll look grainy and pixelated to the person seeing you at the other end. You can also adjust for low lighting, but this also reduces resolution for whomever's at the other end of the call.
How your caller looks to you depends heavily on the device they're using to call you. Generally, the picture is similar to a home-made YouTube video with occasional Internet transmission pixelation, not nearly as sharp and clear as the depictions on the TelyHD Web site. The audio portion of a call is nearly full duplex – you can talk over each other.
As with all video calling, TelyHD conversations can be disconcerting – you never look at your co-conversationalists in the eye. On a video call, you look at the screen – that's the whole point.
But if you're looking at the screen, you're not looking into the camera; ditto for your co-conversationalist. As a result, your co-conversationalist seems to be staring off into space (as you will seem to them), sort of like Michele Bachmann's much mocked off-camera reply to last year's State of Union address. This lack of eye contact takes a bit of getting used to.
This niggling inherent flaw of video telephony aside, TelyHD seems like a clever universal solution for anyone who wants to video chat via their TV. Except…
Phone's ringing! Where's the remote?
When your phone rings, you pick it up and talk. When someone calls you on Skype on your computer, you just click to create the connection and commence the conversation.
This sounds ridiculously easy, and that's good – make or receiving a call, audio or video, should be ridiculously easy.
It isn't on TelyHD.
As noted, you plug TelyHD via HDMI into your HDTV or AV receiver. In order to access TelyHD, then, you have to switch inputs (e.g. HDMI 1, HDMI 2, etc.) – tell the TV or AV receiver which HDMI jack TelyHD is jacked into.
So, if your TelyHD rings (and for some reason, each of the four TelyHD ringtones ascend from quiet to loud – if you're watching TV it will take some time before the ringtone volume becomes loud enough for you to hear it), which means you have to search for the TV remote (which you never use since you likely use the cable or satellite control to control your TV watching) to switch the TV's inputs, then wield TelyHD's remote to actually answer the call.
Got that?
In other words, you need two remotes to answer a TelyHD call on your TV. Not exactly easy.
Until video phoning is integrated into TVs (which it likely will be on whatever HDTV Apple is planning for later this year), this HDMI input switching is a necessary evil. But TelyHD could have made it easier by including an "input" button on its own remote, which you could then program with the input switch control from your TV remote. Maybe press one button to automatically switch the input at answer the call.
TelyHD executives had actually considered this programmable input switch button option, but it would have taken more time to finish the product and raised its price. The company hopes to offer this as an option in the future.
TelyHD also needs more light on its subject (you). TelyHD rendered my well-lit living room as twilight. You really need to have a light shining right on you to get the best results, but who wants a light shining on them while watching TV?
What the TelyHD unit needs is a little built-in spotlight that lights up when a video call is connected.
Since this is v1.0 of TelyHD and (so far) the only universal Skype TV solution, it would be curmudgeonly of me to overly flog its peccadilloes. TelyHD is a great way to see kids or grandkids you'd like to see more often, without them having to buy one themselves.
Just keep your TV remote handy.