Getting Logitech Vid HD Ready for its Google TV Debut

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Scott Lomond in Digital Home, PC Peripherals, Product Videos with 12 Comments on Getting Logitech Vid HD Ready for its Google TV Debut

I’m the Vice President and General Manager of the SightSpeed team here at Logitech, which works closely with our webcam hardware team to develop video software products like Vid HD. We also collaborate with other teams across Logitech to work toward our common goal of bringing seamless video calling services to the four connected screens: PCs, mobile phones, TVs and meeting rooms. Before joining Logitech, I was the President and COO of SightSpeed Inc., which was acquired by Logitech in November 2008.

We’re excited to share some new improvements we made to our recently launched Logitech Vid HD – the easiest online HD video calling service that’s free for everyone. We don’t usually make a huge deal about our Vid upgrades but thought this one was worth sharing with you for several reasons.

First, this version of Logitech Vid HD delivers on our promise of seamless HD video calling across screens as we get ready to launch video calling in the living room – from TV to TV and TV to PC (and vice versa) – via Logitech Revue with Google TV. Because the living room is a much more comfortable and natural place for families and friends to gather, we believe bringing video calling to the TV will drive adoption far beyond what we’ve seen on the PC and ultimately help us deliver on our vision of making video calling as mainstream and seamless as a phone call.

The other reason this upgrade is a big deal is that for the first time we’re extending Vid’s capabilities beyond video calling to include Text Chat, which lets you send and receive text messages with your Vid HD friends. We heard from many of you that you want to check with your friends to see if they’re ready before starting a video call, or ping a friend when you just need a quick response.

We have also added Video Mail, which lets you record and send short videos to your Vid friends so you have a way to reach out with video when you know your friend isn’t there. You also told us you wanted to send more personal Vid invitations to friends, so you can also send recorded videos to people who have not yet had a chance to sign up. With Video Mail, your friends can play back the message at any time by simply clicking a link in an e-mail that Vid delivers to their regular e-mail inbox.

The new Logitech Vid HD also lets you import contacts from your e-mail contact lists, making it even easier to connect with friends on Vid. As always, all you need to connect on Vid is an e-mail address; there’s no hassle of remembering screen names.

Lastly, the new Logitech Vid HD gives you better audio and video quality that adapts to your calling conditions, ultimately making the video calling experience – whether on a TV or PC – more natural and seamless for everyone. We’ve made sure that all of these highly requested new features do not complicate the Vid experience in any way. Vid will remain as simple and as easy for you to use as ever.

If you are currently using Vid, thank you for the support and please note that this is a mandatory upgrade because we need to ensure call quality across different platforms – namely the PC and the TV. For anyone who is new to Vid HD, we hope you will give it a try and see how easy making an HD video call can be.

Author

Scott Lomond

Vice President and GM, SightSpeed

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12 comments

  • This is so awesome! Can you tell me what HD webcam i can/should buy now that will be supported by the Logitech Revue? Will new ones come out specifically for the Revue or will the current lineup work ? I have been dying to get my hands on the Revue since the moment it was announced. Great work Team Logitech!!! I will be first in line!

    • Hi David,

      Thanks for the great feedback! Although we haven’t launched it yet, there will be a special webcam designed to work with Logitech Revue with Google TV. Keep your eyes peeled for more info….

      – Scott

  • Hi Scott, I can see the great potential of vid, if it is available on as many devices as possible (PC, TV, maybe Android in the future?).
    But what I would like to see – and it should not be difficult to implement (I am a software developer myself) – is integration with Windows Media Center. I am not thinking of a full integration, but more of something simple like this:
    Register vid as an application within Media Center within Media Center, so that when called it minimizes Media Center and maximizes Vid. Vid is still the application as it is – look at Hulu Desktop and the Hulu Launcher for Media Center as an example of what I mean. Then Vid needs simple keyboard support to support the remote control (cursors + enter key). Lastly and this is a process outside of Vid a background listener running in Windows Media Center, that communicates with the running “vid” instance, so that it can show incoming calls with a popup within Media Center and launch Vid when required to accept.
    That would be a great addition for all the people already having a Media Center connected to their PC – like me 😉

    • Hi Scott,

      Thanks for the suggestion. We love to get suggestions from our customers on the things we can do to make our products and services better. Unfortunately, however, we can’t comment on possible future product enhancements at this time.

      – Scott

  • hi.. I am using logitech vid since last year and it works good to me not util recently.. i received a notification for upgrade and then after the upgrade i can no longer connect to logitech vid.. what comes out is “Logitech is unable to connect properly. I am currently in Libya. can you please give me feedback if what is the problem with my connection. Thank you very much.

  • Competing like Boxee and Roku and Apple TV Devices already launched or for Pre-Order, people ordering it as they don’t know anything about the Google TV revue box ( i meant mass market) the more delay in Launching it even the delay putting it on Pre-order the More the buyers will already be committed to other device and platform

  • I have the same problem as nonoy ,Sept 16th ,first great and then gone and I have contacted your customer service teck and the first one two weeks ago hung up on me but the second one this past week talked with me for over 108 minutes and said the supervisor will contact me with in 24 hours and no one or Rodrick has not ever got back with me . So still not doing good with your product…. So please HELP …..

    • Hi Nancy,

      I will get someone from customer support to contact you via email. Please feel free to let us know here if that doesn’t happen.

      Best,
      Ha

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