[BC] Blue Box

[Cowboy]

On Tuesday 29 July 2014 03:18:29 pm Kevin Kidd wrote:

> I have a client with 3 Comrex POTS Blue Boxes 

> Anyone had success running a BB thru a Comcast voip line?  Other thoughts?

 I'd be surprised if VOIP can work with them at all !

 Remember the days of dial-up modems ?
 56K was possible, likely even, *provided* there was no more than one
 ( count 'em - 1 ) digital conversion anywhere in the path.

 When you think about it, it makes perfect sense.

 VOIP seeks to maximize intelligible analog throughput, by making the goes-outa
 kinda sorta pretty much not quite sound like the goes-inta through perceptual coding.
 Unfortunately, a modem can't perceive, and therefore can't guess at what
 the goes-outa sounds like to derive what the goes-inta actually sounded like, and
 then attempt to decode the maybe reconstructed goes-inta noise.
 Even if it could, what it sounded like is irrelevant !
 Bits is bits, but what comes out of a perceptually coded VOIP line is not
 the same bits that went into it. It only kinda sorta sounds similar, and that's
 all VOIP needs to do for voice.
 ( mostly. Too many cell calls are still unintelligible to me, and VOIP is no different ) 
 Just because a bit stream kinda sorta sounds the same as another bit stream
 means nothing to the decoder. Either it is the original bit stream, or it isn't.

 Next time you're on a VOIP ( or cell, same difference ) call, watch yourself mentally
 attempt to decode the noise you hear to derive what was actually said.
 It's a good deal more work than most realize, even for the infinitely more powerful
 processor that is the trained human brain. Your brain is reconstructing many,
 many, many kilobits of missing data.

 Then, remember that the VOIP provider is trying to maximize his profit, minimizing
 his work, in exchange for maximizing your work, your mental cost.
 To me, it's a wonder people put up with it at all.

 In this biz, we used to care about listener fatigue. VOIP cares nothing for that.
 TSL is not one of their criteria. In fact, they profit *more* with lower TSL !
 ( Time Spent Listening for those also acronym challenged )

-- 
Cowboy