[Speex-dev] Speex or iLBC?

[Steve Underwood]

Roberto Della Pasqua wrote:

>Hi kind developers,
>
>I need select soon the best freeware VOIP codec, I see that all competitors
>are using iLBC because of the separate packets management.
>
>How speex behave in case of packets drop?
>Why other choice all iLBC?
>
>Thank you for any kind answer.
>  
>
I think Jean-Marc is right about the relative merit of a good 8kbps 
codec with FEC versus iLBC at about twice that bit rate. iLBC sounds no 
better than a good 8kbps codec. However, I'd like to address the "all 
competitors" part. Skype has used the non-free wideband iLBC as a 
specific choice. However, most other systems either don't support iLBC, 
or throw it in as an extra because they have the ROM space, and it costs 
them nothing. I don't see anyone taking up iLBC as a strategic choice in 
the way they so, say, G.729. I think so far iLBC has been a commercial 
failure. I assume Skype didn't need to pay much.

Regards,
Steve