Today, we released the 1.0.8 update for the Gmail voice and video chat software. All current installations will begin an automatic update within the next 24 hours. If you do not want to wait, you can visit http://mail.google.com/videochat and re-run the installer.
You can use your Gmail account to find out what version is currently installed. Simply go to the Gmail Settings page and look under the "Chat" tab. You will see the plugin version under the "Learn more" link, in small type.
Here's what's new in version 1.0.8:
- Added support for the H.264/AVC video codec, in addition to the H.264/SVC codec that we typically use. This allows us to be compatible with video software that does not yet support SVC. When using H.264/AVC, Gmail video chat will send and expect in-band parameter sets, and send using a single-NAL RTP packetization.
- Made several improvements to voice quality, including additional tuning of our echo cancellation and automatic gain control algorithms.
- Fixed a problem where device settings would not be saved in some cases if no webcam was present.
- Fixed a problem where the browser plugin would sometimes not be detected by Gmail, even though it was installed.
- Fixed various crashes in the browser plugin.
- On Windows, fixed a problem where video chat would never work in certain network conditions. This was most often seen when using wireless broadband or other types of PPPoE connections.
- On Windows, fixed a problem where certain Sony Vaio cameras could cause the browser to crash when starting a video chat.
- On Windows, fixed a problem where certain Creative cameras could cause Chrome to display a "sad plugin" when starting a video chat.
- On Mac, fixed a problem where users of PostgreSQL (or any other app that uses a lot of shared memory) would see a "black box" instead of video.
If you're on 1.0.8 and still having a problem, please report it on the Gmail voice and video chat forums. As always, feel free to email me directly as well.
