[Markovich]

Hi,
Im thinking of buying an iSight for my DP 1.8 G5. But before I buy one, I'd like to make sure that it will be compatible with the forthcoming OSX Tiger and the new H.264 codec in the new iChat that's included with Tiger. My fear is that I will buy the iSight only find it doesnt take advantage, or isnt compatible with the new codec,etc. I havent been able to find anything definitive on Apple's website.

Anyone have any ideas on this?

Thanks!

Mark

[Grrr]

Cant see why not? After all, thats exactly what Mr Jobs himself has used in the demo's.

[Markovich]

Originally posted by Grrr:
Cant see why not? After all, thats exactly what Mr Jobs himself has used in the demo's.

Yeah, I thought so too, but of course you cant be REALLY sure it was though...can ya


Thanks

Mark

[Rickster]

The existing iSight provides a much higher quality video feed than H.263 (the codec used in current versions of iChat AV) is capable of encoding at friendly-for-live-streaming bit rates. It comes in at 640x480 and 30 fps, and iChat currently uses only 176x144 or 352x288 and 15-30 fps depending on your CPU speed and available network bandwidth between you and your conference buddy. (Click the camera icon on your buddy list to see the My Camera window, and you'll see it's much clearer than the video you see in a conference.)

Were Apple to introduce a codec capable of better picture quality at the same bandwidth, it'd be absurd to not make use of as much detail as they can get out of the iSight (CPU speed and network bandwidth permitting). So I'd wager most iSight users will see an improvement by upgrading to Tiger (presuming their video chat buddies do the same).

Of course, Apple's made a few slightly absurd moves for the sake of selling more hardware/software in the past, so nobody but them can say for sure. And who knows -- maybe H.264 will be so great they'll start selling an "iSight HD" or some such eventually. Of course, you could wait forever, as better hardware/software is always around the corner... but I doubt you'd be hamstrung by software if you bought an iSight now.

[Markovich]

Rick,

Thanks! That helps a lot!

Mark

[OreoCookie]

Yes.