[moki]

The new video conferencing IM features in iChat AV are pretty cool. Certainly it is nothing new in the sense that people have used video chat over the Internet for quite some time, but the nice thing is how easily and effectively it all works.

There is no configuration at all, and it really does "just work", dynamically adapting to your connection speeds. This is no mean feat; every other product I've seen requires endless tweaking in order to get it working well.

Here's me talking to Tom, with him in the office, and me at home on my cable modem:



It all just worked quite well, after it adjusted for our connection speeds. I think both of our cameras were out of focus, though (we're using a pair of manually focusing iBot video cameras). Check out the connection stats:



While video chat may be useful in some cases, I think audio chat is far more useful. Let's face it, a lot of the time you want to talk to someone, you don't want them to see that you've just rolled out of bed.



The voice chat works remarkably well, the amazing thing is that there's no feedback. In talking to Tom, I have a pair of speakers right near my microphone, and it must do some kind of noise cancellation, because he never could hear himself talking at all. It was rock solid, and the sound was excellent, despite the fact that we were using just the tiny little build in microphones on our LCD iMacs.



hrm, maybe video chat can be useful after all...

further discussion on it is going on here: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/F...ML/006629.html

[ambush]

Um. Ok. I think I'd better go read Apple's iChat AV page.

[Steb Mad]

Are you going to buy iSight? If so, be sure to write a review on it

[moki]

Originally posted by Steb Mad:
Are you going to buy iSight? If so, be sure to write a review on it

Well, we got a free one from WWDC -- as soon as I get to play with it, perhaps I will write up a short review.

[mdc]

you think tom minds his face on the macnn forums?

what is the quality and fps of the webcam over the internet? i have only ever used it on a pc via yahoo and it is around 1 - 2 fps. honestly it was pretty horrible. like a slide show

[CheesePuff]

www.macmegasite.com has a little review on it

[benb]

Originally posted by moki:

Nice bird you got there.

[midwinter]

How's the audio lag?

[wr11]

I am very interesed in performance and minimum system requirements. I have a 400Mhz G3 and the posted requirements are 600MHz G3. Anyone using this stuff on slower machines?

[Ratm]

Did the video ever drop fames? were there any noticeable lags at all?...if you had to rank its performance from 1-10 what would you give it.

[JellyBeen]

Originally posted by wr11:
I am very interesed in performance and minimum system requirements. I have a 400Mhz G3 and the posted requirements are 600MHz G3. Anyone using this stuff on slower machines?

Well , I tried it with my setup and it says its "unsupported".

Anyone else?

iBot Firewire.

[moki]

About the framerate, we got about 20fps, which seemed to be quite good to me. I'd imagine that the framerate has to do with the processor speed as well as the available bandwidth. We were both using LCD iMacs, so they weren't exactly high-end machines.

Note that cable modems generally have good download speeds, but rather poor upload speeds, and when you're sending video/audio out, you're essentially uploading.

The image quality was excellent, though I think both of our cameras were out of focus. I generally don't get that great of a picture with my iBot anyway, for some reason. Perhaps the iSight will be better.

In terms of audio lag, it was quite good. I'd imagine it is dependent on your ping time to the person you're talking to. It wasn't quite as quick as a local landline call, perhaps about like some celluarly calls in terms of audio lag... and certainly better than the majority of overseas calls I've had.

[moki]

If you're trying to use iChat AV behind a firewall, this information may help you -- you need to enable these port ranges.

iChat AV uses UDP Port 5060 and for video conferencing, iChat AV uses ports in the range of 16384 to 16403

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93208

I'm not sure about the audio...

[craigthomas]

iChat A/V is very impressive. Got to get an iSight now. My DV camera just doesn't cut it, keeps auto sleeping, cutting off the connection.

Nice job Apple.

[Gee4orce]

I had a transatlantic one-way video conference with a guy in Boston. I didn't check the stats, but we must have been getting 20fps+, and no dropped frames or lagg at all. Quality was simply amazing. I'm on ADSL 512/256 - don't know about his connection. I think he must have been using a DV camera.

The combination of Video/Audio/Text and File transfers was cool - he was able to send me a photo of his kid whilst we were chatting. The only think iChat needs now is a whiteboard...

Strangely, I have the Mac OS X firewall enabled on my machine, and hadn't openeed up any of the ports - yet the video still worked fine. Plus I was on Airport with NAT, behind an ADSL router. Everything just worked - zero config.

Amazing.

My family are getting iSight for christmas !

[Bax23]

Originally posted by craigthomas:
iChat A/V is very impressive. Got to get an iSight now. My DV camera just doesn't cut it, keeps auto sleeping, cutting off the connection.

Nice job Apple.

I found that removing the tape from the DV camera stops the auto sleep. It did on mine anyway (Sony TRV-140).

[genevish]

Strangely, I have the Mac OS X firewall enabled on my machine, and hadn't openeed up any of the ports - yet the video still worked fine.

The firewall only blocks incoming connections, not outgoing.

And bax23, thanks for the idea. Hopefully this will stop my camera from auto-sleeping as well (Canon ZR45MC).

-Scott

[dampeoples]

.

[craigthomas]

Originally posted by Bax23:
I found that removing the tape from the DV camera stops the auto sleep. It did on mine anyway (Sony TRV-140).

Good to know. I still bought a iSight today. Very sweet, all the way down to the packaging. Love how it fits on the powerbook screen.

Anyone know how to get free iChat AIM without subscribing to .mac, AOL or Earthlink?

[genevish]

Just subscribe to AOL Instant Messanger (it's free).

http://www.aim.com/index.adp

-Scott

[MrBS]

Is there some way to set it to NOT flip the local image?
Right now it's like a mirror to you, but if you wanted it to be the actual view...?

~BS

[Guy Incognito 2]

Originally posted by MrBS:
Is there some way to set it to NOT flip the local image?
Right now it's like a mirror to you, but if you wanted it to be the actual view...?

~BS

Have your cam pointing towards a mirror...and look at the mirror.

[MrBS]

ingenious!

~BS

[MrBS]

Another option I would like to have (I didn't see it in the prefs, but I'm not at my mac right now to check) is a check box for "don't screw with iTunes". I may want to keep listening to my music, I know how to pause it myself, and if after a long conversation with someone in which I've adjusted the volume up the song suddenly resumes as soon as I close the voice chat it can be pretty annoying.

Maybe I'll just keep a stereo next to the mirror...

~BS

[Guy Incognito 2]

Originally posted by MrBS:

Maybe I'll just keep a stereo next to the mirror...

~BS

Hehe...that's the spirit.

No but you've got some good suggestions...the horizontal flip of the picture should be an option and the don't screw with apps that make sound should be another.

[idjeff]

Has anyone had any problems with one way video chat? I never have any problems with the video, but the other persons audio "seldomly" makes it to my side. They can hear me, but I can't hear them. Occasionaly it works, i'd say 10-20% of the time. Just a bug?

Wow, my post count just shrunk by about 80 posts...weird

[Toyin]

Originally posted by Gee4orce:
I had a transatlantic one-way video conference with a guy in Boston. I didn't check the stats, but we must have been getting 20fps+, and no dropped frames or lagg at all. Quality was simply amazing. I'm on ADSL 512/256 - don't know about his connection. I think he must have been using a DV camera.

The combination of Video/Audio/Text and File transfers was cool - he was able to send me a photo of his kid whilst we were chatting. The only think iChat needs now is a whiteboard...

Strangely, I have the Mac OS X firewall enabled on my machine, and hadn't openeed up any of the ports - yet the video still worked fine. Plus I was on Airport with NAT, behind an ADSL router. Everything just worked - zero config.

Amazing.

My family are getting iSight for christmas !

Hey that was me!

I'm using a 3Mbs cable modem. I actually never looked at the amount of bandwidth used while chatting, I was in shock how easy the whole set up was. All my family members have compatible Macs and will definitely be getting iSights for presents this year.

Bax23, thanks for the tip. I'll have to try removing the tape on my Canon Optura Pi to try and disable the automatic shut-off. I had to restart the camera at least 4x during my chat with Gee4orce

[Gee4orce]

Originally posted by genevish:
The firewall only blocks incoming connections, not outgoing.

And bax23, thanks for the idea. Hopefully this will stop my camera from auto-sleeping as well (Canon ZR45MC).

-Scott

Yeah - he was incoming to me, so the firewall should have blocked it. I did open up the one port that iChat tells you about, but I thought that was to do with Rendezvous.

Is there some way to set it to NOT flip the local image?
Right now it's like a mirror to you, but if you wanted it to be the actual view...?

That's ingenious. I didn't realise that it did that, but it makes a lot of sense. We are all used to seeing ourselves flipped in a mirror, and move more naturally that way. Try it witout flipping, and you'll always be moving the wrong way

[moki]

Originally posted by idjeff:
Has anyone had any problems with one way video chat? I never have any problems with the video, but the other persons audio "seldomly" makes it to my side. They can hear me, but I can't hear them. Occasionaly it works, i'd say 10-20% of the time. Just a bug?

I've seen this too. I'm guessing it happens when they don't have the bandwidth to send both audio and video (you'd think they'd give preference to audio, but it appears not).

Try the same chat with the same person, but audio chat only, and I bet it'll work.

[Lew]

So has anyone tried an audio chat over a dialup connection yet? How was the quality? Any lag?

[typoon]

Originally posted by GFive:
So has anyone tried an audio chat over a dialup connection yet? How was the quality? Any lag?

I did it lastnight with a friend of mine who was on a dialup connection. Not really too much lag if any. They person if new just needs to remember to keep speaking or there is dead air and it sounds like lag. Other than that the audio is just as clear as over a Broadband connection

[goose]

Originally posted by moki:

The video quality is pretty good. Much better than what I'm getting. Using the ADS Tech Firewire cam and it's nowhere near as nice.

[midwinter]

I want to see someone with a DV bridge or camera see whether or not, if you hook a VCR up to it, iChat will broadcast a television signal to another user.

[krove]

The flipped version of you is what you see as your preview, the other person, though sees the opposite (true non-mirror-like view) of you, such that they can read text in the video, etc. With the preview, if you hold up something, like a mirror, it inverts the text. The other end does not do this.

[koffinkanser]

Originally posted by craigthomas:
Good to know. I still bought a iSight today. Very sweet, all the way down to the packaging. Love how it fits on the powerbook screen.

Anyone know how to get free iChat AIM without subscribing to .mac, AOL or Earthlink?

This is not very well publicized, but you can actually get a .mac ichat name for free. just sign up for the free trial, and even after the trial expires, the ichat name still remains yours.

not sure if apple will continue giving out names for free though. because before long, .mac will be like aol and hotmail and all the rest. you cannot get a name without attaching 10 numbers behind it.

[Freeflyer]

Originally posted by koffinkanser:
This is not very well publicized, but you can actually get a .mac ichat name for free. just sign up for the free trial, and even after the trial expires, the ichat name still remains yours.

thanks for that, I didn't realise. I had 3 months .mac for free when I bought my powerbook, but didn't sign up. I have an aim account but out of interest checked to see if I could still use my .mac address from 6 months ago, and it logged right in.

How cool. I wonder how long it will stay active for?

Cheers,

J.

[jrome]

I think it stays active forever (remember "Yours for Life"). Only the more tangible .Mac services (hosting, email, software, etc.) cost money.

[moofman]

Has anybody tried feeding a tape through iChat via a DV Cam? Like trying to play a tape in the camera during a video chat to see if it plays that through?

I'd love to try to use our DV Cam, but I don't have anybody I know who owns a Mac and has a camera... I've only had one audio chat with a guy, and the quality of it was amazing. I remember back when AIM had "audio chat" and it was HORRIBLE. This was as good as a phone call in responsiveness, but a little worse quality, but only slightly.

[C.J. Moof]

Originally posted by moofman:
Has anybody tried feeding a tape through iChat via a DV Cam? Like trying to play a tape in the camera during a video chat to see if it plays that through?

The first video over ichat I did was to hook up the VCD to the Sony analog<->DV converter to the iMac, and play a tape for a one way video chat. Worked just fine- pretty impressive quality. iChat recognized the converter as a camera source straight out.

Now, just give me a way to remote control the tuner, and I've got live streaming wireless TV to the powerbook, without having a USB tuner taped to the LCD.

[Nerozwei]

Is there a way to force the audio chat to use higher than 30KBps? We tried it on our Airport network, but it would not go higher than that (according to the connection doctor).

The quality was ok, but there was some constant background cracking we'd like to get rid of.

Did I miss something in the preferences or is it just impossible?

[chezpaul]

Originally posted by midwinter:
I want to see someone with a DV bridge or camera see whether or not, if you hook a VCR up to it, iChat will broadcast a television signal to another user.

I'm using a Hollywood Dazzle Bridge from my SONY Hi8mm to iChat and it works fine. The picture is actually two to three times nicer than with my iSight. I took out the cassette so as not to have it go off but now it goes into a screen saver mode after 5 minutes.. but I can still live with it... One less iSight to buy...