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Thorts · Nov 11, 2003, 02:14 AM

Has anyone using Panther and an iSight seen any increase in functionality? So far, I have only tried iChat with voice on two Macs using Panther and built in microphones, and it seems improved (sound quality is better, and you don't have to keep re-setting the microphone button to keep the quality up). Also, have you noticed an improvement with video with the final version, as I am condsidering outfitting the family with iSights for Xmas....

Thanks in advance.

Sean

_______________________

Gig TiBook/Gig/Superdrive

Mastrap · Nov 11, 2003, 04:29 AM

The sound quality of the iSight delivers is brilliant. We use it all the time to chat to friends overseas. I just set up the iSight to point to the room I'm in and route the sound to the stereo. It is like having a conversation with somebody standing next to you, amazing.

Zoom · Nov 11, 2003, 11:33 AM

So, Panther improves performance? Does anyone know why or how much?

My mom and I use iChat and iSight all the time. In one direction (her to me), the audio and video is okay, but sometimes it just halts for about 1-2 seconds, then continues. Sometimes it's unusable, but restarting the session seems to help.

She's got an eMac 800MHz, I think, and I have a G4/900 (upgraded Sawtooth). I'm wondering if it's my Mac having a hard time keeping up or if it's her uplink bandwidth.

We've set the bandwidth limit to 200k, I think, which helped a lot. I'd hate to go lower than that, though. We both have cable modems. I'm hoping that upgrading us both to 10.3 will help, somehow.

Thorts · Nov 12, 2003, 02:38 AM

That's my question, does Panther improve either the sound quality (when voice chatting) and/or video quality? It seemed to me that the sound was better when both my dad and I were sharing his one dial-up (modem) wireless system and we were chatting to each other (from different rooms) so I could demonstrate iChat. Has anyone chatted with both computers using Panther and noticed an improvement now that iChat is out of beta?

Sean

CandyMaffia · Nov 12, 2003, 01:50 PM

and how does isight works with ibook?? is it slower? does it depends on the mhz and ram?? i want to buy one isight, and has a g3 700 with 640mb ram..

Grrr · Nov 12, 2003, 02:49 PM

Panther doesnt improve iSight/iChat performance 1 iota. People are forgetting that Panther comes with a much later version of iChat (Build number V145). People still using Jaguar will mostly be using the original iChat AV beta (build number v106) and it is this that had the odd gremlin in it, like the decreasing audio quality etc. This beta expires soon (Next month I think?) At which point users will either have to pay up to get the final version, or get Panther which has the final version of iChat AV bundled with it.

And yes, iSight cams will work fine on a 700mhz iBook. I used one on my old iBook 600 for quite a while, with no problems, just so long as there are no other heavy weight apps running at the same time.

CandyMaffia · Nov 12, 2003, 04:54 PM

that sounds nice!! which program is out there that you can use to meet other PCpeople on the net with a webcam. is there any program that has sound ability to (so you can speak to each other).. because my girlfriend has a pc, that is why i ask..

can you give me a couple of suggestion of good mac programs that works together with pcs

Grrr · Nov 12, 2003, 06:35 PM

There are other video conferencing apps for macs that will talk to PC users.
OnPhoneX I tried once or twice. And it was ok. Quality was not great. But then it does use only a tiny amount of bandwidth.

iVisit (www.ivisit.com) is ok too. At the time of writing this, there is a serious audio issue with it though, and OS X users can not send good quality audio. But this should be fixed any day now. So definitely worth a look.

Yahoo video chat sux completely. So forget that.

None of the above compares to iChat AV for quality.. So be warned

Parky · Nov 13, 2003, 06:48 PM

It's a bit of a disgrage that users who buy an iSight camera don't get iChatAV included with it, it's an extra!!

Thorts · Nov 14, 2003, 02:04 AM

Thanks for the responses, you all have helped. I am still interested in knowing if iChat works better on Panther than Jaguar....meaning both voice and video. Has anyone noticed an improvement after upgrading to Panther?

Tomster · Nov 14, 2003, 03:35 AM

Originally posted by Thorts:
Thanks for the responses, you all have helped. I am still interested in knowing if iChat works better on Panther than Jaguar....meaning both voice and video. Has anyone noticed an improvement after upgrading to Panther?

No increases or decreases in quality that I have noticed. What makes ore breaks a session is bandwidth. Pure and simple. When the internet weather is bad and packets drop, the picture and sound go to pieces.

Thorts · Nov 14, 2003, 10:26 PM

Thanks for the replies, folks! I'm setting my folks up with broad band internet and and iSight for Xmas. Sounds like it will be better than iChat on Jaguar now that they have a 700 iBook running Panther and soon iSight. Happy holidays to all.

Sean

Edit: spelling