iSight Firmware Update

[MacRumors]

Apple will be releasing an iSight Firmware update later this week.

Specific changes addressed are uncertain at this time.

[snahabed]

Thank goodness.

Hopefully it is to take care of the firewire drive conflict issue.

[coumerelli]

maybe this will allow more third party add-ons. I guess we'll have to just wait and see, won't we? :cool:

[danielgrenell]

how do you upload firmware to an isight?

[Dippo]

I didn't know that the iSight had firmware to update, weird.

[Santaduck]

I was looking at Icculus's website finger (http://icculus.org/cgi-bin/finger/finger.pl?user=icculus) (Ryan Gordon, the uber mac game coder: think UT2k3, UT2k4, AA, etc.) at http://www.icculus.org a few days ago, and noticed he had some gripes about the isight in reference to his OpenAL update news:

In other news, that damned iSight camera works as a microphone, and only transmits data at 48KHz, which is a format I never expected to see, and thus crashes ut2004 on startup if it's your primary input device (which, on most G4 towers, it will be your ONLY input device, so this isn't uncommon).

To add insult to injury, the damned thing won't run a HAL callback if you've got the System Preferences sound panel open. I'm not sure if this is a bug, or yet another corner case CoreAudio expects you to handle without documentation.

Sorry, I'm a bit pissy this morning.

[Nik_Doof]

Woh that guy woke up on the wrong side of bed that morning :)

[york2600]

It's nice to see Apple fixing bugs in a product I've never heard had any bugs.

[Craigy]

Excuse my ignorance! but could the firmware update be part of some kind of cunning masterplan to bring the iSight to the PC world....?

[york2600]

I certainly hope not. Besides it wouldn't go over real well in the PC world unless it was USB 2

[scottkleinberg]

Indeed. Patience, everyone. The surprises will be well worth waiting for.

[Sol]

Originally posted by Craigy
Excuse my ignorance! but could the firmware update be part of some kind of cunning masterplan to bring the iSight to the PC world....?

I think iSights all-ready work on Windows with the latest AIM application. On OSX iSight can be used as an audio source but on Windows it is only a video source.

New Firmware could make the device fully compatible with Windows. I am sure that Apple would love to sell more peripherals to the Windows market.

[virividox]

Originally posted by Sol
I think iSights all-ready work on Windows with the latest AIM application. On OSX iSight can be used as an audio source but on Windows it is only a video source.

New Firmware could make the device fully compatible with Windows. I am sure that Apple would love to sell more peripherals to the Windows market.

i sight isnt supported by windows or the aim 5.5

video conferencing between ichat and aim is supported, so video from an ichat with isight can be viewed by an aim 5.5 client on windows.

[Santaduck]

Originally posted by virividox
i sight isnt supported by windows or the aim 5.5

I'm too lazy to go check, but I remember seeing forum posts somewhere (either here or apple support forums) that people did do exactly that (Windows+AIM+isightVideo).

unsupport<>impossible


video conferencing between ichat and aim is supported,
so video from an ichat with isight can not be viewed by an aim 5.5 client on windows.
huh? could you clarify?

And yes, the above post re: firmware to sell iSights to windows users makes good sense... I wouldn't be suprised if there isn't some sort of AOL tie-in, but I don't see how. Also I've had problems using iSight with a usb cam (as opposed to FW), but I haven't spent more than 5 min trying yet.

[virividox]

okay ill try to make this as clear as possible

AIM 5.5 on windows can now video chat with ICHAT users on macs using Isight Camera.

But Aim 5.5 users can not use isight cameras (they can receive video and audio from people using them)

[Craigy]

Could a firmware upgrade make the iSight USB 2 compatabile using the firewire conector to USB cable as per the ipod?.... Maybe?

[dstorey]

iSight DOES work on windows, without mic support. AOL and Apple said so in a press release when AIM beta became ichat compatible. Theres no reason why it wouldn't...it's only a nicely designed firewire cam afterall.

[Stella]

I've used iSight on Windows (MSN) just fine, however, I couldn't use it under AIM 5.5 - on the preview screen - AIM claimed I didn't have a camera.... same for my brother, who has some other webcam (not an iSight).

Really don't know why AIM 5.5 refuses to recognise my iSight.

[DaveGee]

Originally posted by Nik_Doof
Woh that guy woke up on the wrong side of bed that morning :)

Yup..... somehow all of problems seem so trivial in comparison. :D

[mrzippy]

Originally posted by Dippo
I didn't know that the iSight had firmware to update, weird.

If you look in System Profile you'll see the iSight has a firmware version of 1.0

Maybe this possible update will address the fact that the iSight runs very warm even when it should be in standby ie. the green light is not on.

Neil

[jasonfj]

iSight/iChat AV does have a major bug. I have an Igniter video editing card installed with associated drivers which conflict with the camera, resulting in 'Camera in use by another application' every time I launch iChat, and no image.

There are many reports of this sort of conflict on various discussion boards, including Apple's. Hopefully this will fix it, and I can actually use the camera I bought 3 months ago.

[orb]

Does anyone have a problem with their iSight when the computer sleeps? When I hook my iSight to my cube and put it to sleep, the iSight goes into sleep mode and the green light even does the make pulsing dance. Unfortunately, every cycle of that also causes my iSight to make a loud clicking noise. The only irregularity is that I have the iSight daisy chained through a firewire drive. (it's easier to disconnect and connect to my iBook that way)

Is something that all iSight users experience? I don't want to try and debug a problem if that's just the way it works...

[mrsebastian]

so it doesn't work, or it does work with pc users? obviously it works partially and that's exactly why i have gotten one. most of my friends and family with whom i'd use it with are on pc :( so i'll be waiting a while longer.

[encro]

Originally posted by danielgrenell
how do you upload firmware to an isight?

It will probably be a clickable installer package.

[whenders0n]

Let's hope this update makes the iSight compatible with GarageBand! It would be a great way to record (indeed, I use it to record now, but I have to go a really indirect and ineffecient route. sounds great though).

[encro]

Originally posted by york2600
I certainly hope not. Besides it wouldn't go over real well in the PC world unless it was USB 2

Then all the better to keep it FireWire then :D

Seriously though, USB2 or Firewire on a PC, who really cares? A PCI Firewire card is quite cheap to buy and Firewire has the better bus anyway.

[peteMG]

Originally posted by whenders0n
Let's hope this update makes the iSight compatible with GarageBand!
Heh. Not only will it be compatible, it'll integrate into GB in a totally novel way: One click music videos.

That's right. As you sing your ditty, it records the footage of your face and subtracts the background. Then, when the song is ready, you add a crazy background of your choice (beach babes, dancers, landscapes, an iPhoto album (omg), iTunes visualizations) and voila! Ready for upload to MTV.

[Santaduck]

I highly recommended checking the forums at Cubeowner.com:
http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/index.php
(specifically "Cube Hardware Support::Power/VRM/PSU/Sleep Sub Forum" in or maybe: "Cube Hardware Support::USB, Firewire and Audio Sub Forum")

Anything on anything about cubes, you'll find it here.

The cube has some interesting sleep issues already, I wouldn't be suprised if it's a cube-only problem. I would also make sure your cube firmware is up-to-date, which I assume it is if you're running panther.


Originally posted by orb
Does anyone have a problem with their iSight when the computer sleeps? When I hook my iSight to my cube and put it to sleep, the iSight goes into sleep mode and the green light even does the make pulsing dance. Unfortunately, every cycle of that also causes my iSight to make a loud clicking noise. The only irregularity is that I have the iSight daisy chained through a firewire drive. (it's easier to disconnect and connect to my iBook that way)

Is something that all iSight users experience? I don't want to try and debug a problem if that's just the way it works...

______
update: I searched Cubeowner for you, and there is a small thread about it here (http://www.cubeowner.com/forums//index.php?showtopic=3215) I would also check Apple's forums (go to apple.com, click big tab SUPPORT, then click little tab DISCUSSIONS).

[Stella]

The video of iSight *DOES* work with windows... however, the microphone part does *not* work.

Also, whilst iSight works with MSN Chat, I cannot get it to work with AIM 5.5 - it just refuses to acknowledge I have a camera.


This isn't a big deal because the video is more important and you can get microphones for next to nothing.


Originally posted by mrsebastian
so it doesn't work, or it does work with pc users? obviously it works partially and that's exactly why i have gotten one. most of my friends and family with whom i'd use it with are on pc :( so i'll be waiting a while longer.

[IJ Reilly]

The iSight has plenty of bugs -- or at least one or two really nasty critters. Mine was so flaky right out of the box, I nearly sent it back for repair -- until I realized that nearly all of them have the same set of problems. The main issue appears to be the FireWire cable, which Apple made too thin to work reliably (resulting in the infamous "no camera is connected" message in iChat). Quite a few people have tried connecting them with full-sized FireWire cables. This works for me, but then of course you can't attach the camera to the included mounting brackets, which kind of defeats the point. A firmware fix? I sure hope so.

[aswitcher]

Well the firm wear upgrade probably isn't going to do anything liek this, but Apple could make many friends if iSight/AV Chat could multicast based on who was speaking/selected to allow cheap multiparty video conferencing...

[marano]

it would be cool if the firmware update would allow you to connect your iSight to your ipod and dump recorded video on it

[boros]

Glad to hear someone else is concerned with this. I mentioned this issue on another thread and had some fairly pompous responses from people who thought it perfectly acceptable that iSight is incompatable with GarageBand. They pointed out that I was probably ill-equipped to post because of my lack of audio, production, etc. knowledge. I, however, attempted to point out that GarageBand is an "iLife" product from Apple... as such, it should just work with current Apple equipment.

I may not be a production engineer, but I do find it frustrating that iSight doesn't work with GarageBand. I hope this update fixes this issue.

I'd also be curious to find out your "work-around"


Originally posted by whenders0n
Let's hope this update makes the iSight compatible with GarageBand! It would be a great way to record (indeed, I use it to record now, but I have to go a really indirect and ineffecient route. sounds great though).

[AVON]

I don't have GarageBand, but I can use the iSight to record audio -- just have to select it as my audio input device in System Audio Preferences. Does that not change the input for GarageBand too?

[zellin]

Originally posted by marano
it would be cool if the firmware update would allow you to connect your iSight to your ipod and dump recorded video on it
I doubt it. As the iSight doesn't have a hard drive, it would have to record directly into the iPod... I'm not even sure if it's currently possible.

[Ashwee]

I'd so buy one for my PC if it fully worked with Windows

[kanaka]

It's available in Software Update now.

iSight is a state-of-the-art video camera that's the easiest way to video conference with your colleagues, friends and family over broadband.

The iSight 1.0.2 update provides improved auto exposure and auto white balance functionality, enhanced IIDC compliance and better overall performance. The iSight 1.0.2 update is recommended for all iSight users.

For information about iSight, visit the Apple website at http://www.apple.com/isight/. For iSight support information, visit http://www.apple.com/support/isight/.

[coumerelli]

Originally posted by kanaka
It's available in Software Update now.

yup. Just installed (Seemed really weird installing something on the actually iSight, but, hey, whatever. lol

anyway, officially, I guess it's 1.0.2 (v44) - at least that's what was in the 'about iSight updater' menu. And now there is an iSight Updater app in my utilities folder. hmmm...