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Mac - PC Video chat?

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dylanemcgregor

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2003
84
0
Hi guys,

I apologize because of what I assume is a common question, but a search didn't pull up a whole lot so I'm throwing it out here.

Can I use AIM or another program to do video chat with iChat? If so, does it work well. My company uses Macs for internal video conferencing between offices, but we'd like to have the ability to easily do video with external companies. The easiest solution from our end would be if it could interface with iChat, but if this does not work well then we might do PC-PC chat using Skype or the like. Anyone have experience with this?

Thanks,
Dylan
 
quigleybc

quigleybc

macrumors 68030
Jun 17, 2005
2,966
0
Beautiful Vancouver British Columbia, Canada
I just happen to be learning about this right now too..

The only webcam that I could find to work with OSX was the iSight....there is also the Icecam by McNally but I read that is really bad....there are some Logitech ones....but they appear to not have updated drivers for Tiger..

So, I got the iSight, and it rocks even though it is so pricey....it's really a shame that mac users are forced to pay that much for a web cam while pc users have a buffet of reasonably priced usb cams.....but anyway, that's a different story.

I managed to get my iSight (using iChat via AIM) to work very well with my buddies who are on Windows XP using A.I.M version 5.9

also, some of them use Trillium, which also seems to work...

That's what I know for sure..

What I don't know for sure is as follows...

I don't think mac users can use their iSights with Skype...so Skype seems to be useless other than a text chat client.

For us to use MSN chat, users need to look into a utility called "mercury" for a workaround...

No clue about using Yahoo for chats...but I have my doubts..

also the new google chat will be useless I imagine..

so, it's the iSight and AIM or nothing for the most part....at least if you want to have a somewhat painless experience....

good luck.

:)
 
mduser63

mduser63

macrumors 68040
Nov 9, 2004
3,042
31
Salt Lake City, UT
quigleybc said:
I don't think mac users can use their iSights with Skype...so Skype seems t
Click to expand...

Of course you can also use it for it's main purpose which is audio chat...

Skype for Windows beta currently has video support, and Skype has said that they'll release a Mac version that also supports video. I would hope they would support the iSight with that. Especially since Apple has (apparently) made it quite easy for developers to use Firewire video. I'm hoping that Skype will soon really help out the video chat situation between Mac and Windows users.
 
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dylanemcgregor

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2003
84
0
quigleybc said:
I managed to get my iSight (using iChat via AIM) to work very well with my buddies who are on Windows XP using A.I.M version 5.9

also, some of them use Trillium, which also seems to work...
Click to expand...

By "managed" you make it sound like it took a bit of work to get it working with AIM 5.9? I don't want to read to much into your words, so let me know if I'm wrong on that. Since we plan on using this with business clients there can't be any tinkering required, at least on the PC side. We basically need this to "just work." Many, if not most of the people we work with are already on AIM, I was hoping we could just give them our AIM name (we were never able to get a .mac account name set up for some reason) and start a video chat as easily (or close to as easily) as in iChat. I plan on getting a USB webcam to test this out on my PC laptop at home, but before I plunked down $40 I wanted to make sure it was workable.
 
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dylanemcgregor

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2003
84
0
One more question. Does anyone know if we can use an external DV camera for iChat on an iMac with iSight built in? We currently are using a Canon ZR 200 with a MacMini and it works great. We want to do three way video, but don't want to give up the zoom and other benefits of having an external camera. An Apple salesguy told me it wasn't possible, but he also told me my existing setup wouldn't work, so I'm not inclined to believe him. ;)
 
quigleybc

quigleybc

macrumors 68030
Jun 17, 2005
2,966
0
Beautiful Vancouver British Columbia, Canada
dylanemcgregor said:
By "managed" you make it sound like it took a bit of work to get it working with AIM 5.9?
Click to expand...



Maybe managed was the wrong word...It seemed kind of challenging at first, but it really wasn't. You should be fine. I have little snitch running on my Mac, so it was blocking some of my early attempts to chat, once I realized that, I was in the clear.

Just make sure that the windows people are using aim 5.9.

Since you are using it for business, I imagine you want to maybe do conferance chats? I don't think that will be possible, just one on one chats...

Hopefully someone else will chime in here, because I am pretty much a beginner at this, all I know is that I can chat with my friends using aim 5.9 and I'm using an iSight, tiger 10.4.4 and iChat.
 
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dylanemcgregor

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2003
84
0
Thanks very much. I'll go ahead and order a USB cam then and start testing.

Thanks also for the info on lack of compatability on the Mac side for most web cams. I was hoping to get something that would work with both my PowerMac G4 and my PC laptop, but I don't want to spend more than $50 or so.
 
quigleybc

quigleybc

macrumors 68030
Jun 17, 2005
2,966
0
Beautiful Vancouver British Columbia, Canada
dylanemcgregor said:
Thanks very much. I'll go ahead and order a USB cam then and start testing.

Thanks also for the info on lack of compatability on the Mac side for most web cams. I was hoping to get something that would work with both my PowerMac G4 and my PC laptop, but I don't want to spend more than $50 or so.
Click to expand...



Me too, I was bummed when I finally gave up and just got the iSight...I researched for days on here, and other places...and it came down to three cams....

iSight..."just works" "just killed my bank account"

icecam...read a few reviews about how poor the quality was...changed my mind

Logitech quickcam 4000 pro....I actually ordered this one...then had to cancel my order after reading the fine print..."works with OSX 10.1.3 or something...not Tiger let's put it that way...I did find a site that claims to have custom drivers for certain cams...but it was not a sure thing that it would work...and like you I wanted it to "just work"

So, it was down to crappy icecam, or awsome iSight

the icecam has no mic, so I knew I would have to buy one of those too..

So, I just said F it and got an iSight...I imagine you will end up doing the same thing..

If you do manage to find a good (non-iSight) cam that "just works" please share that info with me...simply to put my mind at ease about the lack of mac cams on the market.

good luck!

:)
 
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dylanemcgregor

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2003
84
0
Thanks. I don't know if I can go with iSight even if I could spend the money. My laptop has firewire, but not the work PCs. :(
 
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