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deluxeh0

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 16, 2009
52
0
I'm having mixed feelings about facetime. I use it with my gf and it drops a lot. The picture quality isnt that great either. I'm on dsl and shes on cable.. I'm thinking its the crappy cable but the quality is pretty poor :/ Thoughts?
 
I'm having mixed feelings about facetime. I use it with my gf and it drops a lot. The picture quality isnt that great either. I'm on dsl and shes on cable.. I'm thinking its the crappy cable but the quality is pretty poor :/ Thoughts?

because facetime is WIFI only it is all about bandwith, DSL is generally slow and cable can be crappy too. Facetime itself is fine IMO.
 
I'm having mixed feelings about facetime. I use it with my gf and it drops a lot. The picture quality isnt that great either. I'm on dsl and shes on cable.. I'm thinking its the crappy cable but the quality is pretty poor :/ Thoughts?


Yeah either or both may need upgraded/quicker Internet speeds for optimal picture quality, I use FiOS 25/15 and it's pretty good for FaceTime.
 
I have been using FaceTime on FIOS to Comcast with no issues. There is a bug in FT when you leave the app to run another app, FT occasionally will stop showing the other side. The only way to get it back is to disconnect/reconnect.
 
I'm thinking its her comcast cable. My att 6 megs down is usually pretty decent. I didnt expect it to be an issue ;/
 
My FaceTime experience

On MacBook Pro 2010 ... Pretty good
On my new MacBook Pro 2011 with FaceTime HD Camera ... awesome very impressed!
On my iPhone 4 ... Was my first FT experience and I like it as pic quality looks good on the small screen
On my iPad 2 ... Awful picture quality very disappointed ... Low light is grainy, terrible and just unacceptable.

Again my opinion ... Hope this helps! Others thoughts?
 
I'm thinking its her comcast cable. My att 6 megs down is usually pretty decent. I didnt expect it to be an issue ;/

I supposed to get 12 down, but it varies from less than 1 to 11.5 down. Guess, if I can get 25 down, it would average around 10.
 
My FaceTime experience

On MacBook Pro 2010 ... Pretty good
On my new MacBook Pro 2011 with FaceTime HD Camera ... awesome very impressed!
On my iPhone 4 ... Was my first FT experience and I like it as pic quality looks good on the small screen
On my iPad 2 ... Awful picture quality very disappointed ... Low light is grainy, terrible and just unacceptable.

Again my opinion ... Hope this helps! Others thoughts?

You got the new macbook pro! Jealous! Can't justify the cost since I got mine last year, too. Me gonna wait till next year.
 
My FaceTime experience

On MacBook Pro 2010 ... Pretty good
On my new MacBook Pro 2011 with FaceTime HD Camera ... awesome very impressed!
On my iPhone 4 ... Was my first FT experience and I like it as pic quality looks good on the small screen
On my iPad 2 ... Awful picture quality very disappointed ... Low light is grainy, terrible and just unacceptable.

Again my opinion ... Hope this helps! Others thoughts?

Thx! damn wish the ipad 2 facetime looked better!
 
The real problem with FaceTime on ipad2 is that usually you'll use it indoors and the camera sucks so bad that the picture is very grainy. It will probably work better outside on the deck where there's more light.
 
The real problem with FaceTime on ipad2 is that usually you'll use it indoors and the camera sucks so bad that the picture is very grainy. It will probably work better outside on the deck where there's more light.

Right…

Because we all live in a cave like you?

I can turn. Light on if needs be. :rolleyes:
 
As others have observed, the connection quality is vital for a decent Facetime session. Overall I've found it to be fairly robust with the majority of my contacts with one exception that drops or freezes consistently. I'm fairly certain that in this latter case the problem lies with my contacts internet connection which has been pretty poor.

The image quality even on a good connection is grainy but that's to be expected and for a free service in its early generations it isn't terrible. It of course looks much better on the iPhone than the iPad due to the smaller screen size but there are advantages to having a larger, if grainier, video session at times. I frequently video conference from the iPad 2 while it is docked, something that is more difficult or at least less natural to do on an iPhone.

The software is decent but I'm hoping for some improvements in future versions. For instance, I'd like to see the video conference pop open in a small PIP-like window over a running app as an option over having to accept a call full screen so that you can continue working on your apps as you talk.
 
The real problem with FaceTime on ipad2 is that usually you'll use it indoors and the camera sucks so bad that the picture is very grainy. It will probably work better outside on the deck where there's more light.

The front camera has the same specs as the one on the iPhone 4. The problem with the iPad 2 is that the screen is a lot bigger. That's why it looks worse than the iPhone 4.
 
It acceptalble/good on the iPad two. iPhone looks good. But the new MacBook pros have the best so far next iPhone refresh I believe will see an "FaceTime HD" cam on there
 
I don't use it hardly at all, but when I have, it has been a lot like the warm and fuzzy Apple commercials. We used it after our second child was born, and it was definitely cool for that. Apple didn't invent video chat, but they made it more accessible to more users.
 
FAcetime doesn't work 1 in 10 times for me. They can't see me or no connection. Goes away by restarting app and/or quitting other apps.

Usually going to MAC and the pq is not good.... but not a big deal. The wifey is impressed with it and calls her fam regularly. Overall its GREAT.
 
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