how do I use webcam without iChat?

[Aniej]

I just want to use the webcam in a conference and the website i am at asks to have a cam active, but the only way I can make the webcam active is through iChat, which is fine, but annoying. However the problem is even with iChat open, the websites still don't pick up an active camera. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Bulldog VII]

I got to work with yahoo messenger & also skype.

Can't answer your question though as I'm hopeless with computers

 

[ab2650]

I just want to use the webcam in a conference and the website i am at asks to have a cam active, but the only way I can make the webcam active is through iChat, which is fine, but annoying. However the problem is even with iChat open, the websites still don't pick up an active camera. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What websites? What mac do you have?

 

[Aniej]

What websites? What mac do you have?

I have a 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro. I just don't know how to get the camera to activate and send a live feed other than through iChat, which really is not the kind of impression I want to make when talking business. So it is just various websites where you would normally be able to activate a camera simply by clicking on the button which is on the website. I have been wondering how other things play with the iSight for a while now.

 

[mcmillan]

I have a 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro. I just don't know how to get the camera to activate and send a live feed other than through iChat, which really is not the kind of impression I want to make when talking business. So it is just various websites where you would normally be able to activate a camera simply by clicking on the button which is on the website. I have been wondering how other things play with the iSight for a while now.

If you go to sites such as YouTube, select upload video, and then go to record video or something like that, does it work?

 

[Dizzee]

well if you have iChat open and are using your iSight you wont be able to do it...
the iSight can only be used for 1 program at a time.

 

[Aniej]

iChat is not open. I just want to stream audio and video to two people who are on my business team, but away in france. I simply am trying how to activate the iSight so as to steam the content without worrying about iChat. This is one of the only features of my MacBook Pro I have yet to use, but I am blown away at how complicated it appears to be.

 

[7on]

well the other two people on your team need to have programs too. You can't just make yourself all-powerful and have the video stream to their desktops (unless you're quite clever at hacking). Your options on a mac would be iChat or Skype. Those are the two popular choices. You have to use software to interact with hardware, that's how computers work. you can't expect to type a paper on a keyboard without a word processor open.

 

[Aniej]

yo tool easy on the attitude. I was very clear in my question that I was going to a website that enables video conferencing and that on the website you are supposed to click the camera icon, but that iSight would not activate.

Amazingly my keyboard seems to have figured out a way to get content onto the screen too. Maybe you should read the question instead of trying to cram, jokes that I would say are actually somewhat funny, into your otherwise unhelpful post.

 

[Kelmon]

I have a feeling that this isn't possible under OS X. A web browser shouldn't really have access to devices on the computer and I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised to find that the web site that you are using requires Windows, Internet Explorer and an ActiveX plugin. However, if you can show us the web site that you are trying to use then it would be easier to validate this query since I might well be wrong.

 

[ab2650]

I have a feeling that this isn't possible under OS X. A web browser shouldn't really have access to devices on the computer and I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised to find that the web site that you are using requires Windows, Internet Explorer and an ActiveX plugin. However, if you can show us the web site that you are trying to use then it would be easier to validate this query since I might well be wrong.

I agree with Kelmon, Aniej. You haven't properly explained how you expect to share video. There is always some software interfacing with you camera, whether it is iChat, Skype or Yahoo, or a browser plug in, a'la AnyWebCam.com; I suspect it's a browser plug in.

Can you explain any error message? Possibly a suggestion to install or download something? Tell us how you're trying to launch video and at what point it doesn't work right. Can you receive video?

Off topic, Kelmon, have you seen recently what they did on MacHeist? They somehow interface with an iSight to show your video live on the page - however it doesn't transmit, and I'm not sure it could. I was a little shocked when I first saw that and thought "whoa! what h4ck3rs!"