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I want to video chat with Friends/PC users

The latest Skype Beta and the latest Yahoo! Messenger beta both support video chat with PC and Mac users. There are other options out there, but these are more mainstream.
 
i tried yahoo messenger first - suggestions of my macrumors friends - and it does not work, video yes - audio no

i googled it and alot of people have the same problem.

i have a mac, all my friends have pc and i am trying to setup a video chat - they have webcams and it would be cheaper than talking (overseas) and its pretty hip...any suggestions macrumors gang?
 
I can totally testify to SightSpeed being amazing.

I've used it while travelling on business all around north america to communicate with my partners in southern california.

Video comes through at TV quality (great frame rate and picture), and sound is as good or better than talking on the phone.

I was in Banff, Canada and wanted to show the lake to my friendsback home (it turns terquoise (sp?) because of hte glacier run-off. I linked up and pointed it at the lake... "Hey, how come the water is terquoise??"

I was shocked! The color and picture was that good to see the slight hint of color in the lake.

But yeah, great FREE software.
 
then i think skype is good, it has a video version for mac, try it out.
 
I just tried sightspeed, other than that it feels a little bit slow on my MB, it does offer all the features albert wants, but again, Skype feel smoother.
 
The quality of SightSpeed's video and audio is amazing, though the client itself is a buggy piece of crap. Skype is okay, but I found the video quality lacking, and it really bogged down the audio too. The codec must not be quite as optimized as SightSpeed. Unless there has been a very recent update that Yahoo isn't talking about, the latest beta of Yahoo for Mac still doesn't support voice.
 
jackmack said:
I can totally testify to SightSpeed being amazing.

I've used it while travelling on business all around north america to communicate with my partners in southern california.

Video comes through at TV quality (great frame rate and picture), and sound is as good or better than talking on the phone.

I was in Banff, Canada and wanted to show the lake to my friendsback home (it turns terquoise (sp?) because of hte glacier run-off. I linked up and pointed it at the lake... "Hey, how come the water is terquoise??"

I was shocked! The color and picture was that good to see the slight hint of color in the lake.

But yeah, great FREE software.
Click to expand...

I haven't used Sightspeed yet myself as I just found out about it. PCmagazine did a test of 4 video chat engines and found Sightspeed number 1and Skype number 2 followed up by MSN Messenger which doesn't really help the Mac users, and then Yahoo which sounds pretty lame.

My kids are 600 miles away from me and we video chat every Monday night. We are both on PCs right now and use MSN. I am planning on moving to an iMac within the next year, and I was very afraid that I was going to lose my video chat capability. I have got to get the kids to load Sightspeed so we can try it out.
 
Because his friends may not use AIM.


All my friends are on MSN, and the only answer for video is aMSN, which is ok. The interface is good, and the video works. No voice, but that's ok. :)
 
Abstract said:
Because his friends may not use AIM.


All my friends are on MSN, and the only answer for video is aMSN, which is ok. The interface is good, and the video works. No voice, but that's ok. :)
Click to expand...

I understand the point. It's just that people were recommending all sorts of other third-party solutions like Skype, sightspeed, etc., which his friends presumably also do not use. As long as his friends have to sign up for something new, why not let the mac user stick to iChat, which works ok?
 
You're stuck with a small window in AIM. You cannot resize it.
Also, you have to open a terrifying number of ports on the firewall for iChat. With SightSpeed, you only need to open port 9000 (and you need to do nothing with XP's firewall).
You also need to activate UPnP for iChat/AIM.
Only AIM Pro supports multy-party video conferencing. That is not compatible with iChat. If the initiator pays, Sightspeed supports 4-way video conferences ($4.95 per month).
With SightSpeed you can also leave video messages.
 
Sightspeed

What cameras are compatable with sightspeed?

Also has anyone used logtech quickcam pro with Sightspeed are any other software? Wjats it like/
 
UPDATE on my Sightspeed findings.

I have hit a dead end early on. I downloaded the setup file and registered like it told me to do but when I run the setup file nothing happens. I mean nothing at all. I'm on a PC with XP fully patched. I wrote to their tech support and they suggested installing directly from their site without downloading the file first. That didn't work either. The one thing that is strange, is the the file size is supposed to be 5.81MBs, but when it downloads, the file only appears to be 5.79MBs. If I ever get it sorted out I will post what I find the problem to be. If anyone has any thoughts, lets hear them.
 
Sightspeed webcams

Hi guys. Does anybody know which cams are compatible with sightspeed? Are all cams which or with macs okay?
 
SightSpeed recommends iSight for Mac. I don't know if any other cams are compatible on Mac.
 
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