iChat: Hosting 4-way video chat

[wrldwzrd89]

The system requirements for hosting a 4-way video chat in iChat AV 3 say "Dual 1 GHz G4 or faster, any G5". Does this mean:

-Only dual-CPU G4s are beefy enough?
-No PowerBook, even the ones Apple sells today, is good enough?

If that's the case, then none of the Macs in my family are powerful enough for the task. That would be a shame, since this is one of the Tiger features I was most looking forward to.

 

[kgarner]

The system requirements for hosting a 4-way video chat in iChat AV 3 say "Dual 1 GHz G4 or faster, any G5". Does this mean:

-Only dual-CPU G4s are beefy enough?
-No PowerBook, even the ones Apple sells today, is good enough?

If that's the case, then none of the Macs in my family are powerful enough for the task. That would be a shame, since this is one of the Tiger features I was most looking forward to.

I was a little shocked by that as well. I wonder if a 3-way chat will require that much. I hope that a 1.42 GHz G4 is enough for that. A 4-way chat would be cool, but I only need a 3-way for now. Anybody have any info on this?

 

[Logik]

I think they're saying that Dual 1ghz G4 machines. or higher. being a single G4 1ghz won't be enough. but anything greater will be fine. whether it's 1 or 2 processors. There's just no way the new powerbooks couldn't handle this. I wouldn't worry about that one.

 

[shidoshi]

I'm pretty sure that it is because they are now using H.264 for the video. It's a great codec, but if you read up on it, it is still a pain when it comes to encoding and decoding, processor wise.

 

[forthebrave]

what a let down!!! 4 way chatting was what I was looking forward to!! finally got my mom on a computer and converted my sister from a PC user to MAC... gave my dad my old G4 iMac.... but....... now I hear that we can't even 4 way video chat!??? We all live in different parts of the country now and this new iChat was going to be ideal for our family.They only have G4's and they just got them!! I was going to give my mom TIGER for MOTHER'S DAY but, forget it now~ Shouldn't someone of mentioned this " fine print " before or at least warned us? well I guess now I can play where's waldo with spotlight, or clutter my desktop even more with Dashboard and widgets.........

 

[Logik]

ok talk about over reacting. I'm highly doubting it's going to STOP you from doing 4 way video chats. it might be a bit choppy or laggy on the slower machines. but ANYTHING over 1ghz should be sufficient here. 2 or 3 way should be fine too. if anything it won't stop you from doing 2 or 3 way chats. throw one person in on audio chat and the others as video, there's plenty of ways around this. try it before you get upset. those are probably RECOMMENDED, not required.

 

[26139]

So what?

So a lot of computers won't be able to handle multiple high quality video streams....what the hell did you expect?

I mean, I am a powerbook owner and while I am slightly disappointed I am in no way surprised. Much better this way then not programming it at all or making the frame rate so low it is choppy...

 

[forthebrave]

i just expected what I saw on the demo..... sort of like when you ordered that Big Mac that looks so tasty and fresh in the advertisement, but when you get it, it looks like the fat manager in the back had been sitting on your burger through out his lunch break...