iChat quality question

[Macaddicttt]

I searched the forums for this, and I found some things that were close, but not exactly what I was looking for, so I guess I'll ask. What is needed in order to get full quality in iChat video chats?

My girlfriend and I both have iBooks with iSights (mine's 1.2 Ghz with 768 MB of RAM, and I'm not sure what hers is, but I know it was the next revision, so a bit faster and a bit more RAM), and we both have broadband connections. The problem is, she sees me in full quality, but I don't see her in full quality. I think the problem is bandwidth, and I was wondering what the minimum is for full quality.

The minimum requirements for a video chat is 100 Kbps according to Apple and when I check the bandwidth in the connection doctor, I'm running at around 700 Kbps with her at around 450 Kbps. Does a full quality video chat really require that much bandwidth? I thought H.264 was supposed to require lower bandwidth. It's also sort of weird because my frame rate is constant at 15, whereas hers varies and consistently is above 15, getting to about 18 or so at it's peak.

Any information about this would be very appreciated, mostly just because I'm curious as to how the whole thing works.

 

[mkrishnan]

What is your router setup? Are you hardwired to your broadband modem, or are you on a wireless router? Also, can you try eliminating the variables, by shutting down all the other programs running on your Macs, just for the sake of testing, except for iChat? And then finally, both of you should do a test of your broadband speeds with something like the meter at C|Net. It could be that she has a slow upload speed, and so even though you both have fast download speeds, she isn't able to feed you a high quality signal....

 

[Macaddicttt]

What is your router setup? Are you hardwired to your broadband modem, or are you on a wireless router? Also, can you try eliminating the variables, by shutting down all the other programs running on your Macs, just for the sake of testing, except for iChat? And then finally, both of you should do a test of your broadband speeds with something like the meter at C|Net. It could be that she has a slow upload speed, and so even though you both have fast download speeds, she isn't able to feed you a high quality signal....

I'm at college, so I'm just plugged into a jack in the wall. My girlfriend is using a router. I think we always just iChat, too. But I'll try testing the broadband speeds.

But does anyone know just the straight bit rate that's needed for full quality? Apple doesn't provide it anywhere, do they?