isight experiences anyone

[sbb155]

Is anybody here using isight?
I would like to use it to communicate with my family (and mostly my baby)_ when I am on the road.
Will there be an update soon to the camera?
Does it work well with G4 level processors or is g5 really needed?

 

[jhar257]

used iSight + ichat for over a year

I've used iChat and iSight for over a year to video chat with my girlfriend and my brother who both live in the UK. Recently I have been having incompatability problems with my router at home, but I just disconnect it and connect directly to the cable modem for the duration of the chat and everything is fine.

 

[asif786]

yep, as a camera, you cant really fault it (apart from the high price, but then again we're used to that..)

the main problem is finding people to chat to. i didn't check your location, but here in the uk we tend to use msn messenger more than aim, so there isn't many people to talk to. so long as you know who you'll be talking to, it's a great thing to buy!

 

[skp574]

I have an iSight on my iMac and PowerBook. I have had trouble trying to video chat with someone on AIM (on a PC). Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. Played with the firewall on the router at both ends but could not get a consistent connection. Text chatting was faultless. Strange?

Is there a howto on setting up video chatting between Mac and PC users?

However, having said that. I have seen others video chatting fine through routers with no special settings. However, they were both Mac users.

Do you need to setup static routes or open ports to get it to work?

 

[Bubbasteve]

I've experienced a couple of video chat sessions with my cousin and they have been really fun. I would imagine that it's fine as long as your wife and yourself own a Mac... I've never tried a Mac-Pc Video chat.

 

[G-Prime]

I have a friend in the UK this summer and we both bought one. They work great, it is really amazing how good the quality is. We both have 12" PowerBooks and Tiger.

 

[rummer]

If you want to do a simple two way video chat on iChat, you won't have any problems with G4s. I've tried them with two 12 inch PowerBooks, one in Japan and the other in Paris.

I think the problem you may encounter isn't really the Mac or the iSight camera, but your internet connection. Firewalls and slow bandwidth does affect your ability to video chat. As long as the internet connection on both sides is optimal, then G4 processors will do just fine for iSight video chat.

Also, you can use iChat/iSIght on your Mac to video chat with another PC user using a USB webcam. The PC user just has to use AIM 5.9. The video on the PC end is a non-resizable tiny screen, but on the Mac side, you can do full screen and the quality isn't too bad.

 

[SaleenS351]

Can a dial up moden be used to video chat? I'm having trouble with the bandwidth when trying to hook up with my parents computer. They're on a dial up and I'm using airport. Do they need to get DSL in order to video chat with me?

 

[rummer]

Can a dial up moden be used to video chat? I'm having trouble with the bandwidth when trying to hook up with my parents computer. They're on a dial up and I'm using airport. Do they need to get DSL in order to video chat with me?

No, a dialup would be just too slow to do video chat through iSight and iChat. A DSL/Airport combination on your side shouldn't matter unless there are firewall issues though. Your parents reallly need to get that broadband access for video chats.

 

[Ugg]

I have a G4 PB and it works just fine. I chat with a friend in Germany and the video and audio are flawless. Broadband is required on both ends for video, but dialup is fine for audio.

 

[mattyturner]

Yup, can confirm what people have said. My fiancee's family got us both iSights. I have 2mbps ADSL and she (in the states) has 512kbps DSL.

What blew me away the most was the sound quality, it's better than I get when I use skype to contact people in the states.

Video wise she gets 640x480 at around 240kbps 15FPS. I get the same except around 180kbps data rate. She's on a G3 iBook and it still looks great.

My only gripes are:

1. It won't let you do multi-person conferencing from a G4, which is odd cause when I have a single person it's only using like, 25-30% processor resources. I'm on a 1.5ghz powerbook btw.

2. No zoom, if you want your face to be bigger you have to move yourself or the camera.

3. Considering the price, i think it should use a 1024x768 sensor and down sample it, i mean, even my phone can do 640x480.

4. Not so much a gripe, but bear in mind you need decent lighting conditions. Natural light is best, otherwise i recommend pointing a bright lamp at the wall behind the monitor/iSight or else you get nasty shadows. Most reviews i've read suggest that those griffin light things are a load of rubbish.

So yeah, if you have the money, broadband connection and want to see your family then it's probably the best solution around.