mac to mac video Skype wins for me

[cfs]

Just wondering if anyone out there has shared a similar experience with poor video quality and not perfectly clear sound using ichat mac to mac.

I posted my experience with the problems I have had in this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/516152/

The basic problem was that I ichat was very poor when video conferencing with my family from Japan to America. Computers used were both intel. One an imac Al and the other a recently purchased macbook. The Macbook was always poor in quality when conferencing but the imac was great. In addition we both had great download and upload speeds and tried all combinations of bandwidth settings and quicktime settings. However, nothing worked for the Macbook.

Finally, I had it and decided to try Skype for Skype to Skype video using our macs. I only had one conference on it but the sound was crystal clear and the video was perfect. I could not believe how good it looked. I was shocked.

Does anybody know why Skype would be better for me. It seems that i
chat should be. Just curious.

-cfs

 

[Mjmar]

I always use skype over ichat since it's easier to video chat with a person using windows.

 

[spacepower7]

skype

skype always work better for me than iChat, even US to Europe. don't know why but it does.

 

[pinktank]

skype is specialized in doing exactly that and therefore is more optimized, it naturally is better than ichat which is an extension of an operating system

 

[kkat69]

As much as I really like iChat for these things, Skype does offer a better quality. Especially Mac to PC. I Skype video with my wife from my office during home improvement projects so she can show me the contractors work and the quality is great.

Our iChat is almost as good but if I had to put a number scale (in my experience) Skype - 10, iChat - 9, Yahoo/MSN - 4.

Skype does the best but after a while (in my experience) the voice signal does degrade a bit but it's probably more network related (my office network)

Skype is free, iChat is free (if you use AOL) so it's whatever works for you.

 

[nerdbert]

skype is specialized in doing exactly that and therefore is more optimized

If you look at the codec spec for video, ichat sounds quite impressive. I don't know what Skype uses (proprietary maybe?), but it can't be much "better" than H.264.

But I totally agree that in day-to-day use Skype really gives a better impression regarding video quality. The reason might be that Skype is better at adapting bitrate to current bandwidth.

Anyways, I don't use video that often and I'd still use Skype if the video was actually worse, because it works between all major OS's and it has a larger user base.

 

[trek1500]

Just wondering if anyone out there has shared a similar experience with poor video quality and not perfectly clear sound using ichat mac to mac.

I posted my experience with the problems I have had in this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/516152/

The basic problem was that I ichat was very poor when video conferencing with my family from Japan to America. Computers used were both intel. One an imac Al and the other a recently purchased macbook. The Macbook was always poor in quality when conferencing but the imac was great. In addition we both had great download and upload speeds and tried all combinations of bandwidth settings and quicktime settings. However, nothing worked for the Macbook.

Finally, I had it and decided to try Skype for Skype to Skype video using our macs. I only had one conference on it but the sound was crystal clear and the video was perfect. I could not believe how good it looked. I was shocked.

Does anybody know why Skype would be better for me. It seems that i
chat should be. Just curious.

-cfs

When I tried iChat with a friend the video seemed OK but I would agree that Skype's video image appears better. I recently installed Oovoo on my MBP because a friend said Oovoo's video was even better than Skype but haven't had a chance to test it out yet...

 

[cfs]

When I tried iChat with a friend the video seemed OK but I would agree that Skype's video image appears better. I recently installed Oovoo on my MBP because a friend said Oovoo's video was even better than Skype but haven't had a chance to test it out yet...

Please let us know how the quality is for you.

 

[logana]

My family use both iChat and Skype video regularly from Europe to New Zealand - sometimes Skype is excellent, other times poor. Same goes for iChat.

Usually the problem with iChat is that it uses the AOL AIM network which gets very busy at some times of the day and quality suffers as a result.

Sometimes you just have to switch between Skype and iChat (and vice-versa).

Both can be excellent and both can be almost unusable.....