Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MAJOR issues video conferencing on iChat with PC users

ducatidoc

ducatidoc

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 20, 2008
136
0
i have a small business that requires me to communicate frequently with clients in other markets. i would like to use iChat on the AIM network to video conference with these clients. i was hoping to somehow get my wacom taboo tablet set up as well, so i could somehow draw figures and have them appear either real time or in a drag-and-drop fashion to my clients.

thus far, video conferencing works superbly but only with mac users.

video conferencing has been almost impossible with clients using pc's. i often get one of three error messages: either ichat says the client denied my request to video conference (despite their accepting the request), the request times out, or it says an unknown error occured and it asks me to report it to mapple.

in regards to the wacom taboo tablet, i have been using goggle docs as a work around of sorts, where i share permissions to a doc with my client, draw my figures in that document, and the doc refreshes every 3-5 seconds on the client end.

my set up is a macbook air revB/1.86/ssd, 24" cinema display, and a time capsule as my router (i also have a linksys i can switch to if necessary)

1) please please help me with the video conferencing to pc users. i have tried skype, and the quality was just terrible. i desperately need a fix to this yesterday, and welcome any advice.

2) any thoughts on a better way to display my tablet-drawn figures real time?

many thanks in advance!!
 
ducatidoc said:
i have a small business that requires me to communicate frequently with clients in other markets. i would like to use iChat on the AIM network to video conference with these clients. i was hoping to somehow get my wacom taboo tablet set up as well, so i could somehow draw figures and have them appear either real time or in a drag-and-drop fashion to my clients.

thus far, video conferencing works superbly but only with mac users.

video conferencing has been almost impossible with clients using pc's. i often get one of three error messages: either ichat says the client denied my request to video conference (despite their accepting the request), the request times out, or it says an unknown error occured and it asks me to report it to mapple.

in regards to the wacom taboo tablet, i have been using goggle docs as a work around of sorts, where i share permissions to a doc with my client, draw my figures in that document, and the doc refreshes every 3-5 seconds on the client end.

my set up is a macbook air revB/1.86/ssd, 24" cinema display, and a time capsule as my router (i also have a linksys i can switch to if necessary)

1) please please help me with the video conferencing to pc users. i have tried skype, and the quality was just terrible. i desperately need a fix to this yesterday, and welcome any advice.

2) any thoughts on a better way to display my tablet-drawn figures real time?

many thanks in advance!!
Click to expand...

As far as the error messages when chatting with PC users, try Skype. My girlfriend and I starting using Skype and it works flawlessly with Mac and PC. As for the taboo tablet, I've got nothing. Good luck.
 
I would suggest you try Acrobat.com (free meeting service)

Hi,

I would suggest you try Adobe's free service, Acrobat.com (http://www.acrobat.com). You can use Acrobat Connect there to video conference and screen share at the same time.

You can mark up or draw on documents on your machine and they can see your markup in near-real time, depending on connection speed. I believe you can also let them mark up the document as well if you'd like. Of course audio and video chat is included as well as text chat and note-sharing.

You'll have to send them a quick link to join your conference, but it is far easier and "Mac-like" than Webex or Netmeeting. They will be asked to download a small Flash component the very first time they join a meeting, but it takes only a few seconds and once it's installed, they'll never need to download or install anything else. They simply click the link you send them and they're in and you can get down to business.

I've used this in very much the same way you are describing and found it to work as a great alternative to either iChat or Skype when I have to conference with PC users and show them things I'm working on or that I need to walk them through.

The only major down-side is that it is limited to just four people at once - if you want more people than that, the "solution" is to upgrade to a full Acrobat Connect account from Adobe (pricing varies - check Adobe's site for those details). But I'm pretty sure that's the point of this free service - to lure you in with really cool features and functionality and then ultimately up-sell you to the pro features when you outgrow the free service.

But as long as you don't need to conference/meet with more than a few people at a time, it works great.
 
hey thanks. yeah skype's quality is just pitiful.

just finished demo'ing the acrobat.com setup. seems to work well, though with some slight delay in the audio visual.

ill give it a go for a while until something better comes along. cannot believe that apple is not already on top of these ichat issues.

just to confirm, is anyone else having these issues when trying to ichat/aim video chat with pc users?
 
ducatidoc said:
hey thanks. yeah skype's quality is just pitiful.

just finished demo'ing the acrobat.com setup. seems to work well, though with some slight delay in the audio visual.

ill give it a go for a while until something better comes along. cannot believe that apple is not already on top of these ichat issues.

just to confirm, is anyone else having these issues when trying to ichat/aim video chat with pc users?
Click to expand...

This may not provide much help, but might point you in a direction.

I tried to establish a video conference with a PC user, but failed. We had given up when the PC user got an email from AIM offering a free upgrade to the software. The PC user did it....and later we were able to chat with no difficulty whatsoever.

The problem is that I don't know what the version of software was. And I'm unable to contact my friend at this time. But the problem has to do with AIM, and can be corrected via an upgrade.

JP
 
Yes I ran into this same issue and the issue was the version of AIM on the PC user's system. Updated and corrected.
 
In my experience, I can rarely initiate a chat with a PC friend, but if he does the initiating, it works just fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back