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please help using skype on my Power Mac G4

B

bluebird3

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 29, 2013
233
0
I have a Power Mac G4 MDD with Mac OS 10.5.8 which is the max. for this machine... And currently have a Skype version 2.8.0.866. Installed.

I have a family over seas just got windows 8 and want to communicate via Skype. The audio was super clean and we could talk live, but no visual. I could see how my isight was working since I could go to the video tab and see myself ( not in the Skype video chat window) in the video setting window. My family said they could also see themselves just for a sec. on their screen, but goes away immediately after being logged on to the Skype.

Could you tell me what's happening and how to resolve the issue so that we could video chat?
 
There's no fix based on your versions.

At some point after Microsoft bought Skype they killed the ability for older versions (particularly PowerPC Mac versions) to use video with newer versions of Skype on PC or Mac. If your family overseas wants to see you you will either need to get an Intel Mac that is capable of running the latest version of Skype, or your family will have to rollback to a much older version of Skype.

Even then I am not sure if it can still be done or not. There was a report here that Skype simply switched off video for older versions.

None of it is a compatibility issue, it's simply Microsoft/Skype trying to drive people to upgrades.
 
eyoungren said:
There's no fix based on your versions.

At some point after Microsoft bought Skype they killed the ability for older versions (particularly PowerPC Mac versions) to use video with newer versions of Skype on PC or Mac. If your family overseas wants to see you you will either need to get an Intel Mac that is capable of running the latest version of Skype, or your family will have to rollback to a much older version of Skype.

Even then I am not sure if it can still be done or not. There was a report here that Skype simply switched off video for older versions.

None of it is a compatibility issue, it's simply Microsoft/Skype trying to drive people to upgrades.
Click to expand...

Just google "Old Skype Versions" and you can get an older version. Not that hard, I actually have 2 versions, an older one for audio calls and a newer one for video and when I need to share my screen (e.g. Co-Commentary)
 
ConfusedBatman said:
Just google "Old Skype Versions" and you can get an older version. Not that hard, I actually have 2 versions, an older one for audio calls and a newer one for video and when I need to share my screen (e.g. Co-Commentary)
Click to expand...

The newer version doesn't work on PowerPC Macs. Hence the phrase in eyoungren's post: "There's no fix based on your versions.".
 
Thank you all for the answers.. I thought my skype was already an old version ?

May I ask which exact version of Skype I need?

My family just bought a brand new computer PC with windows 8. I think they are using the latest version of Skype. Arnnn how does it go if I purchased a brand new just released Mac book pro or older Mac book pro with mountain lion. ?
 
You're already using the latest version of Skype for that machine. If you want to do video sharing, you need to use a Skype 6.X client on an Intell machine.
 
ConfusedBatman said:
I meant for him to get his family to use an older version.
Click to expand...

Windows 8 cannot use an older version. The lowest version it can use is too new for anything but text chatting with the PowerPC version. It may be able to do audio, but I don't think so.
 
Intell said:
Windows 8 cannot use an older version. The lowest version it can use is too new for anything but text chatting with the PowerPC version. It may be able to do audio, but I don't think so.
Click to expand...
What about compatibility mode in this case? Or is an older Windows version of Skype just too far back to work on W8?
 
Intell said:
I don't think that would be enough to get a PowerPC compatible version of Skype running on Windows 8.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I know I had to rollback to XP on one of my PCs in order to get some old games working under compatability mode. Win7 was too new and they wouldn't work under it's version of compatability mode. Seeing as 8 is even newer than 7 I can see that it wouldn't function.
 
Time to toss my power Mac..... :(

It's loud and bulky anyway, i guess I'll soon pull the trigger on Mac book pro or something.

Thax again.
 
Thank you. That's a good idea. I'll clean up the HD, well.... Get me the new computer first and transfer the data first, then clean up to sell....

wonder how much it worth tho.... I didn't know if anyone would want such an ancient machine.
 
bluebird3 said:
Thank you. That's a good idea. I'll clean up the HD, well.... Get me the new computer first and transfer the data first, then clean up to sell....

wonder how much it worth tho.... I didn't know if anyone would want such an ancient machine.
Click to expand...

I'd take it. I'd even take a machine older than that. But I'm pretty sure the shipping would be more than the machine's worth.
 
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