webcam on older mac?

[d_saum]

Hey all,

I gave my mother an old G3 B&W that works fine for everything she needs (email, internet, and pictures) but now as she is getting more and more familiar with it, she wants to get a webcam so she can chat with family across the country. I know most usb webcams are usb2.0 and the B&W only usb1.0. Is it possible to install a pci card with usb2.0? If so, any recommendations? I've done a quick search for firewire based webcams but they are pretty pricey and honestly, the machine isnt worth it.

Any help and/or other ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Dave

 

[Funk-Dobie]

You can get a PCI USB 2.0 card and it should work. I installed one in my G4 Tower and it worked beautifully. Check out SonnetTech for a USB card. http://www.sonnettech.com/product/allegro_usb2.html

As far as USB webcams it all depends. Check out the following link which has a full list of mac compatible USB webcams. http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=69289

 

[SuperCompu2]

I used a USB 2.0 card on my G4 tower, and used an XBOX Live Vision camera as the webcam of choice. Works seamlessly with OS X 10.4.9+, so if you're running a fully patched version of Tiger it'll run fine!

 

[Funk-Dobie]

I used a USB 2.0 card on my G4 tower, and used an XBOX Live Vision camera as the webcam of choice. Works seamlessly with OS X 10.4.9+, so if you're running a fully patched version of Tiger it'll run fine!

Ah, yes, I forgot about the xbox webcam. No drivers needed, even better. Good one.

 

[d_saum]

Thanks!!! I really do appreciate all the help I get here! You all rock!

 

[pit29]

You may also want to chek this out, in case you have a webcam that is not officially supported...

 

[velocityg4]

Like hard drives and a few other hardware components. Most any USB 2.0 PCI card will work. This Masscool MTU25 card is listed as Mac OS X compatible and currently $6.50. The drivers are already apart of Mac OS X since USB controllers are usually generic. Once you plug it in and boot the ports should be available.

As for webcams here are a few. Notice that many require 10.4.11 for iChat and Skype. This seems rather arbitrary for iChat since iChat had video conferencing well befor
http://eshop.macsales.com/search/webcam
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...escription=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

Though I do not know why they arbitrarely decided not to make it 10.2 compatible. Since you were once able to buy iChat AV for 10.2 and it came with 10.3. I guess since it is not until 10.4 that iChat 3 was released allowing for video conferencing rather than just 1 on 1 chat.

If running 10.3 or 10.2 this Macally cam should work. Heck webcams have been around since at least System 7 so you could always get and used one if running Mac OS 8.6 to 10.1.