webcams

[stevecai]

I like my mac more than i could any PC, I've had it for two years now (its an ibook) but I find there are heaps of gaps when it comes to software. I want to use my webcam to talk to people (ie, video and sound) but on mac the only thing i've found it yahoo messenger which transmits video only and no sound.

Does anyone know any programs I can use to talk to people with video and sound?

[lowededwookie]

Doesn't iChat allow you to use video and sound to AIM users?

Have you checked out Fire? It's a multi-service IM client that will do AIM, MSN, Yahoo, etc.

It doesn't do all the features but it might bring you to par with the video and voice.

http://fire.sourceforge.net/

[stevecai]

cool thanks, I am downloading it now.

I did not use ichat because when i was going to register I was under the impression that you only were given 60 days to use it before you had to pay. Furthermore, I want to webcam with people on PC's, and I could not tell whether it would support it.

I am going to try this one. Thanks!

[stevecai]

i installed fire, for some reason it doesn't have msn on it, furthermore, it doesn't seem to have any options for voice or video whatsoever..

[minorproblem]

umm... yahoo does support video and sound!.. at least on the pc it does anyways.

[lowededwookie]

i installed fire, for some reason it doesn't have msn on it, furthermore, it doesn't seem to have any options for voice or video whatsoever..

That's way odd. According to the site it has MSN support and I know on an older version I used it.

I read further into the documentation and apparently it DOESN'T support video and sound on Yahoo but I'm not sure about MSN.

iChat should be able to support video and audio with PC users of AIM.

It's crap how M$ doesn't support all the features of MSN for Windows on the Mac. Basically they're giving us a worthless product (but then what M$ product isn't worthless).

[stevecai]

too true. though i must confess i use microsoft word which is pretty good for microsoft.

what i AIM by the way? thats AOL right? I am scared of AOL, i installed one of their free CD's once and it took over my computer. Doesn't ichat require you to pay after 60 days? you have to register to .mac or sth and that costs money right?

yahoo, msn even icq support everything on pc. nothing good on mac. at least yahoo supports the video image.

[lowededwookie]

what i AIM by the way? thats AOL right? I am scared of AOL, i installed one of their free CD's once and it took over my computer. Doesn't ichat require you to pay after 60 days? you have to register to .mac or sth and that costs money right?

yahoo, msn even icq support everything on pc. nothing good on mac. at least yahoo supports the video image.

AIM is AOL Instant Messenger and it doesn't take over your system. The AOL CD is a full IE/Mail/Instant Messenger setup and that's why it dumped over your system. The Instant Messenger system is sweet.

As for paying for iChat, the answer is no. You only pay for the .Mac account. If you sign up for an AIM account you can use iChat to connect to that. This way is free but you won't be able to talk to .Mac users however you can still use Rendevous. iChat itself is free. I'm not sure if Apple is going to work in logging in using ICQ which is owned by AOL but at the moment you can't use ICQ.

[lostreality]

http://www.apple.com/ichat/

[lowededwookie]

http://www.apple.com/ichat/

Yeah I was going to post that because I wanted to check the specs. iChat will support video/audio with AIM users so there's your answer. It seems it's the only one that actually has compatibility with PC users for almost feature for feature.

I couldn't get to the site before, maybe because they were adding details of all the iLife, iWork, iMini, iPod etc. :)

The iMini looks pretty interesting but the new iPod looks a little flunky.

[stevecai]

What is "rendezvous"? Thanks for the help by the way, I am downloading AIM now..

[stevecai]

ARGH STUPID MAC! OK, so i get IchatAV only to find i need panther, so i purchase panther and install it. then i use ichatAV and it doesn't work - it doesn't detect my webcam. I have a logitech webcam which i bought only a couple of weeks ago and it says it supports mac. the idiotic ichatAV recognises my webcam as a "microphone". Meanwhile, yahoo messenger seems to recognise my webcam just fine, and the logitech program recognises the camera but faces an "unexpected error" if i try to record anything.

what is wrong now!?!?! please help

[sharpie]

well the root of your problem seems to be the simple fact your using a mac

other than that..... havent got a clue

[locust]

I believe iChatAV expects an iSight (which is a firewire video device..)

There are a few companies offering third party webcam drivers for the Mac. Might be worth seeing of any of them also sell a utility to make iChat play nice with USB webcams..

[lowededwookie]

What is "rendezvous"? Thanks for the help by the way, I am downloading AIM now..
Rendevous is zero config networking.

Rendevous support means that a user doesn't have to set anything up to get networking going.

In iChat it means that as soon as you login iChat will go out and see who is connected and will allow you to connect to them.

In iTunes it means you can share music with those on the network without having to set anything up, it's all automatic.

It is only for local networks not the Internet or anything so you won't need to worry about it.

[lowededwookie]

I haven't tried this yet but apparently it's a Java version of MSN Messenger that has more features that MSN Messenger but most importantly allows you to video/audio conference on the Mac.

Linky = http://www.mercury.to/

[stevecai]

i just downloaded and installed mercury. it seems ok, but i haven't tested it webcam capabilities yet. All i know at the moment is it says that I can receive webcam, but I cannot send it. At least its a good start and it seems like they are working well to upgrade it.

I also found a patch for ichatav that lets you use usb webcams. Its from the Ecamm network - unfortunately, you have to pay for it if you want to use it, and i am currently using its trial version. I haven't had a chance to try it on anyone yet, so i don't know if it works - but i do know that ichatav detects my webcam!

I'll keep you posted on what happens. Thanks for the tip lowededwookie!