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Is your girlfriend using the Windows version of Mercury or is she using MS's MSN Messenger?
Yes i'd like to know this too!
I've been video chatting with my gf (who lives on the other side of the world) using Yahoo. We never got more than 1 frame per second, but at least we could see each other. I always figured my G3 iMac was just too slow.
So I'll give mercury a go sometime, but i'd like to know if she needs to install it too (or will regular msn do?).
It should work with either MSN or Mercury in the other side (PC). PC users (W*ndows ou L*nux) must instal JMF, also needed for Mac OS X in some cases. More info:
http://www.mercury.to/index.php?sub=Mac
http://www.mercury.to/index.php?sub=FAQ
http://www.mercury.to/index.php?page=Wiki&wikipage=FeatureStatus
Cheers
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:: Jedi Knight ::
-- Mac Rules! --
I'm happy to pay $25 for a real working solution. There's a great one out there for windows: Trillian Pro (http://www.trillian.cc/). It works quite well with iChat in video conferencing. We have found that we need to initiate the chat from iChat, but once we do that it just works. The client also supports MSN/AOL/Yahoo/ICQ on windows so you don't need any other IM applications installed.
If the time it takes you to try and figure out how to get a free program working is worth more than $25 I'd highly suggest just buying this program and installing it on the windows machine.
I haven't tried under Tiger, but back in early Panther days I was able to do video chat using Mac iChat (with USBWebCam) and PC AIM (the truth!). I was chatting between CO and OR and as I recall the video was just fine. If you don't mind running in classic mode, years ago I used Videolink Pro to chat from Japan to a PC in Arizona.
I've also had success between Gnome Xmeeting (http://xmeeting.sourceforge.net/) on OS-X and Microsoft Netmeeting on Windows, although I had to play around with various codecs to get audio to work.
I believe that the original poster said he couldn't use iChat because it does not (natively) support USB cameras, and he either didn't have or didn't want to spring for (same thing, really) a firewire camera like the iSight.
Sounds like you paid a high price for this solution. Wouldn't buying the 150 dollar iSight camera have been much less expensive than the many hours of time you spent working on finding this solution? You would also get 30 frames a second instead of a lathargic 6 frames a second. I video chat with a PC friend 5000 miles away. His video to me is fairly crappy because he is using a USB 1 camera (better than 6 frames a second though) but my video to him is excellent. He uses AIM's AV software and I use iChat. Sometimes it is cheaper to pay in cash rather than blood, sweat and tears.
ANY Firewire webcam works out-of-the-box with iChat, IMHO. I have an ADS Pyro 1394 webcam which works fine. Also the Micro iBot works.
And you can use any camcorder with a firewire link ('iLink')...
yes any firewire cam, but only with g4 and higher processor:
We routinely use Macs with iSight and iChat talking to PCs with USB2 Cameras and Windows AIM client. It Just Works. Sure, that particular client sucks but the video is just great. We couldn't get Trillian to connect reliably to iChat with Video (other people seem to make it work but we couldn't to the degree we wanted).
A much better solution i found was ivisit... you should give it a go: www.iviist.com
much better quality than MSN
has anyone succesfully video chatted w/ ichat (3.0.1) + isight on tiger (10.4.2) to someone using windows xp + AIM client (5.9)?
if so, i'd be interested to know how ... i've been unsuccessful in doing so. (hope i'm not doing something stupid.)
thanks.
I spent about a week trying to get any cross platform video chat to work without success - well if you count the 1 fps stuff out. This truly sucks. I think the 'works also with Windows' feature in iChat is the most blatant Apple lie I've ever seen :-(
Be sure to use the latest AIM client for PC, and *both* must have video cam's that work with their clients (for iChat in the Mac side *and* for AIM in the PC).
Other than that, you may have some problem with firewall and ports. You can find some help on this somewhere else. Try the tutorial linked in this hint.
Cheers
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:: Jedi Knight ::
-- Mac Rules! --
Video chat on iChat+iSight on tiger ibook g4 to WindowXP SP2+AIM without any problems but can't get Trillian to work with iChat. I want to use trillian instead of AIM because i heard that trillian can maximise the video size, anyone can help?
You do need Windows XP and it has to be set up properly. The New York Times suggests reading the iChat-to-AIM video conference tutorial I wrote at:
http://www.MVLDesign.com/video_conference_tutorial.html
It has a complete set up guide, troubleshooting tips, firewall port settings and more. Be sure to follow the instructions exactly for opening firewall ports that SP2 closes if you want to get AIM to work with video.
the URL you posted is bad. Did you mean to say...
http://www.mvldesign.com/video_conference_tutorial.html?__
Odd as the URL looks with it's ending characters, that's what it takes for me to get to that tutorial of yours.
thanks!
Oh... and one other thing.
Expect frame rates of around 10 to 15 frames per second at around 100 to 150 kpbs. Video from the PC USB Web cam will never match the quality of iSight to iSight but it is often very usable. The best quality using AIM is as good as the worse with iChat.
Very rarely do I come across someone who just can't go Mac to AIM. It happens from time to time. These instances of extreme weirdness... I can talk to a PC person from my Mac but another Mac users cannot, though they can video conf with me and other PC users... are not the norm.
If the PC is delivering 1 fps then install the Live Video patch. (See the tutorial for a link) If you are delivering 1 fps see the tutorial for help.
AIM 5.9 to iChat does work with video conferencing. I swear. :-)
iVisit is another option. The only problem is that the free version (free registration required) only allows small size video (160x120), and video is active only for a fixed time (60min as far as I can remember) if both people have the Lite (free) version. Then you must disconnect for about 30min to have video again with that same person. I always got higher frame hates (but smaller size) than when I used Yahoo Messenger with the same setup.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10647
Cheers
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:: Jedi Knight ::
-- Mac Rules! --
iSpQ is a great app, it's work under macosx and windows.
Video a big and fast.
I use it with a deaf friend, it work really well
http://www.ispq.com/
You can use the cross platform iVisit.com software. Its free, offers audio, text and video recording and interaction. It was derived from CU-SeeMe.
You can use it privately in one on one communications, or in a CHAT ROOM where others with web cams can mingle and meet.
I hope that helps!
Peter
Just wondering, did I accidentally log into LiveJournal today instead of Mac OS X Hints?
Aim Instant Messenger App
Yet another suggestion, the free ohphoneX which works with USB webcams, uses H323 and can connect to NetMeeting on the PC. It's free, simple and it works (for me at least).
WinXP includes NetMeeting by default, just go in the start menu, choose 'Run...' and type 'conf' and enter. Now I appologise for this XP hint :)
Try SightSpeed also. It's windows/mac compatible and works nice for me.
MERCURY MESSENGER WORKS WITH WEBCAM FOR MSN ON MAC.. IM USING IT NOW !!!
http://cmq.qc.ca/4w/amsn/
For what it's worth: Skype also supports video from Mac to PC to Linux -- and surely Skype is still in development. For example: the upcoming 2.8 version is said to support screen sharing (which has nothing to do with the webcam chats from the original hint) from Mac to PC as well, in fact using that very same video stream:
http://www.disruptivetelephony.com/2009/01/skype-28-beta-for-mac-os-x-provides-screen-sharing-wifi-access-chat-features-and-twitter-like-mood-messages.html
Though I guess this long URL says it all, here's a snippet from that article:
SCREEN SHARING
The coolest feature of the 2.8 beta is a 'screensharing' feature where you can share either your entire screen or just a portion of your screen with the Skype user on the other end. Now, this works with all other versions of Skype because it replaces your video stream with the screen sharing. So a Mac Skype user can share their screen with Windows and Linux users.... which is pretty cool.
Seconding Skype!
And for the first question - USB Camera - check out Maccam (free):
webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/
Doesn't support all cameras but it supports a lot of them. If yours is in the list, try it. It works with my old Logitech webcam.
Aim Instant Messenger Chat
Download Aim Messenger
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=44375