Ralph Johns

iChat Information Pages

Version 3

 


iChat Icon

These iChat 3 pages are coloured Orange and have the iChat 3 icon on them that was in use at the time, so you know where you are. The icon differs from Version 1 by having the camera logo added and from iChat 2 by having the Running Man removed.

iChat 3 Pictures

You are In:- iChat >> Versions >> iChat 3 >> iChat 3 Pictures Index >> iChat 3 Menu Index >> Video Preferences
5[5] 05 Video Preferences Oct 2008

This is the iChat 3 Video Section of the Preferences.

Actually includes the place to select the Microphone and set the Bandwidth (Aimed at Video chats mainly).

If you have Camera it will display here as a preview if the camera is On or turns itself on as any Video part or iChat is invoked. If you have two cameras it will display a drop down for you to select between them. There will be no drop down if you only have one camera.

Sound Input tab

Most people will see a microphone choice as they will have a Line-In option that displays even if nothing is plugged into it. Internal Mic are adequate but external ones tend to be better. Any Mic plugged into the line-in option has to be pre-amped due to the Input type Apple uses. The Microphone choice has to match that shown in System Preferences > Sound > Input tab. How loud you seem to your Buddy is also controlled in the same place. It has to be set high enough to move the blue indicator bar there to at least halfway. In the main picture it is displayed as a green movement in the bar under the Video Picture

The Bandwidth Drop Down will limit the Bandwidth iChat uses (cap the rate) to the setting that is used. There is a setting for as low as 100kbps but this effectively will be below a useful speed for a Video chat. On the whole keep it at NONE unless your ISP practices Bandwidth management to combat Peer-to-Peer File Sharing (Comcast or Road Runner) or you have a fast connection that is not that stable in speed (Verizon FiOS), when the 500Kbps setting maybe best.

In iChat 2 ichat grabbed about 80% of any bandwidth that was available. This has changed in iChat 3 so capping the bandwidth to allow Files to be sent in text chats at the same time is not so important or to allow other apps to use the Internet connection.

The option for Cameras that are On to open iChat only works for External Camera that can be turned On and Off like the external iSight. It does not work on Internal cameras or with External USB ones as they have to be turned on by Software, which iChat will do as it needs to.

Also you can override any Sound setting made in Alerts that does not repeat and have it Repeated if you do not answer. This can be useful if you have moved away from the computer (make sure you have picked a loud sound though.)


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Information Block

This site is about iChat from Version 1 through to iChat 4.x.x

It has a mixture of basic info and problem solving help.

The sections below will change for Specifics about info on the page on view

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About This Page

Check the picture, select the camera if you have two, also select the Microphone. Possibly set the Bandwidth and set any sound choice to repeat until you answer.

Compatibility

Confirmed to work with Win/IE 5.5 and later (should work in 5.0, but not confirmed), Firefox 2, Safari 3, Opera 9, iCab 3.02 and later, Mac/IE 5, Netscape 6 and later

Old browsers (IE version 4 or earlier, Netscape 4 or earlier) should only see a text-based page which, while not the prettiest option, is still entirely usable.