These iChat 4 pages are coloured Gray and have the iChat 4 icon on them that was in use at the time, so you know where you are. The icon differs little from the Version 3 version.

These pages have sat here since 2008 with no update. In that time the AIM servers have been closed down (2017) and iChat has been superseded by Message and FaceTime. That effectively make this a sort of Historical Document of how it worked.

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iChat 4 Pictures Preferences

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5[5]

05 Video Preferences

Nov 2008

5 Video Preferences

This is the iChat 4 Audio/Video Section of the Preferences.

For the first time the Name of the Pane makes it cleave both Audio and Video are set here. In iChat 2 and 3 it read Video Only and it had to made clear Audio settings were also here.

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 an extra drop down for you to select between them. There will be no drop down if you only have one camera.

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 Mics 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 (in System Preferences) to at least halfway. In the main picture of this page 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 was changed in iChat 3 so capping the bandwidth to allow Files to be sent in text chats at the same time has become not so important now. You may need to Cap the Bandwidth to allow other apps or other Users to use the Internet connection. A Playstation or another Video chat can effect things. If you are home testing between two Macs then bothe require enough Bandwidth for In and Out feeds.

A Change. The option for Automatically Open iChat When External Camera is On is not a change in action but a change in wording to represent what it actually does.

Also you can override any Sound setting made in Alerts that does not repeat and have it Repeat Ring Sound on Invite to Conference 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 - like having the opening bars of Jimi Hendrix track.)

Next would be the Buddy Lists set of Pictures.

Created with JAlbum 4.0.6

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Created October, 2008 Major Update/Edit October 2024.

 ©  Ralph Johns. Created October 2008

Information Block

This site is about iChat from Version 1 through to iChat 5.x.x
Mostly this is kept as an Historical Document. Some small tense changes have been made but the content is by and large untouched.

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

About This Page

The biggest change is the Name for this Pane.

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.

The main content also point you to Match some choices in Systrem Preferneces > Sound > Imput and to make sure the respective response bars move enough.

Compatibility

As mentioned above this has had a major Edit/Update in September/October 2024 moving towards being fully HTML 5 compliant meaning that the Browsers listed below are likely to no longer work.

I have tested in Safari 18.1, Firefox 130.x and 131.0, Vivaldi 6.9.3447.48 and iCab 6.2.3 (All Mac Browsers) I don't have access to a PC let alone multiple browsers to test on.

The original pages worked 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/may only see a text-based page which, while not the prettiest option, is still entirely usable.

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