iChat video freezes
October 18, 2008 at 6:36 pm | In A/V, Mac OS X | Leave a CommentTags: 10.5, 10.5.5, freezes, freezing, iChat, Leopard, video
Lately, I’ve found that the video in iChat tends to freeze partway into a conversation. Curiously, audio is unaffected. Once the video has frozen, I can no longer access the iChat menus (clicking on a menu produces the spinning colored ball). However, I can continue conversing with the other party until I am ready to end the conversation, at which point I have to force quit iChat.
There are several active discussions on this topic on the Apple Support discussion board (see, for example, iChat freezes after 10.5.5 update). The resolution that has worked for me so far is the following:
- In the QuickTime System Preferences, click on the “Streaming” tab and then choose “1 Mbps Cable” for the streaming speed.
- In the Audio/Video iChat Preferences, choose “500 kbps” for the bandwidth limit.
- Relaunch iChat
You’ll notice that the size and quality of the video are reduced, but at least it works!
No background effects in iChat
December 23, 2007 at 6:11 pm | In Mac OS X | Leave a CommentTags: 10.5, backdrop effects, backdrops, background effects, iChat, Leopard
One of the new features in Leopard’s iChat is “backdrops” (also referred to as “background effects”). When backdrops are enabled, the background behind the user is replaced with a static scene, such as the Eiffel Tower or Times Square.
It’s not readily apparent how to enable this feature, however. After some searching in iChat Help, I found the sequence of steps under Changing the backdrop of a video chat. When I got to the step “In the Video Effects window, click the arrows to cycle through the video and backdrop effects”, however, I didn’t see any backdrop effects.
A little more searching uncovered Requirements for video effects and backdrops, which notes that backdrops require a Mac with an Intel processor. That explains it—I’m still on a PowerPC Mac.
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