iChat video freezes

October 18, 2008 at 6:36 pm | Posted in A/V, Mac OS X | Leave a comment
Tags: 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!