iSight trouble in Tiger 10.4

[ejtrowbridge]

I have been experiecing problems with the iChat AV since I recently upgraded to Tiger. When I know video conference with my friend, my video is extremely choppy! I did not have any trouble in Panther. When I click on CONNECTION DOCTOR, these are my specs:

- LOCAL -

FPS: 1.0
BIT RATE: 85/kbps

- MY FRIEND -

FPS: 15
BIT RATE: 240/kbps

Obviously there is a huge difference. I have a DSL modem, and I am connected through an AirPort extreme base station. I have FULL bars in my connection, so it doesn't make any sense. And like I said, I used to be able to video chat with my friend in real time using Panther, but now extremely lagged in Tiger. My internet is connected fully...

I've tried setting my bandwidth settings to like 100kbps and 2MBps, but no effect. Tried switching my firewire ports.. but no avail.

Any suggestions? This is so strange...

 

[Applespider]

I did see a few reports that suggested that the 1 fps rate was due to the Spotlight indexing and should correct itself once your HD is indexed. I'm not sure if that applies in your situation.

 

[ejtrowbridge]

Hmmm.. my HD has been indexed (it does that right after you first install Tiger, right)? Because I am able to use Spotlight perfectly now, but my iChat is all goofed up.

 

[G-Prime]

I am having the same thing happen to me. I will be going to an Apple Store tomerrow, I will let you know if they fix it.


Bobby

 

[DJY]

I have only had a couple of chats since Tiger - but have been keen to see and experience the improved video chat capability... but I also have been disappointed so far!

I'm on 1500-256 ADSL and the couple of people I have chatted with have been on faster speeds or cable connections, and agree choppy, blurry, colours not nearly as good or clear as with Panther, and was also disappointed to be told my the staff at my local Mac1 shop that you need a G5 to initiate three people video chats?!?!?!?

sigh

I'm hoping things improve though (somehow?!?!)

 

[tykles]

Did you guys check out this thread at the Apple support site? I am really excited about upgrading for the 'improved iChat' quality, but now I'm a little nervous. Maybe I'll just hang on till 10.4.1.
Cheers

 

[devman]

From reading that Apple support thread the copmmon factor seems to be any other task that is cpu heavy at the time. e.g. spotlight indexing, virex, folding@home, etc.

I'm not familiar at all with OS X architecture so the terminology I use here won't be right. But the gist of it should be...

In each case these other tasks run at a low priority. Since they all affect iChat video I'm guessing that the bug is the iChat video task is not being run at the right priority or wiht the right scheduler paramaters.

Therefore I think all the re-installing and repairing of permissions and pre-binding that people are doing in that Apple thread is a waste of time. Only a patch from Apple will fix this. A circumvention while we wait is to (where possible) stop these other tasks when you want to do a video chat. e.g. 'pause' from the terminal will hold the folding@home tasks and you can type 'resume' to get them going again later.

 

[BornAgainMac]

I think I found the problem

When at least one of the accounts is a AIM account instead of a .Mac account, I noticed that Tiger video chat is choppy and terrible quality. I was able to fix it by using .Mac accounts on both sides. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[tinydancer]

I had the same problem and fixed it by removing Virex. So, if you are having this problem and a running Virex that is your culprit. I just deleted the application "Virex". After that I went to system configuration/startup items and deleted the Virex there as well. That will fix it. That will get your fps back up to 15. Good luck!!!

 

[iGary]

When at least one of the accounts is a AIM account instead of a .Mac account, I noticed that Tiger video chat is choppy and terrible quality. I was able to fix it by using .Mac accounts on both sides. Can anyone confirm this?

I had a video conference with our art director in Maine yesterday, and yes, over AIM, it sucks.

 

[Lucky8]

They can't hear me when I'm Skyping.
It didn't update iSight when I was on Panther, now I'm on Tiger. When I try to update, it says it's not updateable thru MacOS10.4
Sound gauge moves when I speak.