IChat video quality better with .Mac subscriber than with AIM?

The quality of my video chats with one brother who also has a .Mac account is noticeably better than my chats with another brother, who uses iChat with an AIM account. I'm in the US, they are both in UK. All of us have almost identical iMacs. The one with the AIM account supposedly has a faster Internet connection. My question: is the video quality of iChat better if both users have .Mac accounts than if one has an AIM account?

The Screen names make no difference.
It is about a combination of Proccessor, Video card in iChat 4, internet Connection and settings and the amount of Bandwidth you get out of that connection.
As Defcom (UK) has said start with those basic Settings.
In iChat 3 and 2 the Quicktime setting when on Automatic is read as a 0 (zero) and this effectively Caps iChat.
In iChat 4 the Automatic setting is seen as 384k which is the MINIMUM for a 4 way chat.
As far as an Internet Connection goes this should be at Least 100k in both Up and Downloads.
Due to some data stream management to cut down on Peer-to-Peer file Sharing it pays to limit iChat in the Video Section Bandwidth Limit section to slip under the Radar as it were. There are two main ISP doing this Comcast and Road Runner in the States.
Verizon offer a FioS fibre service that is not that stable in speeds and jumps all over the place which is then too fast for iChat to keep up and that should use the cap in iChat Preferences as well.
8:08 PM Friday; June 20, 2008

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IChat video & audio chat with AIM user not working

Hi all,
I have a mobileme account. A friend has got a new Macbook with 10.5.5 and signed up for an AIM account. We've tried to do video chat (over the internet) with iChat 4 and cannot establish a session in either direction. It gets to the "Starting video chat..." part and then fails, telling us "did not recevie a response from ..."
Audio chat doesn't work for us either.
Video & audio chat works fine locally via Bonjour for us. It's just over the internet (through a NAT router if that matters) that multimedia chat does not function.
Any ideas?

Yes, I have set the streaming speed to 500 on both mine and her end to no avail. I've also tried port 443, and we also tried using a jabber server (with google talk accounts). I didn't expect the jabber thing to work, as it's free and video/audio/screen sharing use non-trivial bandwidth.
I have not been able to do video, audio, or screen sharing with her at all. But I know these features work, as I have used them on my local wireless network via bonjour.
Only bonjour...
Do both of us have to be paying customers of MobileMe to get video chat over the internet? It seems like only one should suffice...

Is quality better with software for converting VHS to DVD than using an actual converter?

Is quality better with software for converting VHS to DVD than using an actual converter?

Not sure what you mean by "actual converter".
If you mean if you just played a VHS tape to a DVD recorder and recorded like that... You will get close to the quality of the VHS.
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IChat Video Quality Low - Stumped

Hi all,
The basics of my problem is my Ichat video quality is very low.
I have a 10mb connection and im in Tennessee, USA, the person im trying to reach has a 8mb connection and is in California, USA.
When I chat with this person my connection doctor always says im getting a 150 to 300 bit rate. The video quality seems very low to me. Which I would think is super low for such a fast connection between our computers. It never goes above 300.
I've read over many posts here on the forum and we have done the Set Quicktime to 1.5mb & Set my Ichat Video Prefs Limit to "None" and restarted, on both ends. Still limits at 300.
I've also checked the connection speeds on both ends, via pings to various places around the net & across the country and hold down a decent to good 3.5 to 8.5mbs connection.
A little system info:
My Side:
- G5 Dual 2.5GHZ
- Isight (external Camera via Firewire port)
- Airport Wireless Card
- Airport Extreme (with DHCP on to route my multi machines wirelessly on the network)
- Cable Modem - Plugs into Airport - up to 10mbs connection
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Other side:
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- Isight (built in)
- Cable Modem direct - up to 8mbs connection
- iChat 3
- OS X 10.4.8
It seems like there is something im overlooking.
Please help as im a bit stumped on this one! :P
- Guru Kismet

I have 3 machines on the Airport network (though none of the others where being used during the testing).
I connected my Cable modem directly to my G5 via Ethernet my speeds jumped! Then I discovered it was being caused by my Airport Extreme. Which loves to knock me off the network from time to time.
In my Airport Extreme "wireless options" I changed the Multicast Rate and then clicked on "Enable interference robustness" my chat speeds jumped from 200k to 800k+. The quality of my video improved dramatically.
After further testing with just one machine and then later restoring all machines back on the Airport Network, I found that there was some sort of interference from other wireless devices around the house, even the ones downstairs.
I would suggest this for anyone having trouble with your Airport Extreme knocking you off the internet or network from time to time or if your Ichat speeds & quality are really low.
Problem solved!
Best wishes to all,
Guru Kismet

IChat can't communicate with AIM account

iChat can't communicate with AIM account - I've looked at ALL threads and no success to troubleshooting
Looked into this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3558055?tstart=0
I've tried changing my Port number - FAIL
I tried restarting and deleting account - FAIL
Tried creating a new account - FAIL, says there's an error
Tried going through Go > Finder > Library > Preferences to delete the com.apple.ichat.AIM.plist - FAIL, couldn't find in the folder either
Tried going through keychains and permissions - FAIL
I've had the same account for over 13 years (maybe that's why, ha!) and I did nothing to change any settings. Please help! Work depends on it!

Hi,
If it is an AIM name (i.e. Registered at AIM) then there seems to be a rush of Suspended Accounts recently.
Some have found that touring abroad seems to be the latest reason.
You then need to go to the Suspended Account Help Page and use the TOS General Email link.
If you have an @Mac.com name that is of course a Valid AIM Screen Name as well as an Apple ID means that the password has to be changed at Apple.
However the AIM server cannot tell that this has been done.
One person reported recently that the person they contacted via the TOSGeneral email link did not seem to know about the agreement with Apple that AIM has and that they had to change the "Flagging" on the account at their end.
Although a "Hacking" of an AIM account is not unheard of it is rare.
The TOS General link is still the best route I know of on that score.
9:30 PM Wednesday; August 22, 2012
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
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IChat Video Quality vs. Bandwidth FAQ?

I have done some searching and have come across some video quality threads.
Most of my Video Conferencing is done between my Macbook or iMac 24 across Time Warner cable to another iMac 20. All running OSX 10.4.9.
It appears that the video quality will vary based on the upstream bandwidth availability. In my case I have 600-700kbps pretty consistently. This is pretty decent for a 1 person video conference. Not quite up to the standard I was hoping for but usable.
What is not even usable is doing a multi-person Video conference. In this case two local machines on the same wireless network and one machine across Time Warner cable (we use the same provider). When I bring the second local machine, the conference splits out properly but the video in each widow (other than my preview) is so blurry that it is completely useless.
I would be very curious as to the experience of others attempting to connect across the same service providers network. In this case we are connecting across Time Warner between Florida and Ohio. The performance should be rocking with at least 1MB upstream (I will have to check but I think I have 5MB up).
The other thing that I was wondering is if there is some way to tweak the iChat Video settings to force it into a specific video quality mode (and possible deal with some dropouts).
Sorry for the long post but I am hoping we can begin to compile information on bandwidth requirements and perfomance experienced with various service providers.
Thanks!
Jim

Thanks, I did both tweaks and the really improved the 3 way conference.
My speedtest is below and is on Bright House in Tampa. Note that the best that I achieve watching Connection doctor is in the 700 territors. I do tend to be able to deliver 20fps pretty consistently. But my bandwidth bounces around a lot. I am not a big fan of cable for quality and consistency.
[IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/145047165.png[/IMG]
Verizon FIOS is moving into my area and I believe they will offer much better speed than Bright House and certainly more consistency. RF is simply a nightmare to maintain.

IChat video and audio problems Mac to Mac

My associate and I have just set up video chatting with iChat, AIM accounts, and Logitech Quickcam Vision Pro cameras. I have a 12" G4 Powerbook and he has a late-model G5. We are both connecting to internet via Airports, with cable at my end and DSL at his end. After going through many discussion postings, we adjusted our settings so that Quicktime streaming was set to 1.5mbps, log on to AIM was on port 443 rather than 5190, iChat video bandwidth was set to 500, and Internet sharing was off on both machines. We can now see and hear one another, but the sound quality is very poor (we tried Skype, too, and the sound quality is much, much better) and the images we see of one another are very fuzzy and jerky (very slightly better than Skype, and our local images are very sharp and smooth). Worse, the image I see of him disintegrates (pixelates, horizontal lines, etc.) most of the time; he can see some of this on his local image of himself. The disintegration does not occur on Skype. We would rather use iChat, but obviously cannot with these conditions. I have seen no description of anything like this in any of the first 15 or so pages of discussions. Help!

Hi,
If Quicktime is at 1.5Mbps and you get this try the Bandwidth Setting at NONE.
WE suggest the 500 setting fro a couple of reasons.
Two ISPs, Comcast and Road Runner, practice Data Stream Management to combat File Sharing apps. This reduces the Internet Speed they supply to try and make these applications unworkable.
Unfortunately they can not distinguish between those Apps and iChat in an A/V chat which is also Peer-to-Peer and sending lots of data in both directions.
Other ISPs practice "Fair Usage" Policies and restrict the Bandwidth (And therefore speed) during High Use periods (but never say when those periods are).
The effect is the same as the Comcast/Road Runner issue.
If NONE still does not work try one of the other two setting in-between NONE and 500kbsp.
iChat does use a large amount of processor and Video card time and processing.
It pays to make sure you are not rendering some iMovie item or other high Processor use App.
AS iChat can be effected by Bandwidth issues Sharing the Connection you have with another computer that is downloading or streaming something from the 'Net can be an issue.
It may pay him to look in Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities) and see what is using the Processor (Set it to All Processes then click the CPU column to re-arrange the list). Anything over about 20% may effect iChat. (vcencoder in lower case is part of iChat)
8:12 PM Friday; January 30, 2009

IChat video quality inherantly suffers when over wireless EVDO aircard?

I am just guessing. Is this true? Or just in our case? Our being myself and my girlfriend, who is the one with a cam. I am new to iChat but I am not receiving that 'full screen, perfect quality' image that I thought iChat was supposed to have. You see, my girlfriend has a Macbook with its own built-in camera, so I am sure that camera is up to iChat specifications. But, her internet connection is through Sprint's EVDO USB modem. For the techs here, she is using the pretty new Sierra 595U, and she gets EVDO speed where she is.
Are there any iChat options she could tweak that would give her a higher bandwith output to me? SHe is not too technically inclined to discover this herself. Thanks!

My experience with using Sprint EVDO Revision A is that, while up and down tested speeds may seem more than adequate, the quality of iChat video connections and Slingbox slinging isn't as good as with similar tested connection speeds generated via DSL or cable.
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Poor one-sided ichat video quality

The video picture that I see when ichatting with my mom is awful (around 50%). It only happens when I ichat with her, and she sees me fine. Our audio is also fine. My connection doctor indicated that: her video quality was 50%,her bitrate was 300 & mine was 600. Her connection doctor indicated that her bitrate was 700 & mine was 600. (I think both frame rates in both of our panels ranged between 11-17.) We both have MacBook Airs. Any thoughts as to what's happening and how to remedy it would be greatly appreciated. She bought the MacBook Air just so that we could ichat.
Thanks.

Hi
On your mum's mac go to ichats prefs click on video and change bandwidth limit to 500, if still happens try 200.
Restart iChat.
Tony

Multi-Person iChat Video Quality

Hi,
I am using iChat with 2 other person (so a total of 3 people in the video conferencing). What we noticed is that the audio quality remains great. But as soon as the third person joins the video chat, the video quality decrease dramatically.
Any one experience this problem?
Thanks.

Thanks for the reply.
Have you set the Quicktime setting, goto sys
prefs/quicktime/streaming/streaming speed set what
you get from your ISP go no higher then 1.5mbps(dont
use automatic)
I didn't know that Quicktime has anything to do with iChat. I will check that tonight.
In ichats prefs click on video and change bandwidth
limit to NONE.
Alread set to NONE so this shouldn't be a problem.
Also all of you do a speed test
http://www.speedtest.net/ and tell us the up and
download speeds are.
I have done many similar tests and it is consistently rated as "excellent". I will need to do the test to find out the exact rate tonight when I am home.
So, out of the 3 things, sound like the Quicktime setting is the only one that I have not done.
Thanks.

IChat video conferencing problems with D-Link WBR-1310

Howdy,
I am having a few problems with iChat video conferencing. I use the D-Link WBR-1310 wireless router and a MacBook. My girlfriend has a MacBook Pro at her school which she connects to via ethernet. I connect to my router via wireless. The routher is connected to a DSL modem. iChat video conferencing tends to work sometimes but very rarely. I have DMZ on the router turned on as i read somewhere on these forums that it was recommended. I also have the Apple firewall turned off so my laptop is pretty much naked as far as security is concerned. Three other computers use the network One desktop PC connected directly into the router and two Apple iBooks which are connected via the wireless. The problem is that i keep getting error message -8. Can anyone please help?
Thanks in Advance

I'd start by verifying you have the most recent firmware installed on your router.
Next, start off by trying to test to a user that has no known issues: http://www.ralphjohnsuk.dsl.pipex.com/ContactTesters.html (Bottom of the page)
That will help pinpoint where the connection issue lies.
Once you can succefully connected, then you should set up a static ip address on your mac and port forward the necessary ports in your router. If you router supports UPnP, I'd try enabling the first.
I hope this helps!

Terrible iChat video quality. What gives?

My brother and I are trying to use iChat video. We both have an iMac, his is newer than mine, but we both have the same OS. On both ends the video quality is very poor and the audio is bad (hearing every other word). We both have high speed internet, I have cable he has DSL. We tried limiting the bandwidth to no avail. Any suggestions?
Thanks!

Also both of you should open the Connection Doctor (iChat Video menu) during a chat and tell us what Speeds (Frame and Bit Rate) you see.
You should get at least 15fps and have a speed in Bit rate of well over 100kbps (up to somewhere over 500kbps depending on your Internet speeds at both ends).
200-300 is common. 500+ is not unusual.
8:24 PM Tuesday; April 28, 2009

Video quality difficulties with Vimeo and Youtube sites and with smart phone

Ever since the Vimeo and Youtube sites have changed, it has been pretty difficult to get the video quality I had before. I'm using Final Cut Express to edit, Quicktime Player to resize the video to 640x480 (is too wide when saving FCE project as Quicktime movie), and Jes Deinterlacer to remove all of the jaggies that the original deinterlacing on FCE doesn't fully do (skateboarding video). I'm aware Final Cut Express 4 is a discontinued product, and Apple support over the phone can't help me. The quality is TERRIBLE on my smart phone, and used to be really good before the site changed. The Vimeo app played my videos very clear. I'm using a MyTouch smart phone. I want to know if the quality being bad on mobile is because of the sites being changed, and if there is anything I can do to get the quality I want. I've worked on this the past three weeks, and this is my final option, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Here are the steps I'm using to export (still trying more export options in Jes Deinterlacer).
Step 1: In FCE, click "File", "Export", "Quicktime Movie". In "Include:", choose "Audio and Video", "All Markers" for "Markers:", and check box "Make Movie Self-Contained".
Step 2: Open file in QT Player. Click "Window" (at the top between "View" and "Help"), and choose "Show Movie Properties". Click "Video Track", and click "Visual Settings". Change the dimensions (which are supposed to be 720x480 4:3 but the video is stretched). Enter "640 x 480" for "Scaled Size:", then same with "Offset:" Keep "Preserve Aspect Ratio" unchecked, then when finished entering numbers check it (doesn't let you uncheck it which would be best). Check the "High Quality" box if it hasn't already been checked. Close the window, and click "File", and then "Save".
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First, I would do a Search on this forum for "FRAPS." There are several articles with comments on the best workflow and also settings for Import and for Export.
Next, YouTube is trobulesome. First, they re-encode everything and their specs seem to change weekly. It's tough to find out what they want on any given day. I'd go to their site and get the very latest instructions and attempt to duplicate those perfectly, knowing that they might be different tomorrow.
Good luck with this one, and good luck with the FRAPS footage.
Hunt

IChat Video Audio: works with some iMacs not others

I have this strange problem.
I can chat with everyone.
I can video and audio with some but not all.
A person I can video or audio chat with can video and audio chat with our mutual friend.
I cannot video or audio chat with the mutual friend.
All machines are iMacs OS 10.4.10 with latest updates.
There was no problem until 2 weeks ago.
Does anyone have a suggestion as to how to solve this problem?
thank you in advance.

Presuming all have got their System Preferences > Quickitme > Streaming set to 1.5Mbps and restarted IChat then...
Change the way the ports are opened in the routing device
http://www.ralphjohnsuk.dsl.pipex.com/page15.html#CertainBuddy
5:02 PM Thursday; August 23, 2007

Improving iChat Video Quality

Is there anything one can do to improve the video quality on iChat. The image looks great on Yahoo Messenger and Skype but it's really fuzzy, blurry, distorted, pixelated when using iChat.

Hi
First have you set the Quicktime streaming setting, goto sys prefs/quicktime/streaming/streaming speed, set to 1.5mbps
In ichats prefs click on video and change bandwidth limit to 500.
Restart iChat.

IChat video quality better with .Mac subscriber than with AIM?

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