IChat AV 3 works for me

Question

Hi 3 Chatters --
I decided to post this in the clear rather than posting it separately to several of you who are reporting problems others have reported to me in several (approximately 10) multi-party test chats in which I have participated since installing Tiger on Friday evening. I plan to update it below as merited.
Day 1: By Saturday evening I had learned the following:
1) I have now connected with a G4 and BOTH of us were getting 30 fps. Unable to determine why this ONE is faster than the 15 fps numbers I was getting immediately after upgrading to Tiger, but 30 fps is not NOW limited to G5s with me.
2) Have now connected with a G4 experiencing low (1 fps) frame rates and low bandwidth (15 Kbps). Turning off Virex helped, but still left numbers of 1 fps and 30 Kbps. Permissions Repair, Reinstall Tiger by Archive & Install, and another Permission Repair FIXED the problem. 20 fps and 350 Kbps with me now.
3) My QuickTime Streaming speed was unchanged by the update, and has not posed a problem for my end.
4) Have now tested with multiple party videos and conclude that, at my available bandwidth, approximately 450 Kbps as reported by Connection Doctor, adding the 4th party degrades video quality (fuzzy) more than adding numbers 2 and 3.However, all participants in the multi-party conferences agree it is a WOW !
5) Have chatted with two buddies who did permissions repair, updated, and then repaired permissions again. Both said the upgrade went smoothly.
6) Have chatted with several who had problems getting iChat AV 3 going after using the standard "Update" method to install Tiger without any additional OS X maintenance. Some got going again by doing Permissions Repair after iChat AV 3 failed to launch or connect. Others had to repair permissions, reinstall Tiger using A & I and then repair permissions again to get it working. I do not know whether anything less labor intensive would have corrected, but that seems to have done the trick for those with whom I have chatted.
I used the following method.
a) Backed up my data (on my Panther 10.3.9 Mac)
b) Repaired Permissions
c) Repaired the Hard Disk
d) Forced the Chrons
e) Repaired Permissions
f) Inserted the Tiger DVD and used the standard, easy, fast, 2-Step Upgrade
g) Repaired permissions
h) Restarted my Mac
i) Launched iChat AV 3 and it worked.
Connection Doctor frame and bit rates are still somewhat slower for me than the were in 2.1, but I am getting better rates today than I got when I first upgraded last night. Unexplained as to why.
I later found that I had to reinstall my printer drivers, but iChat AV 3 worked from the beginning.
From the above, I conclude that one should perform OS X maintenance and repair permissions
b before AND after
using the "Update" method to install Tiger. If you do not want to do those steps, I suggest the A & I method instead of Update.

Answer 1

Day 6 Status: Thursday
15. More chats from around the world reveal that iChat AV 3 seems to be a power user's app. (No surprise after reading Apples Mac OS X 10.4: iChat AV system requirements, I suppose.)
Some users who could not connect to me via video (even one on one) have still not been able to connect with me. Most of these users are afflicted with the "insufficient bandwidth" problem (14.) mentioned above. Sadly, I have no new info for them. Happily, Mountan Mac (see post above) and the others posting there are offering all the help that is available for those of you effected.
However, some other users who could not connect to me via video (even one on one) could do so after quitting iChat AV 3 and launching it again. Most of these users had included iChat AV 3 in "Login Items" in System Preferences > Accounts. When they removed iChat AV 3 from Login Items, restarted their Macs, and manually launched iChat AV 3, they had no trouble getting video connection on the first try. This seems more prevalent on G4 users, but happened once or twice even on single processor G5s.
Moreover, some iChat AV 3 users who
b could
connect via one on one video, but whose camera icon was flat (as opposed to iChat AV 3's new "stacked / shadowed" icon) could, therefore, not be included in multi-party conferences. After quitting iChat AV 3 and launching it again, their multi-party icons and multi-party conference capability returned.
Some of these users, too, had included iChat AV 3 in "Login Items" in System Preferences > Accounts and got improved results by deleting their iChat AV 3 Login Item. Some others, however, particularly some dual processor G5 users who encountered this issue, were running
b several
(up to seven) applications while trying to do iChat AV 3 video conferencing! Closing the other (not iChat AV 3) applications did NOT remedy the problem. However, when they closed the other apps, quit iChat AV 3, and relaunched it, the problem went away.
From this testing experience, it appears to me that iChat AV 3 makes decisions about whether and how much video chat power is available
b when it launches.
It apparently does not change until iChat AV 3 is launched again.
To give iChat your processor's maximum capability, I suggest that you:
15.1 - Do NOT include iChat AV 3 as a Login Item, and
15.2 - Close other apps BEFORE launching iChat AV 3
I have not actually tested this, but a couple of people have asked about making video recordings of their multi-party chats using iChatRecorder or SnapZ Pro.
(Trying to use QuickTime 7 Pro to record iChat AV 3 results in a "Camera in use by another application" error in iChat AV 3.)
I have not hear back any reports (positive or negative) yet, but this, too, would seem to me to be a substantial load on your processor .
15.3 - If you try recording an iChat AV 3 video session, be sure to test to see whether your Mac has enough processing power to run the recorder app and iChat AV 3 simultaneously.
Please post back and tell us whether recording the session works for you.