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Video Chat with up to Three Other People
To video chat, of course you must have a video camera attached to your Mac. You can use Apple's cute little iSight camera, which costs about $150, or you can attach any FireWire video camera to your Mac.
With whom can you video conference?
A video conference with more than one person takes a powerful Mac and a good broadband connection; please see the specs on page 348. If you are able to participate in a video conference with more than one person, the camera icon in your Buddy name shows multiple cameras. If someone in your Buddy List is able to participate, she shows multiple cameras, as well. And it takes the most powerful Mac to initiate a video conference with up to four people.In my home office we've got three desktop Macs and two laptops; in the Mary Sidney Society office across the hall is another tower; and upstairs in my library is a lovely iMac. Of these seven Macs, only two of them (the G5 desktop and the G4 PowerBook) are capable of video-conferencing with more than two people, and only the G5 can initiate it. Sigh.
Open a video chat and invite others to join you
To initiate a video conference with more than one other person, you need a more powerful machine than you do to join a video conference. See the specifications on page 348.
| 1. | Single-click on a Buddy name that shows multiple video camera icons. That person will get a message on her screen inviting her to a video chat. When she clicks the "Accept" button, she will appear in your video window, as shown below. |
| 2. | To add two more people to your video conference, click the + sign; a menu drops down with the names of the people in your Buddy List who are capable of joining you. Too bad I can't show you what it looks like it's really beautiful. |
iChat AV preferences
You can make some minor adjustments in the video pane of the iChat preferences. You might try changing the "Bandwidth Limit" to see if it affects your video chat one way or another. Depending on your Internet connection and how many other people use it, a different setting can work better (or worse).
Requirements for 1-to-1 video chat
| Minimum: | 600 MHz G3, any G4, any G5 running OS X |
| 100 Kbps Internet connection, both ways |
Minimum requirements for 4-way video conference
To initiate a 4-way video chat, this is what you need:
| Minimum: | Dual 1 GHz G4 or any G5 running Tiger384 Kbps Internet connection, both ways |
| Better: | Dual 1 GHz G4, 1.8 GHz G5 running Tiger600 Kbps Internet connection, both ways |
| Best: | Dual 2 GHz G5 running Tiger 1500 Kbps Internet connection, both ways |
| Minimum: | 1 GHz G4, or a dual 800 MHz G4, or any G5 running Tiger 100 Kbps Internet connection, both ways |
| Better: | 1 GHz G4, or a dual 800 MHz G4, or any G5 running Tiger 200 Kbps Internet connection, both ways |
| Best: | Any G5 running Tiger 500 Kbps Internet connection, both ways |
