New iSight to pack audio improvements?
A revision to Apple Computer's iSight web cam will deliver improvements to its noise suppressing microphone, tipsters claim. The update version, which has already begun to make its way to Apple stores and authorized resellers, is referenced by manufacturers part number M8817LL/C. It's unclear precisely what improvements were made to the cam's hardware and software, but the changes should correct problems where the microphone would randomly fail to respond. This is just the second revision to Apple's iSight since it was introduced nearly two years ago. Owners of the two previous versions had complained about the microphone's inconsistent behavior, where the only known fix was to unplug and then re-plug in the iSight to regain audio functionality.
Comments
Originally posted by TednDi
I am waiting until they get the frame rate up. Can't stand the 30 fps frame rate. When they get it to 60fps and above than I am in.
???
Since the threshold of human vision is right in that 30fps range... why?
(Note: this applies to about 97% of the population. 1.5% can perceive up to about 42-45fps, 1.5% top out at about 22.)
No user study that I've ever run across has supported the assertion that faster frame rates above ~30fps are even *perceptible* to any but a tiny segment of the population. Maybe you're in that though. *shrug*
The 60fps myth came about from dual scan systems that interleaved 1/2 frames. 60fps * .5f = 30fps.
Now *refresh* rate can matter quite a bit below around 70Hz, but that's not fps.
When you get into things like gaming, it turns out that the high fps rates are due to two things:
1) If you don't get the framerate matched precisely with the refresh rate of the display, you can end up with a bit of perceptible choppiness below some fps level. You have to jack up the fps to compensate, since analog displays have issues with syncing to what the GPU is generating. (No, not what the sync signal is on the input, but the actual generated fps.) CRTs have the most problem with this, but the phosphor fade-out time blurs the images enough that it ends up being about the same effect as an LCD with digital input, where the sync is *very* good, but the extremely fast 'off' of the pixels means that any artifacts *will* be visible. Guess what the magic number is for absolutely minimizing this? 60fps. But we *perceive* it as 30fps because the other factors are reducing the effectiveness. In a *perfect* setup, 30fps is the magic number.
A 'perfect' setup would have the image generation (or capture), video signal, and display all meshed in sync. Well, that's what you have in the iSight, DVI and digital display. (Laptops get this for free.) Sweet, eh?
2) Placebo. Yup, it's all in their heads. It's a bragging right, like what the top speed is of your hot rod (that you actually never get up to, and does you zero good 99.99% of the time.) That's all.
A 60fps iSight wouldn't do anything above doubling the data that the CPU would have to deal with. Yeah, you could probably get into some neat tricks with effects that way to play with perceptual artifacts, but as a practical matter? Naw, not going to help.
Put it this way: can you watch TV without seeing a constant flicker? Then you're smack in the middle of the bell curve, and 30fps is all you're *ever* going to be able to detect.
I say buy the sucker.
1. As Kickaha states, you're talking about interleaved video.
2. You're talking games which vary the fps depending on load.
If the iSight does 30fps constant then I say buy it TednDi. There's no need to go any higher.
Originally posted by TednDi
I am waiting until they get the frame rate up. Can't stand the 30 fps frame rate. When they get it to 60fps and above than I am in.
Consider that standard TV frame rates are 30 fps (NTSC) and 25 fps (PAL/SECAM), and that the standard motion picture film frame rate is only 24 fps.
By the way, the frame rate is amazing, but I CAN tell when it gets slow sometimes. But then again I do have really good sight.
Just bought the M8817DD/8 a week ago, just feel I have been abused
I know now why there was a special offer at 149 Euro.
The people from the shop did not told me why !
Shame on this French shop " LA FNAC "
Best
Cyril
"Cyril, iSoght went down to 149.- a LONG time ago, since spring 2004 - that wasn´t a special offer from FNAC."
(Hint: Please use english
Originally posted by I Thrash Therefore I Am
By the way, the frame rate is amazing, but I CAN tell when it gets slow sometimes. But then again I do have really good sight.
Yup, sometimes I can see it too, but since it's 'sometimes', and it is actually visible, it's not the camera suddenly slowing down, it's the host computer getting bogged down with a busy CPU.
The best thing Apple could do IMO, is give us control of the iSight; Focus(#1), light sensitivity, color balance, etc.
I got one when they came out, then got one for my pop. Can't really say it's cost effective, but video chats are easier and cheaper than a thousand mile trip for a face-to-face. I'm hoping Tiger and H.264 make a big improvement in quality.
Z
Let us acknowledge that we are talking about video frames per second, not 3d-rendered-scene frames per second.
Video includes motion blur while games do not. Hence, gamers can bennefit from higher frame rates while captured video is generally fine at much lower frame rates.
Given the response time of the sensors in the iSight, 30fps seems to work out nicely. My brain/eyes perceive it as perfectly fluid.
*whew*
EDIT: So I'm not insane, others have problems with the mic dissappearing too. For me, the problem only requires restarting iChat.
With the availability of cell phone cameras being able to take video, I'm surprised the powerbooks don't include a little camera.
Originally posted by Danosaur
I might consider buying one if it could flip around on my laptop and record lectures.
With the availability of cell phone cameras being able to take video, I'm surprised the powerbooks don't include a little camera.
Ummm, you can, thats actually what I do. just use the mount backwards, it works perfectly.