Cheap FireWire webcam for iChat AV
Is there anything cheaper then iSight out there? Also how good do USB cams work with iChatAV with the hack for them? I am on a budget and I don't want to have to try to bum a dv camcorder out of people all next year! I am thinking $60 or less. Even iBot is expensive and it does not even have a mic.
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It does work with iChatAV (using the USB/under 600Mhz hack), but as previously stated, the quality is pretty lame (slow, delayed and blurry movements) likely due the slow speed of USB. BUT, it does work, and it's basically free.
BTW i haven't actually chatted with anyone using it, but i can see myself in the "test" window in ichat on my computer, so it should work.
regarding the mic, i think the TiBook has a built in mic (because when i talk, i can see the decibel bars moving up and down in the iChatAV window). The logitech webcam doesn't have a mic.
http://canondv.com/gl2/f_ieee1394.html
Sure, it's a little out of your price range, but it works GREAT! (the only problem I have is that it doesn't like to stay on if I don't have a tape in it and recording...
Apple likely chose firewire because it is the better technology, can supply adequate bus power and doesn't need a host controller on the computer. I'd be surprised if the stream delivered by iSight over iChat AV is much more than 250Kbps, let alone the limits of USB bandwidth. If the iSight delivers better picture it has to do purely with the camera's internals and design and nothing to do with the bus. The same quality and more is possible over plain old USB.
If USB cameras have not supported particularly great feeds until now, then it has to do with the way they were built (CHEAP), and that they were the first salvos in the area.
Kinda like MP3 players, people were doing them, Apple came along and did them better, same here, but the quality has nothing to do with the bus, only the one plug convenience.
USB IS NOT the limitation. IF USB cameras have sucked ass untill this point there are only two reasons. 1.) they were cheaply made, and 2.) the compression algorthyms weren't up to snuff. Apple didn't just use better components, they've most likely used better algorthyms (QT/MPEG4, vs the MPEG-1 of older cameras) That's all. Inasmuch as capture and decode are done in the camera itself, USB is just as good as firewire since the data rates needed for real time chat are well below the maximum bandwidth of even USB 1.1
Also, the mac has two independent USB buses, a camera would be absolutely fine running over USB. There are cheap USB based TV tuner products that deliver 352x288 MPEG1 streams to your desktop. This is a cheap solution and it has completely to do with the MPEG1 encoding, NOT the USB bus. MPEG2 could deliver 704x500@30fps within 9.6Mbps. Cutting it close, but possible. MPEG4 could get that down to about to about 500-600K, well within capability.
Again, this is moot, since a live-chat stream would be an even lower bit rate, but just to drive home the point: There are USB based audio encoder/decoder products that support DVD-A. That's 9.6Mbps of multichannel audio data that travels over the USB bus without a hitch. Granted, it probably isn't wise to run something like a sonica theatre with any other peripherals on the same bus, but since Apple gives you two independent buses, you can easily put such a device on one bua and your keyboard/mouse/card readers on the other bus.
Ironically, firewire has the advantage if/when you want to capture data on the device and encode it on the mac (then the data rate would be VERY high and USB is not an option.) If you wanted to make a really cheap device you could do it, but it would place heavy demands on the CPU.
I heard that everything happens in the iSight device and a ready stream comes off it. But, there is that 600Mhz requirement, probably it refers only to the broadcast and recieve element of the iChat AV software.
period.