iSight Camera on PowerPC

[InAWhiteRoom]

Hi all,

I have an iSight camera arriving in a few days, and I’m trying to figure out if it can work on a PowerPC Mac with any kind of video calling these days.

I can’t see that FaceTime is likely to be compatible, but any thoughts on in-browser solutions, iChat, or more imaginative workarounds?

I have an iMac G4 running tiger, and some PowerBook G4s running leopard and tiger that I would love to use it with.

Thanks!

 

[eyoungren]

It'll work on a PowerPC Mac. They were designed for PowerPC originally. FW400. Mainly iChat, although when Skype was PowerPC they were used with that.

No way to get Facetime working on PowerPC, it won't even work on Snow Leopard.

 

[InAWhiteRoom]

I’m glad it’ll work as a camera, but yes, I wasn’t really expecting much from FaceTime. What about in-browser video conferencing? (Just typing this out makes me realise how far fetched this probably is on my PowerBook, but I can hope!)

 

[MarkC426]

I will have to try mine, since rejuvenating my PowerBook G4.......
I remember back in the day, I used it with iStopMotion with my PB, which was waaaaaaay before the iOS version.

Even today, it's one of THE smartest looking cameras ever (Johnny Ive I presume).

 

[InAWhiteRoom]

Just to get a little nostalgic for a second… I would love to be able to use iSight as it was advertised, popped on the top of a 12 inch powerbook, video-calling the world.

I was a huge 2001: A Space Odyssey fan as a kid (still am), and the first time I saw this back in what, 2003, the father-daughter call from a spacestation from that movie sprung to mind. It felt like apple was building the future. I guess they did!

 

[eyoungren]

What about in-browser video conferencing? (Just typing this out makes me realise how far fetched this probably is on my PowerBook, but I can hope!)

Well…you're going to need a modern browser that'll handle the API calls. Iceweasel perhaps, IDK?

It'll work if you have a browser that supports all that. I have two iSights and both work on my 2009 Minis and my 2009 Mac Pro (Zoom, Facetime, web browser, etc).

The limitation here is just the PowerPC Mac itself and the software it can use.

 

[MarkC426]

I have two iSights and both work on my 2009 Minis and my 2009 Mac Pro (Zoom, Facetime, web browser, etc).

What MacOS are you using on the cMP with it.....?

 

[eyoungren]

What MacOS are you using on the cMP with it.....?

Mojave.

All you need is a FW400 to 800 adapter. My iSight for the MP is plugged into my Cinema Display and that is plugged into the Mac using the adapter.

They're fairly cheap on eBay.

 

[Slix]

iChat will work locally using Bonjour, or using a compatible server setup for Jabber over the internet (or locally as well). I've used iChat recently across Jabber using the Mac OS X Server configuration on my local home network, but it would be possible to set up a server to access this across the internet as well, should someone do it.

 

[TzunamiOSX]

Mojave.

All you need is a FW400 to 800 adapter. My iSight for the MP is plugged into my Cinema Display and that is plugged into the Mac using the adapter.

They're fairly cheap on eBay.

Also have an iSight on my MacPro 2012 with Mojave. Adapter and all is working. But I have trouble when closing the optic. After opening the optic the system don’t recognize the iSight and I must disconnect it from FireWire and reconnect it again very often.

 

[eyoungren]

Also have an iSight on my MacPro 2012 with Mojave. Adapter and all is working. But I have trouble when closing the optic. After opening the optic the system don’t recognize the iSight and I must disconnect it from FireWire and reconnect it again very often.

Hmmm…I don't have the problem. But, I don't use my iSight that much so maybe I just haven't run into the problem yet.

 

[NewbiePPC]

Sometime ago searching uses for an iSight I found this page and play with that project for a while, in the same page there is a link to the developer xcode documentation, so if you're interested in that you can develop something.

 

[BellSystem]

I ran mine on a MacPro from 2008 or so….Sierra and up the audio/mic didn’t work. No fix was available as of 2020. Not sure if anyone found a work around.

 

[NewbiePPC]

@BellSystem look at this: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/firewire-isight-audio-is-back-for-catalina-and-bs.2272444/ I believe that in Dosdude HS patcher an up to Catalina have implemented the patch, but I thing its posible to do it in Sierra also. I have my iSight in a MacPro 3.1 running DosDude Catalina 100% working and I dont do anything.

Btw can I ask, there is a reason to stay in Sierra?

 

[TzunamiOSX]

Hmmm…I don't have the problem. But, I don't use my iSight that much so maybe I just haven't run into the problem yet.

Did you ever used the objective ring to close the ojective before starting the mac (cold boot with closed ojective, then opening)?

 

[TzunamiOSX]

I ran mine on a MacPro from 2008 or so….Sierra and up the audio/mic didn’t work. No fix was available as of 2020. Not sure if anyone found a work around.

Mic is working well. What firmware is on you iSight?

iSight Unit:
Softwareversion des Geräts: 0x12
Spec-ID des Geräts: 0xA27
Version des Produkts: 1.0.3

 

[B S Magnet]

Semi-topical: realizing that I can use the iSight FW camera on Snow Leopard for PowerPC. In QuickTime, the FPS count isn’t 24fps (more like 16fps), but for a system which relies on the CPU for video software QE/CI, I was still impressed it’s recognized and actually works.

 

[eyoungren]

Did you ever used the objective ring to close the ojective before starting the mac (cold boot with closed ojective, then opening)?

The shutter is always closed. I only open it when I'm going to use Zoom or Facetime. So, the answer to your question would be yes.

My wife wasn't happy when the iSights came in to the house (she's not happy with cams on cellphones). So the shutter being closed all the time is a concession to her. But, my iSights see extremely rare use so I also don't see the need to have them powered on all the time - so the shutter is closed.

 

[eyoungren]

Semi-topical: realizing that I can use the iSight FW camera on Snow Leopard for PowerPC. In QuickTime, the FPS count isn’t 24fps (more like 16fps), but for a system which relies on the CPU for video software QE/CI, I was still impressed it’s recognized and actually works.

I'm guessing this is some sort of problem?

I just plugged both of mine in and they worked.

 

[B S Magnet]

I'm guessing this is some sort of problem?

I just plugged both of mine in and they worked.

View attachment 2024549

Not really a problem, per se, just a feature of the incomplete nature of the OS on an architecture whose optimizations were never given their due. Again, I’m not complaining. I’m quite impressed the iSight FW camera works as well as it does on SL-PPC on the PowerBook. I’d be interested to learn how well an iSight FW connected to a PCIe G5 running SL-PPC, with hardware GPU support, would handle 24 or 30 FPS capture/display.

 

[InAWhiteRoom]

I can use the iSight FW camera on Snow Leopard for PowerPC

So apparently (according to the Skype website when I try to access it on leopard) Skype works in-browser on snow leopard - which means that maybe PowerPC SL is the way forward!

 

[davisdelo]

I’d be interested to learn how well an iSight FW connected to a PCIe G5 running SL-PPC, with hardware GPU support, would handle 24 or 30 FPS capture/display.

I have something close here from my iSight on Sorbet Leopard:

Quicktime Test it's an iWeb site btw, might want to use Safari/WebKit.

 

[B S Magnet]

I have something close here from my iSight on Sorbet Leopard:

Quicktime Test it's an iWeb site btw, might want to use Safari/WebKit.

Unfortunately, Sorbet Leopard and SL-PPC are two entirely different, major-number kernel versions (9.8.0, versus 10.0.0dx), and the conditions within each are not meaningfully analogous here. What works on Sorbet Leopard is more likely to work with garden-variety 10.5.8 (which is exactly what Sorbet Leopard is), but may or may not work on SL-PPC. As video hardware support goes, the rules of Leopard do not apply to Snow Leopard.

 

[mectojic]

iChat will work locally using Bonjour, or using a compatible server setup for Jabber over the internet (or locally as well). I've used iChat recently across Jabber using the Mac OS X Server configuration on my local home network, but it would be possible to set up a server to access this across the internet as well, should someone do it.

Can we work this out?

 

[B S Magnet]

Can we work this out?

I dredged up a dead thread earlier in the week asking whether anyone was aware of a jabber server which can build on PowerPC Macs. I wanted to set up a test XMPP/Jabber server on my G5 (and use dynamic DNS routing from my domain host) to evaluate usability and feature support (such as audio and/or video), particularly on older clients like iChat and Adium.

I’m aware of scattered XMPP instances (servers) out there. It’s tough to determine which of these will play nicely with older XMPP protocols. I tried one from the list, as I once signed up to it some years ago. I couldn’t get either Adium or iChat to log in successfully.

There probably are a few XMPP servers out there (including on that online list) with backward-compatible support for older clients, but it seems XMPP, as a protocol, is going the way of email in recent years: many more security kludges (like 2FA, OAuth, or minumium requirements of TLS 1.3) and proprietary front-ends which make using long-reliable clients impractical, if not functionally impossible.

Which is why I wanted to try my hand with it, using my G5 as the test server.