Facetime and external iSight - no sound input

Hi,

Mac Mini

In this thread (listed in my earlier post today in this thread) EZ Jim confirms that for some reason the External iSight does not show up as an Audio Device in the Facte Time menu that deals with selecting Camera and Mic - whether you are using a "good" adapter that works for iChat and Quicktime X.

Laptop (MacBook Pro)

For the Audio in the Laptop it would be best to start a new thread.

3:15 PM Monday; September 26, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi Brendan,

I don't have this file either.

Have you tried a PRAM reset ?

Shut down the computer.Restart it holding down Apple/CMD (or ⌘)+ALT( ⌥)+P+R Keys until you have heard three Start Up Bongs.

Have you tried restarting in SAFE MODE (And then Restarting again when that has finished.)

3:19 PM Monday; September 26, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

At least in the current Version 1.1 (258) of FaceTime, external iSight's Firewire mic is not availaable for use. More info and workaround suggestions are available here:

  http://discussions.apple.com/thread/3342985

As Ralph explains above, although the differnt Firewire 400 ↔ 800 cables or adapters suggested in this thread:

  http://discussions.apple.com/thread/3336905

may help with mic problems in iChat or other apps, they cannot make the present FaceTime version work with external iSight's buil-in mic.

Zapping PRAM made no difference. I also verified that it doesn't matter whether the Mac with the external iSight camera running Facetime v1.1 (258) on Lion (10.7.1) is initiating or receiving the call. Either way, the mic doesn't work in Facetime even though in the Sound preference pane the iSight is listed under Input and the Input level responds appropriately to sounds.

This isn't working for me either. It was working fine before. Is this going to be fixed?

VolleyPaul wrote:

This isn't working for me either. It was working fine before. Is this going to be fixed?

(1) Nobody but Apple knows whether this will be "fixed." I cannot find any  announcement on the subject.

You will not get an official  answer here because those of us posting here are users like you trying to help each other. You are NOT addressing Apple here: http://discussions.apple.com/static/apple/tutorial/tou.html

If you like, you can send feedback directly to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

You will not get a response, but you can be certain that the responsible Apple people will see your input for consideration in FaceTime product development.

(2) You may want to re-scan the entire topic. As explained in several earlier posts , the original beta version of FaceTime that was released under Snow Leopard allowed external iSight's mic to work. However, external iSight's firewire mic is not supported in the Lion versions of the FaceTime app - at least not in versions released to date: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP629

The firewire iSight camera works with Lion's FaceTime, but the iSight's Firewire mic is not available for selection in FaceTime > Video. This seems to be a limitation of the FaceTime app itself rather than the iSight's mic.

The external iSight's mic works in Lion (and earlier Mac OS versions) with other video chat app such as iChat or Skype, but not with Lion's FaceTime. Neither the previous version of FaceTimeVersion 1.1 (258) from OS X 10.7.1 nor the current Version 1.1.1 (262) from OS X 10.7.2 can use external iSight's Firewire mic. I have been able to use ONLY USB connected mics in the Lion version of FaceTime.

Your current options seem to be:

• use a different app,

• use a USB mic, or,

• if your Mac came with an earlier version of Mac OS and

you still have your backups, downgrade from Lion to

Snow Leopard and its version of FaceTime.

Message was edited by: EZ Jim

Jumping in to this thread as well (Hi Ralph!).

I can only confirm what everybody is saying: clearly a limitation of the Lion version of the FaceTime app.There is nothing wrong with the iSight and it does work just fine in other applications (and used to work fine in FT under Snow Leopard).

I filed a “ticket” with Apple. I really hope they will address the issue and bring back support for the iSight FW microphone :-\

Corentin

I have the same problem with my mac pro running the latest version of Lion (at all times) and my 30" Apple display and iSight. This is definitely a glitch with FaceTime that Apple needs to address.

kaz78 wrote:

... a glitch with FaceTime that Apple needs to address.

Send feedback directly to Apple via http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

You will not get a response, but you can be certain that the responsible Apple people will see your input for consideration in FaceTime product development.

Hi Everyone, I too have the same issue as stated a few pages back in this discussion .. But, now i'm starting to believe that Apple have no intentions to sorting this problem... Reason 1, Apple officially discontinued the original isight camera a few years back and stopped selling it on December 16, 2006... Reason 2, .. Facetime for os x 10.7 Lion I think is Facetime HD which the original external isight camera at 1.3 megapixel isn't capable of... it still gives a nice picture and video even being so old by todays standards.Apple did release a firmware update in April 2005 to address audio issues with the microphone. I can't see Apple addressing this issue with a firmware update as I personally thought they would have done so by now, As we are now on 10.7.2 and very soon to be 10.7.3.. We live in hope as it is a great webcam.. For now though, I have put my isight onto my old G4 Quicksilver 867mhz 2001 and purchased a Logitech HD c910 webcam for my Mac Pro, So all isn't lost... needless to say, even though the Logitech HD c910 is a better webcam, the microphone input for it gets displayed as Unknown USB audio device.. But works... I hope Apple sorts the facetime app to work with isight very soon for everyone.

I filed a complaint with Apple and dug up an old iVoice USB microphone which seems to work well enough.

Whilst I agree the external isights are long in the tooth, facetime worked fine with them on snow-leopard.

If lion breaks this, then why not state it, as I for one would have not bothered with the upgrade, at least not until my isight dies!

Hi,

Apple have a history of updating any OS version during it's life time.

Currently we are at OS X 10.7.2

Snow Leopard got to 10.6.8

It is likely that something like this will get picked up in an update soon.

(it may well be all forms of Firewire Audio Input into Face Time)

8:38 PM Wednesday; December 21, 2011

Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

10:7:3 fixes this issue .... Seems like they listened to us

I am having the same issue that has been described earlier, but 10.7.3 didn't fix it. I can connect with facetime, I can see and hear people, people can see me but not hear me. I have iSight checked as the microphone in the video menu. In my sound preferences, sound input is iSight and sound is coming in.

I can always do facetime on my phone or laptop but it would be nice to be able to use my macpro also.