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This article contains the ReadMe file for Apple VideoPhone.
DISCUSSION About Apple VideoPhone 1.5.1 ============================ Apple VideoPhone is a new program for Power Macintosh computers that allows you to audio conference with any CoolTalk user on the Internet, whether they are using a Power Macintosh computer, or other platforms supported by Netscape CoolTalk. Apple VideoPhone takes advantage of Apple's QuickTime Conferencing technology and the built-in sound capabilities of Power Macintosh computers. Apple VideoPhone also allows you to conference using live video in addition to audio with other Power Macintosh computers using the MovieTalk protocol. In this mode you can also conference with multiple parties. Farallon Timbuktu Pro is a program that can be used with Apple VideoPhone to allow users to share applications in real time while conferencing. Hardware Requirements ===================== * Performa 5400 or 6400 series Power Macintosh 6100, 7100, 7500, 7600, 8100, 8500, or 8600 series (except the Power Macintosh 8100/110). AV capability is needed to send video.) * 16 megabytes of RAM * PlainTalk microphone * Access to a TCP/IP based network * A video source such as the QuickTime Conferencing Camera 100 (optional) * External speakers (optional) Note: If using Apple VideoPhone in conjunction with Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later, it is recommended that you have at least 24 megabytes of RAM. Software Requirements ===================== * System 7.5.3 or later (System 7.5.5 strongly recommended) * QuickTime 2.5 * OpenTransport 1.1.1 or later Installation Tips ================= The Apple VideoPhone installer checks for the correct versions of System Software, QuickTime and OpenTransport before it allows installation of Apple VideoPhone. Important Information About Version 1.5.1 of Apple VideoPhone ============================================================= * You will see warnings if you are trying to install Apple VideoPhone 1.5.1 on a computer that already has a 1.0.x, 1.1 or 1.4 version of QuickTime Conferencing installed. Apple VideoPhone 1.5.1 is not designed to support the QuickTime Conferencing H.320/ISDN Card. If you still wish to install Apple VideoPhone on a computer with the QuickTime Conferencing H.320/ISDN Card installed, you must remove the "QTCSound" file from the Extensions folder inside your System Folder before proceeding with the install.Previous versions of Apple Media Conference or Connectix VideoPhone may not function optimally after installing Apple VideoPhone 1.5.1. * You may experience a problem with some Internet Service Providers (ISP) where your modem connection is periodically dropped.The symptoms of this are that audio and video stops updating, but the application does not close. If this occurs, it is best to quit Apple VideoPhone, disconnect from the ISP, reset your modem, reset your PPP connection, and then relaunch Apple VideoPhone. * You may notice that Apple VideoPhone automatically redials your ISP a few minutes after the ISP has dropped your modem connection. This is normal if you have configured your Apple VideoPhone preferences to register you on a 411 Directory Server. Apple VideoPhone periodically tries to contact the server, and will try to re-establish the ISP connection if it was closed while the Apple VideoPhone was launched. Unfortunately, you will not be able to make or receive calls once an ISP connection has dropped until you have followed the steps in the paragraph above. To avoid unattended ISP connections, it is best to quit the Apple VideoPhone application before disconnecting from an ISP. * Using CoolTalk with the RT24 audio compressor is not recommended between two machines connected via ethernet unless they have a router between them.In some cases, users may experience problems resulting from heavy usage in this configuration. Connecting via Internet link (either modem or direct connection) is not a problem. * Apple VideoPhone is designed to work with MacPPP 2.5.1.Users of other versions of PPP, including MacPPP 2.5 (included with OpenTransport 1.1.1 in the Extras Folder), FreePPP and OT-PPP may experience problems unless they make sure that MacPPP 2.5.1 is selected in the TCP/IP Control Panel before dialing an ISP to use Apple VideoPhone. Special Information for Power Macintosh 7300, 7600, 8600 and 9600 computers Apple VideoPhone Lite 1.5.1 installs compression software and extensions that are specifically for video conferencing. If you wish to use other applications that capture video (such as Adobe Premiere or Avid Cinema) use an extension manager to temporarily disable the extensions or follow the instructions below: 1) Open the Extensions Folder within your System Folder. 2) Select the following files: - Apple GSM Codec 1.0 - H.261 1.0.4 PowerMac - H.263 1.0.3 PowerMac - QTCComponentDV 2.0 3) Drag them out of the Extension folder and save in a folder outside of the System Folder. 4) Restart. 5) You are now ready to capture video in another application. 6) To use Apple VideoPhone again, place these extensions back into the Extensions folder and restart your computer. Setup ===== The Apple VideoPhone installer creates a new folder on your hard drive called "Apple VideoPhone."Look inside this folder for the Apple VideoPhone application icon. * If using externally powered speakers, it is recommended that you use RCA-style connectors to connect to the left and right audio (the ones marked CD) on the back of the speakers, not to the Audio-in port (the stereo miniplug marked with the Mac icon). This will avoid a problem where low-level audio is cut off. * The preferences file is now located in the Preferences folder inside the System Folder, in a folder called "Apple VideoPhone." If you have installed over a previous version of Apple VideoPhone, consider copying your old preferences file out of the application folder into this new folder. Most of your preferences will be retained if you do this. * Connectix Color QuickCam users may experience problems when taking snapshots.Download the "Color QuickCam 2.1a Updater" from the Connectix web site. * Apple VideoPhone is not intended for use on a computer running router software. Launching ========= * Do not try to launch this version of Apple VideoPhone with less than 3.5 megabytes of available RAM. * If you wish to transmit a picture of yourself, copy a snapshot into a graphics editor and save it as a PICT file. * If your preferences are configured to connect to a 411 Directory Server which is unavailable because you don't have access, the server is not running or the server already has the maximum number of connected users, you may receive an error -7974 on launch. If this happens, try launching again.To select another server, it is best to select the server in the preferences dialog, quit the application and relaunch. The 411 Directory Server at live.netscape.com is often busy. Note: If your ISP assigns a different IP address every time you connect (dynamic addressing) you will need to notify parties of your current IP address before they can call you. Your IP address appears in your TCP/IP Control Panel.In some cases, the address may not update until you actually use an IP service, such as trying to place a CoolTalk call. The 411 Directory Server tries to alleviate the limitations of dynamic addressing.If available, static addressing is preferable. * Apple VideoPhone checks for an available TCP/IP network.Before you launch Apple VideoPhone, you must configure and activate your TCP/IP Control Panel. If you have a direct Internet connection consult with your network administrator to make sure you have the correct IP address, subnet mask and domain name service information. If you are using a modem or ISDN terminal device, configure your TCP/IP to dial your Internet access account via PPP.Apple VideoPhone will initiate the call on launch if PPP is configured correctly. * Before you launch Apple VideoPhone, it is recommended that you turn off Virtual Memory (VM) in the Memory Control Panel.VM is NOT recommended for use with any QuickTime application using real time video. On certain Macintosh computers you will not be able to send video unless you turn off virtual memory. * You may notice that application memory isn't being released promptly after you quit Apple VideoPhone. If this is a problem uncheck the "Load only when needed" checkbox in the options dialog in the TCP/IP Control Panel. Connecting ========== * You must allow enough time for a complete disconnection before you try to connect again. Apple VideoPhone currently requires several seconds to completely disconnect from a conference. If you try to connect (or someone tries to connect to you) before you have completely disconnected, you may experience problems. It is best to wait at least 10 seconds between connections. * Multiparty conferences and maximum sized (2X) video windows require more memory to function well. If you plan to use these features, increase the Memory Requirements Preferred size by at least 1000k per additional party and relaunch the Apple VideoPhone. To edit Memory Requirements do the following: - quit Apple VideoPhone (if launched) - go to the Finder - select the Apple VideoPhone icon by clicking on it once - select "Get Info" in the "File" menu - increase the value in the "Preferred size" box by the required amount - close the Get Info window - launch Apple VideoPhone * You may experience problems calling a person to whom you are already connected. * Auto answer doesn't work with Apple VideoPhone in the background and Movie Player running in Presentation mode. * It is possible to access Netscape's 411 Directory Server from a web page. The URL is http://live.netscape.com/ . The first time you use it, you will be asked by Navigator to pick an application to launch.Be sure to select Apple VideoPhone. You will experience difficulty if you select the Conferencing Helper Application included with Apple VideoPhone. For more information about the proper use of the Conferencing Helper Application, see "Using Conferencing Helper Application" section later in this document. Audio ===== * If you are using CoolTalk settings to audio conference, and you see a dialog box notifying you that you don't have the correct type of audio compressors, you can download the audio compressor from Netscape's FTP site at: ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/cooltalk/mac/netscapeGSMCodecInstaller.hqx * When conferencing with a CoolTalk user on a PC, you may find that you cannot hear audio sent by the PC. Some PC sound cards do not support full-duplex sound. Try clicking on the "Hold" button on the Mac side when you want to hear audio from the PC. This will temporarily block the Mac from sending sound.You will have to deselect "Hold" on the Mac when you want to talk. You can also try adjusting the silence sensor in the sound level meter. Asymmetric connections, where one computer is connected to a relatively fast network and the other computer is using a 28.8 modem connection may experience the same problem. * Full-duplex audio is not supported on the Performa 6320. You will not be able to talk and listen at the same time. Video ===== * When using the H.263 video compressor, you will not be able to resize your self-view window to the largest (2X) size. * Apple VideoPhone does not run well on multiple monitor configurations. For best results, arrange all Apple VideoPhone video windows on the monitor that is connected to the AV subsystem of your computer. * Apple VideoPhone may not run properly in videoconferencing mode if launched when Apple Video Player is already running, or if the 1.0 extensions for the Avid Cinema Card are enabled. Quitting Apple Video Player and/or temporarily disabling the Avid Cinema extensions will enhance the video performance of Apple VideoPhone. Collaboration ============= * Video windows within the Timbuktu Pro window will not update unless you select the Timbuktu Pro preference to bypass QuickDraw, however, this will increase network traffic and may have an undesirable effect on video quality. * Some applications will run very slowly over a Timbuktu Pro connection. Using Conferencing Helper Application ===================================== The Apple VideoPhone installer places the Conferencing Helper Application inside a folder called "Extras" in the Apple VideoPhone folder. The Conferencing Helper Application can be used to enable Apple VideoPhone to be launched as a helper application from a web page. Netscape Navigator 2.0 or later is pre-configured to recognize the QuickTime Conferencing mime type. Additionally, it is recommended that you configure the Macintosh Easy Open control panel by disabling "Always show dialog box" and enabling "Auto pick if only one choice." QuickTime Conferencing and Firewalls ==================================== At those sites with Internet firewalls such as corporations, universities or other large institutions it may be necessary to configure the firewall so that QuickTime Conferencing applications can use certain features. This is typically not a problem for Internet Service Providers. Contact your network administrator to send the following information. * To allow MovieTalk calls to be sent and received at an Internet site, allow outgoing and incoming TCP traffic on port 458. * To allow MovieTalk media streams to flow outwards through the firewall, allow outgoing UDP traffic with static port 458 and with dynamic port values greater than or equal to 7000. * To allow MovieTalk media streams to flow in through the firewall, allow incoming UDP traffic with static port 458 and with dynamic port values greater than or equal to 7000. * To allow CoolTalk to access the 411 Directory Services, allow incoming TCP traffic on port 6499. * To allow CoolTalk calls to be sent and received at an Internet site, permit outgoing and incoming TCP traffic on port 6500. * To allow CoolTalk audio streams to flow in through the firewall, allow incoming UDP traffic with a static port of 13000. |
| Document Information | |
| Product Area: | Apple Software |
| Category: | ApplePhone |
| Sub Category: | General Topics |
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