Video goes gold
Skype for Mac 2.0 goes gold today, which means that we’ve tested it, you’ve tested it and we all agree that it does a pretty good job. Download it now and video call your friends, family, colleagues or anyone else you’d like to see face to face. Remember not only does it work with other Mac users but it also works with Windows users too. That means even more people for you to video call with.
We’ve improved the video quality and made changes so that video calling can now work on older systems allowing more of our Mac community can use it.
Thanks for all your feedback and help to improve the quality of video throughout the beta. A lot of you have sent in your stories on how you’re using Mac 2.0 to get face to face with far flung friends and relatives and we’re delighted we can help to bring you all closer together. Many of you also told us that you’re using video calls with business colleagues across the globe or to see your family back home when you’re away with work. If you have any more stories you’d like to share with us please email them to stories@skype.net.
Download Skype 2.0 for Mac here and let us know what you think.
Great! I’ll try it out now and post back with any glaring issues. Looking forward to SMS. How is that coming? Keep up the hard work!
Thank you very much for making this wonderful program available to the Mac community. I would like to know if we will ever see the possibility to send SMS via Skype to the family.
Tahnk you very much from my heart,
Ivan O.
DEAR SKYPE: THE CHANGE OF THE VIDEO RESOLUTION IS TERRIBLE! I only see blocks with my digital camera connected via firewire to my Macintosh!. This is terrible because until version 2.0.0.3 I was sending to my friends pristine video quality. Since now, the video quality is 50% less that what we considered normal.
PLEASE ADD THE POSSIBILITY TO DE-ACTIVATE this terrible change in video quality!. It´s terrible!.
Looks like a cheap PC from the 90´s.
No video for me — as yet! I’ve installed Skype 2.0 on my iMac with a built-in iSIght webcam. But Skype prefs tell me there’s no webcam… Skype Help advices me to check video settings on the Tools menu — but on my Mac, there’s no Tools menu? I’m puzzled!
I had no problems with cpu usage using Skype video preview. Video quality is really disappointing! Come on! I mean please do not try to tell me that my latest series DC G5 Powermac is unable to handle this task! At least please make it possible to CHOOSE! This way video quality is far more inferior compared to what iChat can deliver on the same hardware. Excuse me for my mistakes since I am Hungarian, not a native English speaker.
IMPORTANT: iSight and iChat/Skype 2
I have been testing out Skype 2, and when running both iChat and Skype (which I do all day everyday), they both compete for the iSight, and at least on my iBook, cause such an issue that the computer must be reboot to recogonize the iSight again (both programs think it is being by another app, even when the other had been quit).
The solution is very simple. In both iChat and Skype 2 you can disable the video. Doing this in either app will allow you to use the iSight in the other. Just disable it in one or both of the appps before connecting the iSight (or before running both apps simultaneusly).
Hey, use the “let us know” link, and be constructive
I’m very sad. Skype 2.0.0.3 video quality is better. Please, put an HIGH definition video checkbox to be G4 aware, but let ours G5s to work.
Thanks.
Great that you’re getting it to gold status.
I haven’t tried it for vid-calling yet. Cool that my computer might struggle less now than it did, but too bad for those experiencing worse quality than their systems can handle. :/ Anyways, hoping I might be able to fullscreen my vidcalls now, without the program halting.
(G4 700MHz, 640MB RAM)
What is the point of “improving” your video codecs if the vast majority of Mac users now have to use video reminiscent of QuickTime 1.0? What is the point of “being constructive” (as the condescending comment informs us to do) if you are being destructive w.r.t. video quality on perfectly capable G5 Macs by making the overly simplistic division of PowerPC Macs and Intel Macs?
This change, made so “…more of our Mac community can use it…” smells like a quick ‘n dirty hack to solve performance issues on lower-end Macs. Like others said, a preference to toggle this behaviour would have made it a lot more tolerable. A reasonable explanation of the decision to cripple _ALL_ non-Intel Macs would help as well. But you provide neither and then ironically call this crippling update the Gold version.
Nice job, Skype. Great PR.
Please fix the “dash bug”! Adding a user whose skype name ends with a dash (for instance: “foobar-”) doesn’t work, it adds the user without the dash!
Reduced CPU load or no, the video quality and overall video conferencing experience I receive when connected to a 1.2 GHz G4 is noticeably inferior.
I can’t understand why you are rewarding low-end users at the expense of higher-end users. I agree that there should be some sort of option if you are going to make this change permanent.
Skype 2.0 for Mac goes Gold – I would say: it goes more fool’s gold than real gold. I am using an iMac G5 2.1 and I had (like the other comments above) no performance problem with the video in the beta.
With this video resolution in your so called “Gold Version” I am afraid to call my Skype friends, who are using PCs. Their “schadenfreude” will be too much to bear with…what a shame for the skype using Mac community!!!
I won’t be upgrading until the video resolution is at least as good as beta version. I will stick with the beta version. Come on skype you gave us video but at the same time have reduced its quality.
Please at least give the option to enable or disable the new resolution so we may decide how much CPU load we want to give to skype.
Hope it is fixed with the update soon.
This sounds like a downgrade from the Beta version, I haven’t tried it yet but with such comments who dares to upgrade? Gold or not I’m quite happy with beta version until further notice.
I thought i’m not going to upgrade, but i did and now i’m back to Beta, but I’m sure that Skype team will fix this problem very soon. Good luck
Hi skype Team I have a question. What are you doing with the video quality ??? I have invest a lot of money in my isight and enjoy the great quality of skype with video for mac until now. But what happens ? The video quality in the new Version 2.0.0.6 is absolute TERRIBLE ! I have use the beta with my ibook G4 1,2 and have no problems with performance! Pleas give us a possibility to chose the resolution !!!!!!
Skype Team.. I have an Intel processor on my MBP and an iMacG5 at home so I use this “Gold” version with my MBP and kept the Beta 2.0.0.3 for tha G5 but why you did not give us the option to choose resolution!
Anyway, what bothers me most is that Skype is definitively unusable without the use of headsets on each side, unlike iChat that has superb echo cancellation.. so I’ll keep using iChat except when I have to talk to windows users unless you introduce a quality version of Skype…
Don´t get me wrong guys, I appreciate the effort and it’s free but an imporvement in those areas would be further appreciated…
no video for me. My webcam is a genius videocam eye that supports mac os X, but i had already installed it on my ibook and skype desn’t see it! i didn’t find a answer for my problem at skypehelp. please, help me, i would like to talk with my relatives on video too. juliana
I regret I am anable to use the skype viedo chat yet. I have iMac also iChat yet cannot use it. Can someone help me please. siva
Well, there you Skype, read all the above comments, read and weep. You’ve held a carrot on a stick in front of our faces long enough to make a donkey cry, and with the beta version you got us really eager to know what was coming.
What a great dissapointment that you changed the video resolution for the worse.
I do hope that you take the advice from us Mac users and put the resolution up, or make it a toggle switch in the preferences.
well, the video resolution might be worse than before (beta version), that’s clear, but sincerely i appreciated very much the great work that our friends at skype have done for us mac users. now, we all know that nothing can be perfect since it’s made by human beings, who are not perfect for first. i’m waiting, like you guys, for some further changes in the new skype 2.0 for mac that will improve the video quality, but for now i’m gonna enjoy the new possibility to videocall for free with my mac. it doesn’t crash like the beta, it doesn’t have video bugs, it looks good and it’s simple: let’s not complan all of the time and have faith! little by little it’ll get better! just remember that it is for free… what do you want more?!
I quite agree with comments above. Make the “lower quality video” an option. I had no problems on my iMac G5 1.8GHz and, in any event, don’t need the processor for anything else whilst video chatting.
This “upgrade” was definitely a “downgrade”! Please fix!
Just tried it out on my iMac 2.0GHz and its great.
I do agree with the comments about the downgrade in video quality. Get that fixed, Skype! I also use the IO Experts driver for enhanced iSight use (it can f.e. follow your face and zoom in automatically). If I use this driver in stead of the standard iSight driver in the settings window, I see the normal video quality. This is maybe a workaround that will also work for all the people complaining. It will cost you some dollars, but you will also have some more options with your iSight.
HELP!! Wondering if someone could help me, I have a new MacBook Pro and I have installed Skype but while talking to other skype users my camera will not work. It says that Skype does see the camera. It is built into my computer. Does anyone have any suggestions. I have tried pressing the Video Chat button. I need some answers please. Thanks
Please make the, “Sign in as other user..” do something other then sign out, like allow you to select one of your Skype accounts! I have multiple accounts, and it would be sure nice if the ‘Sign in as other user..” did something other then sign out. It has a selection that just says, “other”. This has been a useless menu for a long, long time. I know I try to get Skype to make one change at a time, and I am currently gunning for SMS, so I will wait for that. Anyway, I would like to be able to simply switch users, as that pane is supposed to allow.
hi, i have never used a blog before. but the thing is i dont know how to get the microphone settings to work. i can hear just fine from my powerbook but the mic doesnt work wen i tested it out.
please help!
thanks
I am pleased to see that I’m not the only one upset about the change in video quality for PowerPC users. It used to work fine on my PowerBook G4 12″ – please, please, please make it an option! I even had a look in the plist file in the vain hope that there might be some hidden way of switching this awfulness off but alas I found nothing.
Looking forward to a 2.0.0.7 bugfix release as soon as possible! In the meantime, I’m back on 2.0.0.3.
Hi All,
For people looking for a webcam driver (MacCam) please goto http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net I tried this driver with a G4 PowerMac and a Macmini and it worked OK, video quality was not as good as an ISight but it is free, Yes, it does not work with IChat as well.
I can’t make video calls! Allthough I get video capture on skype’s prefs pannel, It looks like the camera goes off when the video call is answered by my contacts. I’m working on an ibook PPC 1.42GHz (512Mb Ram) with the latest version of Tiger.
Any suggestion?
Hi.First, let me say that I really appreciate the efforts you guys at Skype are doing to let the mac community uses your great tool. Now, about skype 2.0 for mac: I have the same prb than with the beta version, and that many others users apparently by reading their messages: my camera doesn’t start! I can see it in my preferences, it works fine, but stays off when I’m in a call with a windows user (haven’t tested with mac user yet). What’s funny is that it works when this windows user had an older version of skype. Then I was able to send him my camera. But now, he’s got the latest version of skype for windows (2.5.0.151), and my camera stays off. Very frustrating. Meanwhile, as a tip for the others guys out there having the same prb than me, what we do is we use skype for the sound, and messenger for the camera (with messenger, the windows user and I can share camera, but no sound…??). With both on, we have the complete video chatting.
Oh, well… I made the mistake of upgrading from beta to release BEFORE reading this thread, so now I’m also stuck with this downgrade in video quality. The beta video was excellent, but now it’s awful. Please post ASAP a new Mac version with video quality selection.
Latest (Gold) version working well, as did the preview versions. You still have to be aware of the limits with it though. What is not understood is that Skype video DOES need a good upload speed to the Internet (at least 256k min) otherwise the video connection will be poor and then audio suffers. I usually find that switching the video OFF resolves the problem but defeats the main reason for having the video version in the first place!
A toolbar “preview” button to see and check the camera’s output before making a call would be VERY nice!! Having to go into prefs each time is a REAL pain and so simply solved with this option (if made available).
I wonder if in later versions a ‘bandwidth’ warning might be made available for those with limited upload speeds? Otherwise people don’t understand why connections fail or are of poor quality. Once again, I dare to mention SightSpeed and its ability to cope with low internet speeds and still give good images and sounds!
If you don’t use this AWSOME service, the go back to AOL or MSN. This is by far the best service going.
Video quality of version 2.0.0.6 is a big problem! I have a PowerMac G5 with dual 2Ghz processors. Why go in favor of older PowerPC users for the expense of newer ones? If this is a major concern, you should make it optional. I will have to downgrade to version 2.0.0.3 until this problem is resolved.
UGH! I want to downgrade to the previous version but I no loner have the install file for that one. One of these days I’ll learn not to trash stuff like that too quickly
Sorry Skype Developers. I agree with the people above. I don’t like the downgraded video in the “Gold” version. I was perfectly happy on my G4 with the beta video.
Can somebody please post a link to a beta version? I want to re-install that.
All working beautifully for me on my Intel iMac. Lots of my friends have just switched to Macs, so they’re on Intel Macs too. They are raving about video.
Feature requests:
(1) The ability to run two Skype accounts on one Mac (as for Windows), and
(2) Echo reduction like iChat has so that you don’t always have to mess around with headphones
First, thank you Skype for bringing a final, stable release of v2.0 with video. Cross-platform video conferencing is finally within reach for everyone. This is a milestone indeed.
However, I too share the concerns of the others who feel that reducing the video quality is a shame. In v2.0.0.3, I was able to send full-quality video, just as I can with iChat. However, now I have lost that ability. I would love to have a way to customize my outbound video compression settings.
For anyone wanting to ‘upgrade’ to the old v2.0.0.3, I found it here:
http://www.skype.com/download/skype/macosx/downloading-beta.html
Not sure how long it will be left there…..
I fully agree with all the above comments about the absurdity of forcing all PPC imacs to use 1990 quality video. I’ve had problems with Skype causing my mac not to recognize the built-in isight, but I’ll deal with it until they fix the resolution issues.
I for one can’t even try video as my preferences have disappeared. Have downloaded three times and still no prefs. Skype replied quickly to try and address the situation, but it hasn’t worked and I am awaiting further details.
I have an intel and PowerPC Macs and agree with everyone about the video. It seems strange to force a whole processor family to a lower quality level. My G5 seems to handle video fine with the beta version.
I agree with all the mac users here. beta version had worked without any problems in video mode. i have lots of problems by using video feature now. i hope skype´s able to fix that problem as soon as possible!
I’ve been using Skype for video conferencing with my partner for about a week or so. When it’s working it’s pretty good depending on the quality of the camera, etc on the other side, but it’s also horribly buggy and continuously crashes my computer. We often have to restart the application several times in the course of a hour. It would be great if you guys could do something to correct this problem. It’s almost perfect…
Fantastic product on the Mac… best audio/video conferencing solution between Macs and PCs out there.
Requests:
PLEASE make better echo cancellation for Macs!
Allow requests for Authorization to be delivered when only one person is online.
Great product but I agree with the above post that echo cancellation needs to improve and the CPU usage is still very high. Thanks
I downgraded to 2.0.0.3 using the link above, and found that during a video conference, my iMac G5 1.8GHz (which is now over two years old) used only 30% CPU, which seems perfectly acceptable. I see no reason for Skype crippling the video in 2.0.0.6.
I too, downloaded 2.0.0.6 and Skype does not see the built-in camera on my MacBook Pro.
Not to brag, but I’ve a new iMac, great machine, found iChat video a gamble, got about a one in ten chance of the webcam working and hooking up with wife’s iMac! But with Skype, it’s very close to 100%. I won’t be using iChat in the future. Love Skype, it’s dead on simple! I also tell everybody I can about Skype, maybe Skype could send me a commision.
For anyone who needs it, I just downloaded 2.0.0.3 (beta) from:
http://www.techspot.com/downloads/3132-skype-beta-for-mac.html
I started with Skype 2.0.0.6 a couple of days ago, and am curious to see the difference in video quality….