iCan't See with iSight.

December 14, 2005 6:45 PM

Having problems with iSight on a Powerbook. It worked well up until recently. Now I get a spinning beachball anytime I use a program that uses the iSight as a video source.

The camera LED comes on bright when I first plug it in, and I can hear the autofocus click. Then the LED dims.

Usually twisting the shutter calls up iChat, but that no longer works. In iChat, there is an option to preview video, but selecting it gets me the beachball. I tried a couple other programs, and get similar results (VideoCue, iGlasses).

This might be related: under System Preferences > Accounts > Picture, I can not edit the pictures anymore.

I also have a Mac mini, and the iSight works fine on it. I can use the iSight's firewire to connect my Powerbook to my mini in target mode, so I don't think it's the cable. Also, System Profiler > Firewire shows that the iSight is connected. I updated it to the latest firmware.

Finally, I updated to Quicktime Pro recently. I also downloaded and installed VLC. Coincidences?

Thanks.

posted by squink to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Repair permissions is always the first step when that happens to me; most of the time it works. Beyond that, I have no suggestions.
posted by dame at 7:27 PM on December 14, 2005

Response by poster: Yeah, I forgot to mention that I tried that. No joy.
posted by squink at 7:50 PM on December 14, 2005

Do you have access to another firewire camera? They all work on the same interface ("dcam" or "iidc"), so if it's a problem with Quicktime, I would expect you'd see it with any camera. Another iSight, or a camcorder would do.
posted by Popular Ethics at 9:10 PM on December 14, 2005

iSight Support and Commonly Asked Questions
posted by Rothko at 9:11 PM on December 14, 2005

Try creating another user. If that user works - then it's a preference in your user.

If it doesn't work, take your isight to another mac to test it. If it works on the other mac, and not yours, it's something specific about your system.
posted by filmgeek at 9:22 PM on December 14, 2005

Is iTunes open? Since I updated to version 6 update I've been having terrible problems when I connect USB or Firewire peripherals and have iTunes running.
posted by putzface_dickman at 6:09 AM on December 15, 2005

Response by poster: Popular Ethics: Yup. Tried a camcorder, and that doesn't work with iChat either. Does work in iMovie though.

Rothko: Thanks. I found that page too, but nothing on it seemed applicable to my problems.

filmgeek: Tried creating another user too. No luck their either. I had already tried the iSight on my Mac mini. It works there, but not on the Powerbook.

putzface: I did update to iTunes v.6. Seems about the same time that I started having trouble with iSight, but I am not having any trouble with other peripherals.

Well, I think the problem is with the Powerbook and not the camera. Time to call Apple to see what they say.
posted by squink at 8:14 AM on December 16, 2005