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QuickTime Broadcaster (Freeware) Having recently purchased one of Apple's nifty iSight cameras, and getting the iChat AV-thing out of our system, we then started searching for other applications that can use this FireWire camera. We didn't have to go farther than Apple's decidedly sparse iSight documentation, which suggested that we check out QuickTime Broadcaster. A short time later, we were creating our own streaming broadcasts! QuickTime Broadcaster offers two major sets of functions. The first, as the name implies, is the creation of a live streaming broadcast that can easily be received by anyone using the QuickTime Player. You simply set the parameters for the audio, video and network portions of the broadcast, export a SDP (Session Description Protocol) file which describes the broadcast, and open this file with the QuickTime player. For broadcasts to multiple recipients, you probably want to send the stream to a QuickTime Streaming Server, which is designed to handle a large number of recipients.
What really caught our attention is the myriad of camera control options offered through QuickTime Broadcaster. Unlike iChat AV, which currently offers no way to adjust one's iSight, QuickTime Broadcaster allows one to change numerous camera parameters, resulting in images which can be used under almost any lighting condition. For example, we found that increasing the camera Brightness setting made images taken using indoor lighting conditions more than acceptable. The other major feature of QuickTime Broadcaster is to take the streaming content, and save it to a QuickTime movie file. This can give one the chance to experiment with the nearly 30 video codecs that are available through the QuickTime platform. There are presets for typical connection types, from modem to high-speed LAN, but you can fiddle with the settings to achieve the optimum quality for your specific situation. So get more out of your iSight, or other FireWire video camera, and give QuickTime Broadcaster a try today! Have any other gadgets that let you talk to the world? Send John an e-mail, and he'll give it a shot.
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