Comments on: When Macs Don’t Want To Plug ‘N Play

By: Trevor

Trevor — Mon, 24 May 2010 00:53:18 +0000

In support of Mike re data projectors. I am an educator conducting training sessions “on site” more often than not using my own data projector, as I know it works. On an number of occasions I have attempted to connect to existing (fitted) data projectors and found that my Macbook Pro will not be recognised. I have tried everything I know (which admittedly isn’t a great deal) with no result. It may be that the fitted projector does not have “automatically detect settings” activated or whatever, but it has got to the stage where I now take my PC laptop “just in case”. It means my presentations have to be both PPT & Keynote and carrying two laptops – a stupid situation. Not a questionable anecdotal report, the MBP works fine with both my Toshiba and Mitsubishi projectors using an appropriate adapter.

By: mark

mark — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:14:28 +0000

10.4.9 and later support USB webcams that are UVC (USB video class) compatible. Even as of today 6-2008 lots of cameras are not UVC compatible.

Basic features are supported as part of UVC, but obviously effects and controls that are dependent on manufacturer’s windows software and drivers aren’t part of the basics…and autofocus isn’t going to work unless they’ve written a mac-specific driver.

As far as you aunt goes, macs working vs 3rd party peripherals working with a mac that don’t have any indication of mac compatibility on the box isn’t really Apple’s fault, that’s a noob mistake…hopefully she was able to return it, or, she was able to rely on helpful folks like you that would’ve used Google and found IOXperts 3rd party driver that’s been available for years for $$, or the MACAM project’s more recent free offering listed above.

The KVM thing is odd, and probably with some time you could’ve licked it….Oh, wait, it was “an acquaintance”…well, not everyone is blessed with decent troubleshooting skills. And, to the point, it’s annecdotal, not typical, and lacking any detail…but there have been many stories of TVs not supporting computers, gaming machines, etc.. until firmware was updated…or perhaps it was the macbook pro out of whack? We’ll never know, without detail…

So, you have one story of completely off expectations, and a questionable anecdotal story of a problem that may, or may not have been with the mac (vs the user vs the KVM)…but that was enough fuel to write a BLOG entry??

you go boy!

By: Aria Rajasa

Aria Rajasa — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 08:48:46 +0000

for webcams, i use macam (macam.sourceforge.com), it recognize most webcams, even the chinese models that I got for about $15 or so.

For projectors, I never really had a problem on my powerbook, or my current macbook. Maybe I haven’t found a projector that doesn’t fit

By: Mat Pancha

Mat Pancha — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 06:32:51 +0000

I’ve actually experienced both examples you wrote of.

When I got my first mac back in 2001 (iBook G3 dual USB), I tried plugging in a logitech and microsoft webcam only to find out they wouldn’t work. At that time I figured Apple just hadn’t gotten around to geting the drivers prepared. Then the iSight came out, but I still wanted to use my Logitech or MS webcam, and when I brought it up in the forums, the resounding answer was “get an iSight”. At $150, it was way out of my budget for a mere webcam (I know spec wise it was better than the competition at the time. Needless to say, I still can’t use a non-Apple webcam on my iBook or latest aquisition, a MBP (not so much an issue with the builtin iSight on the MBP)

With the KVM issue, I’ve never tried, but I am now curious to see how that would work on my MBP. I have had trouble with Projectors in the past though, of the roughly dozen projectors I’ve attempted to connect to, I’ve only successfully connected to one. However, if I boot into XP or Vista in Bootcamp I can connect with no problems. With the iBook, I’ve never had any success with a projector.