Audio delay.

[mjg]

Mac, latest Mountain Lion, iPhone iOS6 - latest iCamSource and iCam in iPhone. USB Logitech webcam: I have about two seconds of audio delay. This is new - when I used my rig for iCam before it was fine - the only change is iOS6 since that time (I think).

[SKJM Support]

I would suggest closing the iCamSource application and then deleting your com.skjm.icamsource.plist file in your Library/Preferences folder in your home folder. Then, when you re-start the iCamSource, you will be starting with a fresh set of preferences, and hopefully things will act as expected.

If you are running Lion it hides the ~/Library directory for some reason. You can get to that directory by running Finder and then holding the Option key while clicking on the "Go" menu at the top of the screen. If you're holding down the Option key, "Library" will be one of the choices available. You should choose Library, then open the Preferences folder. The plist file will be in there.

[mjg]

Nope - no change - did not work. There is also a "pong" spond - a short "plock" like in old arcade games - sounding about every third second...or just a couple of times - in my iPhone. Strange.

[SKJM Support]

Do you have the Android audio option enabled in iCamSource? That option will result in lower quality audio.

[mjg]

No Android stuff enabled.

[SKJM Support]

An audio delay is not uncommon, especially when connecting from remote networks. That is due to the fact that audio data is buffered before it's sent, whereas the images are sent as soon as they are captured.

Does this happen on remote networks or the local network? Is there any difference between the two?

[mjg]

The delay have been almost zero for years. The delay now suddenly is extrem - many seconds - and it's over 3G or localy at home when my MacMini sends and my iPhone play it over same router - MacMini wire and iPhone WiFi. Something is seriosly wrong and even if I'm kind of a IT and video wizzard and a Mac guru with over 20 years of serious computer experience I have no clue what have happend. 

[SKJM Support]

We have seen cases in the past where third party encoders hijacked the jpeg encoding from the OS. Have you installed any third party audio encoders or players recently?

[mjg]

No. Another strange thing - it may have nothing to do with the audio latency - is that iCam in my iPhone says I have "Send notification" on - and "Record Evetnt" on. That is not the case in iCam Source on my MacMini. I have not even Motion Detection on - nothin is on under the Motion Detection tab in iCam Source. Nada. Why do my iCam app in my iPhone say it's on?

[SKJM Support]

Have you tried deleting iCam from your iPhone and re-downloading it from the Apple App Store. If not, please do so. If you use the same iTunes account you will not be charged a second time.

Also, please make sure your Login/Password is something that is not too easily guessed.

[mjg]

Yes - done that. It's the same delay with my iPhone 5 and my iPad 3 - I suppose it's the same delay whatever I use for watching - if it's delay on iCamWeb I will never know 'cause there is no sound in that solution - and I can not even get any picture at all there - no source it says - it have never really worked but that's ok - I only use my iOS-devices for checking iCam streams..
So - it's a Mac/iCamSource issue this audio delay thing - it's not in the iOS device.

[SKJM Support]

You previously mentioned a 2 second delay, 2 seconds is normal. There has always been a delay unless you use the Android checkbox to force PCM instead of MP3 audio. Have you tried running iCamSource with the Android checkbox checked? If not, please do so.

[mjg]

I have had very little - almost not notable - latency before this issue. If a couple of seconds delay for audio is normal I don't understand how audio is slower than video - shouldn't it be the other way around? Video pictire stream must be harder to compress and take more bitrate than mono sound. Or? Is video faster and lighter than audio?

[SKJM Support]

Nothing has changed in the audio code for a while, so unfortunately, we are not sure why the behavior has changed recently on your particular system.

The audio delay is generally longer than the video delay because the audio is compressed before it's sent.  That doesn't happen when the Android audio checkbox is checked, so the delay should be shorter in that case (but the audio quality will be lower).

Have you tried the Android audio setting yet?