ImageCaster™ v1.0.4 - Release Notes

Welcome to ImageCaster, the complete webcam broadcasting solution for Mac OS X. 

What's New in 1.0.4

This is the fourth maintenance update to ImageCaster since the product was released in June 2002. With this update comes the following new enhancements and fixes:

Enhancements:

• Added the ability to disable extended passive mode (EPSV) when communicating with FTP servers. This increases compatibility with some older FTP servers as well as firewalls. 

• Improved error reporting (to the activity log) when script execution fails.

• Added the "Frame Canvas" property to the Overlay panel. Previous versions always framed the canvas with a one-point border. Now this can be controlled on a per-document basis. 

• Video digitizers will now continue to work after the computer goes to sleep and wakes up. 

Fixes:

• Configuring the "Launch at login" and "Hide" preference settings will now always work, even if the user has never added startup items (via System Preferences/Login Items). 

• Data-fork only AppleScripts will now be correctly executed.

• Text objects in the Overlay panel will no longer disappear if another object is clicked while one is being edited. 

• Eliminated an exception that was being raised when a blank path was specified for a pre- or post- delivery script.

• Files and/or URLs may now be dragged to the pathname field of a graphic object selected in the Overlay panel. 

• The "Anonymous login" and "Maintain connection between uploads" FTP options can now be accessed or altered via AppleScript.  

• Fixed a bug where DV Video images would be cropped if using a buffer size smaller than the video image. Now the image is scaled to fit. 

• Fixed a problem with the "Launch at Login/Hide" preference setting whereby toggling the "Hide" setting would sometimes generate an exception and possibly remove the application from the user's startup items entirely. 

• Fixed a problem where AM/PM was being displayed on time overlay objects even if the system time was set to 24 hour. 

• Fixed a problem where the video digitizer frame buffer size was not being saved with the document.

• File icons now are displayed properly in the FTP browser.

• Fixed a problem where invoking the FTP browser would unnecessarily log into the remote FTP server twice. 

• Fixed a bug when browsing an FTP site for a path that would sometimes select a filename and insert it into the path field.

• Documents saved without a valid video digitizer would be rendered useless when subsequently opened by ImageCaster. A default digitizer is now selected if one is available.

What Was New in 1.0.3

This is the fourth maintenance update to ImageCaster since the product was released in June 2002. With this update comes the following new enhancements and fixes:

Enhancements:

• Frame Buffer size control. You now have full control over the size of the frame buffer used to capture images from video digitizers. The "Natural" setting is preferred and is most likely to work best with most video digitizers. For situations where a digitizer needs to be told what size capture buffer to use, you can specify any dimension you'd like. This is controlled by the new "Buffer" pop-up menu in the Video Digitizer Source panel.

• Provided script access to frame buffer size. Scripts can access the frame buffer size (see above) via the "frame buffer size" Video Digitizer property.

• Jaguar compatibility. The program was extensively tested to function properly under Mac OS X 10.2.

• Built with GCC 3.1. This version of ImageCaster has been built with GCC 3.1, Apple's latest, super optimizing Objective-C compiler. 

Fixes:

• When graphic objects are overlaid on an image, and the object is dynamically updated from a local file, ImageCaster will deal with situations where the file changes the instant that an image is being extracted from it. Previously, it would just crash.

• The current file deliverer was not being shutdown properly when the user switched to another deliverer in the Destination panel.

A few things you should know that are not in the manual:

• Optimal image sizes: Most webcam images are NTSC Half Size (320 x 240) or smaller in size. Practicality limits the size of webcam images - larger dimensions take more time to upload and more time for your viewers to download.

• Image quality affects upload/download times: In the Format panel, the "Options" button brings up a dialog where you can change the compression options of the file format you've selected (if the file format supports compression, that is). Higher quality results in larger file sizes and, consequently, longer upload and download times. Finding a happy medium between quality and size is truly an art.

• Previewing image "as delivered": The Monitor panel has the option to preview the "Uploaded Image". This option not only provides the most accurate feedback of what image has been broadcast, it also displays the image in its final form, i.e. after it has been compressed. Thus you can gauge the quality of your delivered image by visiting the Monitor panel instead of pulling up your broadcast image in a web browser. Choosing the "Live" monitor method, however, displays the image as it appears prior to compression.

• The "Delivery Statistics" group has been added to the Options Drawer of the Monitor panel. This displays broadcast image dimensions, data size, upload duration and data rate. These statistics reflect the most recently broadcast image, so, if you are offline or have yet to deliver an image, the statistics will be unavailable. This is true even if previewing "live".

• The "Data rate" statistic measures the complete delivery process. The "Duration" value indicates the amount of time that it takes to capture an image, compose it, compress it and deliver it. Thus the data rate may appear to be much slower than your physical connection. Do not be alarmed by this!

• The "Maintain connection between uploads" feature has been added to the FTP deliverer. This feature is very useful when broadcasting images at short intervals. With the option turned off, the program must go through the complete login process each time it delivers an image. This can be quite time consuming. With this option turned on, however, login is only performed once and the program will re-use the connection to the FTP server on each upload.

  If delivering images at a long time interval (for instance, 1 minute or greater), you probably do not want to maintain connections between uploads. Also, any situation where it is likely that you will loose your internet connection between uploads requires that the connection NOT be maintained between uploads. Attempting to maintain a connection in such situations will result in some rather long time-out experiences.

Your feedback is appreciated!

While we have spent a great deal of time trying to ensure the reliability and completeness of this product, there are certain to be a few minor glitches that will arise. If you encounter any difficulties or problems while using this product, please don't hesitate to contact us. The email address is support@econtechnologies.com. We pride ourselves in being responsive to your needs. We'll put every possible effort into making this product as complete and solid as it can be.

That's It! We hope you enjoy using this product. Thank you for your support!

The Econ EZ Team

1/23/03