iChat AV does not seem to use system audio prefs
by Volker Weber
I have a strange problem with iChat AV. A couple of weeks ago I failed to call home from Snoopy to Lucy. The session was established, I had no difficulties with video, but there was no sound output at home. At least I thought so.
Then yesterday I noticed that during a video chat, the sound was coming out of the wrong device. iChat was not using the headphones out, but rather the Edirol USB audio interface. However, that was not what I had selected:
It actually did not really matter what I selected in the System Preferences panel. The sound always went out the USB interface. Quicktime, Mail, iTunes, they all followed the preference setting, but not iChat.
So, my theory is that when I tried to call home, iChat was using this interface but the amp was off so there was no sound. Looking through the iChat preferences file, I found this setting:
<key>dv com.apple.soundmgr._DV Sound Output Settings</key>
<data>fQAAAA==</data>
Of course I don't understand it yet, but potentially iChat has a persistant setting to the audio interface that was selected when it was started. Need to do some more research.
