Facetime Video

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No longer can we expand the video of a call to full screen as in the past. I"m suspecting the change is associated with the upgrade to Mojave.

A friend of mine brought it to my attention when they tried to expand the picture to full screen. Upon connection the video is in rectangular shape as you would see if you were on a phone and not much bigger. When we choose to expand the picture, as in the past, we get a zoomed in version of that rectangularscreen and not a full screen video like we use to get. We are running desktop iMacs 27", w/ 10.14.1 Mojave.

Has anyone experienced a like change? Would I be correct to suspect Mojave? It certainly doesn't qualify as an enhanced upgrade to me.
 

chscag

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I suspect Facetime Video was changed somewhat with the update to Mojave. Apple has added Facetime Video Conferencing to the mix and that may have changed the way Facetime can be viewed.

See the following article for more info. Perhaps they will fix it with 10.14.2 which is currently being tested as a beta.
 
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No longer can we expand the video of a call to full screen as in the past. I"m suspecting the change is associated with the upgrade to Mojave.


Would their directions that they provide be incorrect then???

Their page is updated for Mojave, so they say:
Change your view of a FaceTime call on Mac
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/facetime/change-your-view-of-a-call-fctm35523/mac

Summary:
View a video call in full screen: Click the green button in the top-left corner of the FaceTime window, or press Control-Command-F. To return to the standard window size, press the Esc (Escape) key (or use the Touch Bar).





- Patrick
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Facetime video

I went to apple support to view the instructions provided to expand the video to full page but no joy. All that you experience when you expand the original image, is an enlarged image of the original, which is still rectangular and not full screen. So, I believe my suspicions of Mojave upgrade to be the problem as chscag seems to concur. Lets hope that the upgrade does restore full screen capability as I don't view the present change as an upgrade.

Screen Shot 2018-11-10 at 10.17.33 AM.png
 
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All that you experience when you expand the original image, is an enlarged image of the original, which is still rectangular and not full screen.



Just for the record, that is how the FaceTime window works in Mavericks, and I don't know when or where they may have provided a full-screen window option.


PS and BTW: it looks like another senior has gray hair and beard and also wears blue sweaters!!! ;


EDIT:
There's some rather vague references about FaceTime full screen video here from Mar 23, 2011 era:
Apple Improves Full Screen Performance on FaceTime for Mac
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...reen-performance-on-facetime-for-mac.1123448/

Doesn't really say much of any value IMHO.

Personally, I'd find using any video conferencing in a full-screen window much too overpowering on my 27 inch iMac!!! :Mischievous:








- Patrick
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To all
My dilemma on this matter is no longer. The ability to get a full screen video of a person, the person calling you is not in your hands as the receiver but, in the hands of the caller.

As I mentioned previously, what I found perplexing about the change of video size from full screen to a portrait sized video directly in the middle of the screen. After reading what Apple was trying to do, as I understand it, mimic Skype ability to perform group calls, I took it for granted that the two dark areas of the screen which bordered the original video were reserved for additional callers that would join the group when activated. Lacking an explanation I assumed this to be the intent. This was boasted by the fact that everything I tried to enlarge the picture failed. Well, here's what I found out:

The only ability you have to change the video is to change your video that is being transmitted. If one goes to the menu selection at the top of the screen and clicks on it, you will see two options. The 1st, use landscape. The 2nd, full screen.

If you select - use landscape, you won't see anything change on your screen but, it will change at the callers screen to full screen. For you to receive the caller full screen, that party will have to activate the same selection - use landscape. The full screen option that you see on your computer will give provide you FaceTime full screen but the video will remain 1/3 screen size, growing larger only in proportion to the screen getting larger.

I didn't receive notice from anyone about discovering this new phenomenon that was introduced with the upgrade to Mojave so, I took it on myself to provide my findings to you.

In closing, thank you all that tried to assist me on this matter. Much appreciated.

I do have another matter dealing with FaceTime but, I think it to be proper to address it in a new post for it deals with another matter.
 

chscag

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Thanks for the update. I certainly would not have thought that out. You did some good detective work. ;D
 

Slydude

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Thanks for posting back and letting us know the answer. There are many times I've liked Apple's interface choices but this seems counterintuitive to say the least. Especially without a clear explanation.
 

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