Powerbook G4 720P MPEG2 Playback

[pmac0973]

Just thought I would share another method of watching 720P on a Powerbook G4 1.67ghz

Video ecoded to 1280x688 MPEG2 @ 3800 Bit Rate
Original = 1280x688 MKV
Plays realy good on VLC. I don't have the MPEG2 plugin for Quicktime, sorry.

A few frame drops at the beginning as the file was played from a network drive. No frame drops playing from the local drive

CPU also settles around the middle playing from the network drive while only using a 1/3 while playing from the local drive.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Plays realy good on VLC. I don't have the MPEG2 plugin for Quicktime, sorry.

For some reason I've avoided MPEG2 in the past but just done some tests and it's very agreeable on my Powerbook - thanks for posting.

 

[Project Alice]

MPEG2 is fairly era-correct for most PPC macs, so it should play pretty well on most. It is the codec used on DVDs afterall.

 

[Dronecatcher]

MPEG2 is fairly era-correct for most PPC macs, so it should play pretty well on most. It is the codec used on DVDs afterall.

I'm sure before I used to have to increase the bitrate to preserve image fidelity and therefore generate too large file sizes, but I've just done tests as low as 1100Kb/s for 720P. The only issue would be compatibility - QuickTime and CorePlayer are out of the frame...not so much an issue for myself as MPlayer is still the most used.

 

[pmac0973]

I'm sure before I used to have to increase the bitrate to preserve image fidelity and therefore generate too large file sizes, but I've just done tests as low as 1100Kb/s for 720P. The only issue would be compatibility - QuickTime and CorePlayer are out of the frame...not so much an issue for myself as MPlayer is still the most used.

How did you get MPlayer to play the file? When I try, it only displays a black screen with audio

 

[Dronecatcher]

How did you get MPlayer to play the file? When I try, it only displays a black screen with audio

I think it's largely dependent on the original file - I have a few that glitch initially on the older MPlayer but then play ok - the same files behave fine on the newer MPlayer (the one needed by SMTube.)

 

[pmac0973]

I think it's largely dependent on the original file - I have a few that glitch initially on the older MPlayer but then play ok - the same files behave fine on the newer MPlayer (the one needed by SMTube.)

Thanks, I will try the different versions

 

[Project Alice]

I’ve only ever been able to play MPEG2 files on VLC. I haven’t tried them with mplayer to be fair; but VLC is known to support them well.