[Ken_F2]

Want to see if your Mac is capable of playing HDTV?

The Quicktime player does not support HDTV. However, VLC, a freeware player which is available in a Mac OSX version, does support HDTV. You can download the latest version of the VLC player for OSX right here

[Files will be removed. If you got them already, enjoy.]

The quality from HDTV in software won't be quite what you get from dedicated HDTV MPEG@HL receiver, but you should get 85-90+% of the quality depending on your video card. These trailers were shown on ABC, so they use the 1280x720p HDTV format, rather than the 1920x1080i of some other HDTV channels. They are also using a 15Mbps bit rate, rather than the 19.4 Mbps of some other high-definition broadcasts.

Please report back on your viewing experience. And please refrain from linking to these files elsewhere, as they will be removed in the near future.

[tr]

downloaded the matrix trailer...it looks really good, remarkably clear. too bad i'm seeing it at probably <10 frames a sec. i guess my poor sawtooth 450 and radeion 8500 just isn't good enough to play HDTV.


tr

[Uncle Skeleton]

I have a dual 1g quicksilver with radeon 7500 and AFAICT I'm getting full frame rate. no clue about post filters, but I can't imagine them looking any better. I watched the three movie trailers

[scottiB]

Dual 800/GeForce3/1.1GB

I'm pretty sure I have full frame rate: no spits, stumbles, or stickiness. During playback, VLC was pulling a consistent 106% CPU usage and spiking to 130% on occasion.

I think a 933/G4 PowerMac (or a dual 533) would be the minimum. Looking forward to other users' experiences.

Wonderful clarity and quality, btw. I almost convinced myself to buy 23" HD display on the spot.

Ken, what's the throughput range for 1080i? And what fps were these broadcast? 29.97? 24?

Thanks for the files: my GF will be ecstatic for The Matrix one.

[Ken_F2]

scottib,

The trailers linked above are 1280x720p @ 60 fps, which is the format used by ABC. Of course, being trailers for movies, the original film source is 24 fps, so some frames are repeated.

1080i video typically uses 19.4 Mbps on broadcast at 29.97. Of course, HDTV would do better with more, but its generally limited to that, because 19.4 is the most broadcasters can do over the airwaves. There is not sufficient bandwidth to do progressive or 60 frames per second at that resolution over the airwaves (using current technology).

When HD-DVD arrives on a blu-ray or blue-laser in several years, it is expected to be 30-35 Mbps VBR for 1080i or 1080p. By the time HD-DVD is available, hopefully that 23" display (or something comparable) will be less expensive.

[JonLech]

Originally posted by Ken_F2:
VLC, a freeware player

VLC is Free Software, not freeware. There's a difference. Think Different

There's a new VLC test release available:
http://www.via.ecp.fr/via/ml/vlc-dev.../msg00415.html

http://nanocrew.net/vlc/vlc-0.5.2-te...n=octet-stream
(rename to .dmg)

MD5 (vlc-0.5.2-test1.dmg) = 0b91589978c1a14df54cdf1a675ed410

This test release fixes some audio issues. It has been successfully
tested with M-Audio Sonica, M-Audio Revolution and Griffin iMic.

AC3 over SPDIF with M-Audio Sonica Theater does not work. This is most
likely a driver bug and has been reported to M-Audio.

Thanks to M-Audio for seeding me with devices.

For the VideoLAN team,

Jon Lech Johansen

[direktor]

Good lord. Watching these clips reminds me just how many bits HDTV pushes around.

What is this .ts file format? Is it just a raw stream from the receiver? How were these ripped?

I can't wait until I get a REAL HDTV monitor...most of the 'hdtv' monitors at Best Buy and the like recieve HD, but their display resolution is not so hot.

[Ken_F2]

What is this .ts file format? Is it just a raw stream from the receiver? How were these ripped?

TS stands for transport stream, as in the digital signal taken from the airwaves. It contains the HDTV MPEG2 bitstream.

They were "ripped" using a $299 HDTV PVR board for the PC.

[macman76]

Any news on full support with a Playlist?

I have my own recordings, but they're always cut in 1min segments because otherwise the file size would be excessive. It takes videolan .5 sec to load each which doesn't cut it if you plan to actually watch HD recordings that aren't 8GB/hr single files. They play fine on my Dual G4 and output DD 5.1, but there's the skip every minute.

[rezzi]

....A day late and a dollar short.Hey Ken,I would love to see those trailers if possible.I asked in this forum 4-5 months ago if HDTV was possible for the mac & there was no response.Nobody home in Soulville....Thanks

[Ken_F2]

If anyone has a some extra server bandwidth and would like to host some short HDTV clips (trailers and clips from network broadcasts like the Grammys), please send me a private message.