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ae25 · May 20, 2005, 02:55 AM

Just wanted to make sure that a Dual 2.0 Power Mac would be able to handle 1080p H.264 video. I noticed that a dual 2.0 is the minimum apple reccomends for H.264 1080p video. Any dual 2.0 owners have any experience with this, and playing apples trailors. Also, from reading the threads on H.264 you guys make it sound like some of the 1080p video is a lot more stressing on your system than other 1080p video. There are a few trailors you talk about in particular (can't remember what they are though). Is the dual 2.0 going to be able to play back any and all (even the more stressing video mentioned above) H.264 video without a hitch? I ordered the dual 2.0, but it is currently in sent to manufacturing status, so I think that if for some reason the dual 2.0 will just not be up to the task, I can quickly upgrade to a 2.3, but I don't really want to do that unless you guys think it will be necessary for flawless playback. Thanks in advance

rm199 · May 20, 2005, 04:00 AM

my 2.0 does the job fine even while doing other things. In the Apple store they had the 1080 trailers running fine on a single 1.8 but it had loads of RAM onboard which is definitely a help.

Pierre B. · May 20, 2005, 04:20 AM

Originally Posted by ae25

Just wanted to make sure that a Dual 2.0 Power Mac would be able to handle 1080p H.264 video. I noticed that a dual 2.0 is the minimum apple reccomends for H.264 1080p video. Any dual 2.0 owners have any experience with this, and playing apples trailors. Also, from reading the threads on H.264 you guys make it sound like some of the 1080p video is a lot more stressing on your system than other 1080p video. There are a few trailors you talk about in particular (can't remember what they are though). Is the dual 2.0 going to be able to play back any and all (even the more stressing video mentioned above) H.264 video without a hitch?

Although I don't have a dual 2.0 GHz to tell, I hear that these machines run 1080p video just fine. See for example this table. It appears that the dual 2.0 GHz G5 will run any(?) 1080p video at 90-108% CPU usage. There is a lot of processing power still left in the machine.

d.fine · 05:42 AM

My Dual 2.0 runs H.264 great, no glitches, just smooth going all the way, full screen

I'd recommend more than the standard 512Mb tough...

A talked about trailer, as you mentioned, is the Serenity 1080p trailer, you can use it to test your machine. It runs smooth on my Dual 2.0 G5, but very choppy on the 1.25HGz Alu PB ... some parts are doable, but overall it is unwatchable.

Busemann · May 20, 2005, 04:56 AM

Actually, there is some stutter in the BBC clip at about 40 secs in, as it seems to be a heavy bitrate spike there. I suspect this can be sorted out in a future update to QT, though.

Sporty G · May 20, 2005, 06:05 PM

My DP 1.8GHz G5 w/ 1.25gb RAM played the 1080p trailers FLAWLESSLY under Panther (10.3.9) with QT 7. I could even multitask without feeling to much of a performance hit. Expose, etc., still worked fine even with the big 1080p clip playing.

However, under Tiger, even with a clean install, the 1080p clips are near unwatchable on my machine and multitasking is impossible. VERY frustrating. If I click on "File" the machine almost grinds to a complete halt. The 1.6Ghz SP G5 w/ 256mb RAM (Panther) at a nearby computer store plays the 1080p clips back better than my DP 1.8Ghz G5 (Tiger) machine.

ae25 · May 20, 2005, 06:59 PM

Thanks, I appreciate all of the replies. Looks like I'll be keeping my dual 2.0 :-). Oh, and as for your problem sporty g, I think I read somewhere in either MacNN, or Macrumors, that if you intall tiger on top of panther, that it can cause your computer to run slower. A lot of people were saying that there computers were not as responsive after they installed tiger over panther, and that programs ran slower. I would backup and try a tiger clean install and see if your computer runs better.

Eug Wanker · May 20, 2005, 08:11 PM

H.264 Performance Table with various Mac and PC CPUs

P.S. I'm still looking for someone to test a single 2.3 GHz G5. (ie. Dual 2.3 with one CPU turned off.) If you can help out, it'd be greatly appreciated.

Sporty G · May 21, 2005, 02:09 AM

ae25, thanks for the response! Somebody already suggested I try a clean install so I opted to go that route following a dissapointing Tiger upgrade. The fresh install was much, much quicker overall but the QT 7 performance remained dismal.

d.fine · May 21, 2005, 03:40 AM

Originally Posted by ae25

Oh, and as for your problem sporty g, I think I read somewhere in either MacNN, or Macrumors, that if you intall tiger on top of panther, that it can cause your computer to run slower. A lot of people were saying that there computers were not as responsive after they installed tiger over panther, and that programs ran slower. I would backup and try a tiger clean install and see if your computer runs better.

I did an Archive&Install over Panther and have no problems playing H.264 movies.

Sporty G · Jun 3, 2005, 11:33 PM

Interestingly, I just tried to play the 1080p Serenity trailer through iTunes and it played back flawlessy!!! ...and unlike when I play it through Quicktime, my processors weren't screaming away in the background and multitasking was still possible. Any ideas?

macmad · Jun 6, 2005, 07:38 AM

Originally Posted by Sporty G

My DP 1.8GHz G5 w/ 1.25gb RAM played the 1080p trailers FLAWLESSLY under Panther (10.3.9) with QT 7. I could even multitask without feeling to much of a performance hit. Expose, etc., still worked fine even with the big 1080p clip playing.

However, under Tiger, even with a clean install, the 1080p clips are near unwatchable on my machine and multitasking is impossible. VERY frustrating.

I noticed this too

- hopefully an update of some sort can fix it in Tiger.