Playing mkv videos on a G5 17" 1.9Ghz

G'day folks,

First time here so be gentle!

I have bought an old 17" iMac G5 running at 1.9Ghz and have installed a fresh copy of OS X 10.5.8 (Leopard).

I would like to use the G5 as a very simple media player for my bedroom and have lots of content already on my network in HD 720p mkv format. I am wondering if the G5 is up to the task of playing these files smoothly and if so how?

I have tried the following but had very chooppy results with video and sometimes also audio:

• Installing Perian and playing in Quicktime / Front Row
• Installing VLC player
• Installing MPlayer

What can I do to play these files, or is is it simply a case of having to reconvert all content to another format?

Regards

Ben

I downloaded whatever the latest version was of both VLC and Mplayer.

If I need to convert, what would be the most CPU friendly format to use?

Also, I would be more than happy to re-encode in DVD resolution for viewing on the G5. Would that make the video a lot easier to handle? Again if so, which format, MPEG-2? MPEG-4? MOV? DIVX?

Thanks for your help guys?