iTunes HD shows unwatchable on the Air??

[That70sGAdawg]

I downloaded one (cause that's all I have room for) of the new iTunes free "HD" TV shows and 10 min. into it: pixelation, pauses, out of sync audio - Activity monitor shows maxed out, both cores -etc. I had mail, safari (one stable web page), and iCal open.
I'm about ready to make a Genius appointment and try to exchange this for a MacBook Pro - even after 5 months! This latest firmware fix has slowed down my Air and I see the beach ball all the time! I did NOT have heat, or Core shutdown problems before, but Apple needs to own up to product and or firmware mistakes. It's starting to remind me of why I left Sony Vaio and Windows to begin with.
Has anybody been successful exchanging for a MacBook Pro after such a long time after purchase, or am I wasting my time?

[BEEFc58]

When upgrading to iTunes 8, it states what you need to run HD programs. One of the requirements that it mentions is at least 2.0GHZ speed... and the MBA does not have this (yet). That being said, I have a Mac Mini as a media center. I downloaded a couple of the HD shows (the free ones :) ) and they seem to play flawlessly! My Mini is only a 1.83GHZ... so I would assume that yours should work... when the movie is the only thing running....

[MBA-MD]

I downloaded one (cause that's all I have room for) of the new iTunes free "HD" TV shows and 10 min. into it: pixelation, pauses, out of sync audio - Activity monitor shows maxed out, both cores -etc. I had mail, safari (one stable web page), and iCal open.
I'm about ready to make a Genius appointment and try to exchange this for a MacBook Pro - even after 5 months! This latest firmware fix has slowed down my Air and I see the beach ball all the time! I did NOT have heat, or Core shutdown problems before, but Apple needs to own up to product and or firmware mistakes. It's starting to remind me of why I left Sony Vaio and Windows to begin with.
Has anybody been successful exchanging for a MacBook Pro after such a long time after purchase, or am I wasting my time?

Welcome to my world. That is the reason my Air is for sale at the moment. I am switching back to Windows.
Good luck with. I wonder if you can exchange it after this long??

[BWhaler]

I have the 1.83 and can watch HD movies.

It's not elegant though since the fans get cranking...

I love my air, but I really hope we see an upgrade soon which has at least a 2ghz CPU, a real GPU, 120+gb of storage and 4gb of memory, and fix the core shutdown/heat issue.

It would be my perfect Mac, and I'd buy it Day One.

[strikeinsilence]

I am switching back to Windows.

Have fun! Feel free to keep trolling, we'd hate to accidently change your mind.

[NeoMayhem]

Welcome to my world. That is the reason my Air is for sale at the moment. I am switching back to Windows.
Good luck with. I wonder if you can exchange it after this long??

Because HD video is such a better experience on windows when your system does not meet the minimum requirements? lol

[costabunny]

I have a few HD (rips) shows (not from iTunes) and they play fine. I also play a few BR ripped movies on the air and they're fine also. Admittedly this is without running anything else other than terminal.

oh and the vlc output is on my 30" display from the MBA - not bad in my opinion.

I may go get a HD episode of some kind to try it (tho its actually cheaper for me to get them series by series on DVD).

[SFStateStudent]

oh and the vlc output is on my 30" display from the MBA - not bad in my opinion. I may go get a HD episode of some kind to try it (tho its actually cheaper for me to get them series by series on DVD).

I've done the same with HD movies on my MBA to my iPhone from my external hard drive. I probably switch-out four-five movies a week and watch several TV shows (Weeds remains my favorite) during the week as well. I've set-up my 40" Sony Bravia LCD with Bose Theater Sound System, and on a good day hook-up my Peavey Speakers. No problems. :p

[grabberslasher]

From my own experience, no 720p movie in h264 greater than 5MBit will play without dropped frames / other issues on the 1.6GHz MacBook Air.

I don't have iTunes HD content in my country so I can't test the videos, but if they're more than 5Mbit I'd expect problems. Anything less should play fine in any Quicktime based app, stay away from VLC or Mplayer on the Air for HD.

[Essjay]

From my own experience, no 720p movie in h264 greater than 5MBit will play without dropped frames / other issues on the 1.6GHz MacBook Air.

I don't have iTunes HD content in my country so I can't test the videos, but if they're more than 5Mbit I'd expect problems. Anything less should play fine in any Quicktime based app, stay away from VLC or Mplayer on the Air for HD.

I read that the iTunes HD content is 720p at 4 MBit.

[refulgentis]

I read that the iTunes HD content is 720p at 4 MBit.
On average, there's likely spikes of at LEAST 6000 kbps (during scene transitions for example).

[refulgentis]

From my own experience, no 720p movie in h264 greater than 5MBit will play without dropped frames / other issues on the 1.6GHz MacBook Air.

I don't have iTunes HD content in my country so I can't test the videos, but if they're more than 5Mbit I'd expect problems. Anything less should play fine in any Quicktime based app, stay away from VLC or Mplayer on the Air for HD.
Apple's current H.264 decoder is, quite frankly, very very poor. VLC and Mplayer beat it by a mile right now, and will even more once multithreaded H.264 decoding makes it into ffmpeg and gets pushed downstream.

[pgharavi]

I cannot watch the HD videos unless Coolbook is enabled. I have tried both ways.

[MBA-MD]

Quote - Have fun! Feel free to keep trolling, we'd hate to accidently change your mind.

I love the personal attacks when someone speaks up about the fallacies of CrApple.

Hey, dimwit, I fell for the cult. I spend a ******** of money. I own an Air. I am $2300 down and no usable laptop. So yea I think Windows is better.

Goodluck to you with Mac

[That70sGAdawg]

My original point was: Apple hardware (Air), Apple software (iTunes Codec player & Air firmware & quicktime updates), and Apple paid content iTunes = a bad experience. I love the size and weight of the Air, didn't have previous problems with Core shut downs - but if the Firmware "update" limited my processor- I'm not happy.
Did anyone get an offer to upgrade (at a cost) to the Pro after the 30 day return period?? I don't want to go into the Apple store and argue with the genius all day... :mad:

[TEG]

You are trying to do something that Apple says your computer cannot do and you are complaining and want a "free" upgrade.

Why don't you try it again with just iTunes running, likely the other apps were drawing too much CPU time from iTunes to process the file correctly. You should try to solve your problem, rather than stomp you feet and yell. You bought an underpowered system and now expect a free upgrade, ha. Plus, I doubt the firmware upgrade did anything, otherwise more people whould be having problems.

TEG

[That70sGAdawg]

You are trying to do something that Apple says your computer cannot do and you are complaining and want a "free" upgrade.

Why don't you try it again with just iTunes running, likely the other apps were drawing too much CPU time from iTunes to process the file correctly. You should try to solve your problem, rather than stomp you feet and yell. You bought an underpowered system and now expect a free upgrade, ha. Plus, I doubt the firmware upgrade did anything, otherwise more people whould be having problems.

TEG

Upgrade to the pro "at a cost" (from my post), does not mean I wanted anything for free!
You should be able to have a couple of non CPU intensive programs open, and again - it happened after about ten min. of viewing not at the beginning, so would be tough to show at an Apple store without waiting for a while for it to start. I didn't have trouble for 5 months until the Firmware update - as others have posted also. Watching an Apple provided TV show should be possible on any hardware that they have provided for a year or two- this is a 6 month old product. Heck, my iPhone plays video fine!

[N10248]

What fps do you get in QT player?

I get 12fps on my 3 year old 2ghz imac G5 with nothing else running.

i think ill have to get an apple tv as im not planing on a new computer untill the end of the year.

[MacBass]

Quote - Have fun! Feel free to keep trolling, we'd hate to accidently change your mind.

I love the personal attacks when someone speaks up about the fallacies of CrApple.

Hey, dimwit, I fell for the cult. I spend a ******** of money. I own an Air. I am $2300 down and no usable laptop. So yea I think Windows is better.

Goodluck to you with Mac

I wouldn't be so quick to attack. You did purchase a "specialized" laptop. I think of the Air as more of a gimmick than anything. I think you would probably see better results with a MacBook Pro or even a MacBook. The Air was designed for travelers or people who have a disdain for full-sized (and fully functional for that matter) laptops. I mean really, the damn thing has one USB port, what do you expect it to do? I don't mean to offend anyone, but I'm not a fan of the Air. Just because you spend more money on something doesn't mean it will do more. What could a solid gold toilet do that a porcelain one couldn't?

[huntercr]

Apple's current H.264 decoder is, quite frankly, very very poor. VLC and Mplayer beat it by a mile right now, and will even more once multithreaded H.264 decoding makes it into ffmpeg and gets pushed downstream.

I concur with that. The latest quicktime is slightly better than it was, in the last version ( sorry I'm not near a Mac right now or I could give real numbers ). The last version was a DOG. Something in the code base changed that has caused a significant slowdown. 2-3 versions ago, performance was massively better.

I know this because I have a original Dual G5 1.8GHZ and it used to be able to play 720P and 1080i movies at full speed with very few if any frame drops in Quicktime. Last version of quicktime, it was unwatchable... now we're back to watchable, but laggy.

My guess is actually that it is the core video routines being used... I'm guessing my video card is doing more heavy lifting in the newer versions, and my video card is poor, therefore performance is poor, whereas earlier versions leveraged the CPU more. Just a WAG.

Same would go for the Air, since the video chipset is not exactly a speed demon.

[lenselijer]

using plesk i can play 1080p movies without errors.

i do have to use coolbook to set voltage at 0.9v for all speeds.
temperature is about 77 degrees so fans are fullspeed :(

quicktime hd codec is just poorly optimized, because playing the same movie in quicktime will get me 1fps...

[SnowLeopard2008]

I wouldn't be so quick to attack. You did purchase a "specialized" laptop. I think of the Air as more of a gimmick than anything. I think you would probably see better results with a MacBook Pro or even a MacBook. The Air was designed for travelers or people who have a disdain for full-sized (and fully functional for that matter) laptops. I mean really, the damn thing has one USB port, what do you expect it to do? I don't mean to offend anyone, but I'm not a fan of the Air. Just because you spend more money on something doesn't mean it will do more. What could a solid gold toilet do that a porcelain one couldn't?

good point about the toilet thing. you get what you pay for, not in terms of more money = more power. the air was not meant to be a desktop replacement, more of a small compact computer for people on the go. your own fault for not knowing the capabilities of the machine toe begin with.

[That70sGAdawg]

"People on the go" shouldn't be able to watch a TV show movie downloaded from iTunes??
Desktop replacement was never the intention of the Air, but if it now is fixed to a lower processor speed by an Apple firmware "fix"- that's not he same machine that I bought five months ago. This forum has mentioned the limit on processor speed introduced by the firmware fix. I had a machine that played video fine until recently. Either way, It should play flash and video without fail.

[zedsdead]

I had no problems on my 1.8 SSD version playing the 1st HD episode of Heroes.

Can't say the same thing when streaming to the Apple TV, which during complex scenes would stutter a bit.

[slu]

1. You will never be able to return it to Apple. Give up that pipe dream. You bought it six months ago for God's sake.

2. This is way more simple that you make it out to be. Your system does not meet the minimum requirements. You expect it to act like it does. I don't know why you think it should. Your argument that it used to play HD video just fine before the update means nothing since iTunes did not offer HD videos before then, and iTunes 8 did not exist then, so your software and content changes, but you claim it worked before? Impossible. It may have worked with different content and different software, but I don't see how that is relevant. And I don't know why you think that just because you bought it recently it should be able to play the video. Why should it? Because you want it to? Get real.

Here is 2 cents worth of free advice: sell the Air now, before a new version is released and the value of your Air goes down any more and then get something else that meets the minimum requirements for the task you are asking it to do. I don't blame my screwdriver for being a crappy hammer.

[LinMac]

Quote - Have fun! Feel free to keep trolling, we'd hate to accidently change your mind.

I love the personal attacks when someone speaks up about the fallacies of CrApple.

Hey, dimwit, I fell for the cult. I spend a ******** of money. I own an Air. I am $2300 down and no usable laptop. So yea I think Windows is better.

Goodluck to you with Mac

Try a Macbook and you'll most likely be happier with your purchase. The Macbook Air is something of a failure on Apple's part because of the problems that so many report with it. I purchased a Macbook Air and experienced a few of those first hand so I can understand some of your frustration.

I hope the second generation Macbook Air will be much better than the first. Here is hoping because I had such high hopes for mine before I returned it. :D

[joeconvert]

"People on the go" shouldn't be able to watch a TV show movie downloaded from iTunes??
Desktop replacement was never the intention of the Air, but if it now is fixed to a lower processor speed by an Apple firmware "fix"- that's not he same machine that I bought five months ago. This forum has mentioned the limit on processor speed introduced by the firmware fix. I had a machine that played video fine until recently. Either way, It should play flash and video without fail.

Please check the minimum requirements (as others have stated). Now, please check the processor speed of your computer. OK. End of discussion. Get over yourself.

[CaptainCannabis]

Wasnt this supposed to be a wireless laptop where you could do all the things on the go? And you cant even watch an hd vid...

Steve you are full of ********.

[iPave]

How can Apple TV do HD video without problem with its 1 GHz prcessor but Air has problems with 1.6 or 1.8 GHz Dual Core proessor?

[MBA-MD]

Try a Macbook and you'll most likely be happier with your purchase. The Macbook Air is something of a failure on Apple's part because of the problems that so many report with it. I purchased a Macbook Air and experienced a few of those first hand so I can understand some of your frustration.

I hope the second generation Macbook Air will be much better than the first. Here is hoping because I had such high hopes for mine before I returned it. :D

Thank you very much. I think you are one of the very few people here that admits to the FAILURE of Apple with Macbook Air. I agree, usually Apple makes good products. I have a lot of friends with Macs and they are very happy with them. I thought it would be the same when I bought the Air. Honestly, I am not inclined to buy another Mac unless offers a considerable discount for a trade in or something like that.
I hope the second generation work much better

[Olvenskol]

I tried this on my Air (the free Battlestar Galactica "HD" episode). On my machine, the temps stabilized at 68 degrees and the video played full screen to completion without any noticeable hiccups. On my machine, it played perfectly.

I do use Coolbook, so I imagine that helps. Fans never quite maxed out, but came close.

[That70sGAdawg]

How can Apple TV do HD video without problem with its 1 GHz prcessor but Air has problems with 1.6 or 1.8 GHz Dual Core proessor?

Because the Firmware "fix" a couple of weeks ago limited the processor to compensate for "some" systems overheating and Core shutdowns. My point all along was that the firmware made it not the same computer that was bought originally. Now video, and other programs are worse! I don't expect anything for free (again offered to pay the difference in upgrade to more expensive pro). Some people only see what they want to see when reading posts! It must be the Kool-Aid blinding them! ;)

[strikeinsilence]

I love the personal attacks when someone speaks up about the fallacies of CrApple.

Hey, dimwit, I fell for the cult. I spend a ******** of money. I own an Air. I am $2300 down and no usable laptop. So yea I think Windows is better.

Goodluck to you with Mac

You are, by definition, trolling. You added nothing to the topic, not one bit of useful information. Except of course that you're switching to windows. I hate to break it to you, but no one cares. I haven't had any problems at all watching 720p on my Air. How can you say that the Air is a failure if it works fine for me.

[Krevnik]

Because the Firmware "fix" a couple of weeks ago limited the processor to compensate for "some" systems overheating and Core shutdowns. My point all along was that the firmware made it not the same computer that was bought originally. Now video, and other programs are worse! I don't expect anything for free (again offered to pay the difference in upgrade to more expensive pro). Some people only see what they want to see when reading posts! It must be the Kool-Aid blinding them! ;)

Nope, not the firmware at all on the Air that makes the difference.

The Apple TV can play it back simply because it has a dedicated decoder chip. The HD TV shows on iTunes are literally right at the max the decoder chip in the ATV can handle. The 1Ghz processor does no lifting for the decode. Just handling the streaming and making sure data reaches the decoder in time.

Not gonna disagree that the firmware update may have hurt performance of some machines when loaded down. I haven't seen it myself, but people hitting the core shutdowns are likely just hitting this new throttle instead. The cooling in the Air is insufficient for a fully loaded CPU to continue to churn.

[That70sGAdawg]

Nope, not the firmware at all on the Air that makes the difference.

The Apple TV can play it back simply because it has a dedicated decoder chip. The HD TV shows on iTunes are literally right at the max the decoder chip in the ATV can handle. The 1Ghz processor does no lifting for the decode. Just handling the streaming and making sure data reaches the decoder in time.

Not gonna disagree that the firmware update may have hurt performance of some machines when loaded down. I haven't seen it myself, but people hitting the core shutdowns are likely just hitting this new throttle instead. The cooling in the Air is insufficient for a fully loaded CPU to continue to churn.

I understand and agree. It's just sad that the "Bloom is off the Rose". Let's hope the next generation totally satisfies , thought it rarely does... Cheers

[step21]

well, I dunno about an unmodified MBA, but my 1.8 (using coolbook) runs HD shows without problems. The only thing I noticed, that if you're only watching them on the internal screen, it doesn't make much sense to watch HD, because the difference in quality in my opinion is not significant enough.

[gator05]

1.6/80. Exited all programs. smcfancontrol to higher speeds empirically.

Turned on the Office in HD, full screen. Temps went up to 160F, but to my eyes it looked great. No lag, smooth video, good experience. Actually, better than the West Wing in SD, where I did note some a/v asynchrony occasionally.

Oh, and I could see quite clearly outside!

MBA surprised me again.

[Cabbit]

You get the SD version with the HD version. The SD version will play just fine on the air and provide decent enough quality for the size of screen and from my experience of at least Battlestar Galatica the SD version and HD version looked identical on my 13 inch macbook.
The air is not a multimedia workhorse and media player. It is a ultra portable and most of them have at most a 1.2 GHz processor nevermind the 1.6 and 1.8 enjoyed by the air. If you are using the air for things it was not intended to do then it is your failure.
Incase you didn't check the air is advertised to last 5 hours in web browsing and office tasks, that means it is intended for the mobile pro using MS Office, safari, and mail. Being able to playback music and video and things like the Adobe suite and HD are secondary functions that it was never designed to do well.

[BornAgainMac]

Welcome to my world. That is the reason my Air is for sale at the moment. I am switching back to Windows.
Good luck with. I wonder if you can exchange it after this long??

I would be angry too.

I really think the Air is too underpowered but it is worth a try to see if running Bootcamp with Windows is better before you sell it. My first Mac was a inexpensive entry level iMac to get my feet wet while my PC was my main machine. I can see the desire to get the Air though. I predict in 3 years, they will be ready.

[joeshell383]

You are trying to do something that Apple says your computer cannot do and you are complaining and want a "free" upgrade.

Why don't you try it again with just iTunes running, likely the other apps were drawing too much CPU time from iTunes to process the file correctly. You should try to solve your problem, rather than stomp you feet and yell. You bought an underpowered system and now expect a free upgrade, ha. Plus, I doubt the firmware upgrade did anything, otherwise more people whould be having problems.

TEG

Please step back from the Kool-Aid. For Apple to have introduced earlier this year and continue to sell a [high-end, high-price] computer that is not fully functional with all of their current multimedia offerings is flat out unacceptable.

[Rondue]

Quote - Have fun! Feel free to keep trolling, we'd hate to accidently change your mind.

I love the personal attacks when someone speaks up about the fallacies of CrApple.

Hey, dimwit, I fell for the cult. I spend a ******** of money. I own an Air. I am $2300 down and no usable laptop. So yea I think Windows is better.

Goodluck to you with Mac

I own a macbook air and i love it. Sorry that your BAD attitude towards things have landed you a BAD product :/

[That70sGAdawg]

OS 10.5.5 released today admits that The Air had video playback "issues" and promises to "fix" them. I hope so, I'll be a happy camper again!:D

[aa909]

Watched it on full screen without any other apps running . Both episodes were 40+ min each and they both played smoothly without any issues. I checked the istat readings every 15 min and the temp average range was 63-67 C with a peak of 73 C, CPU usage averaged 65% with a peak of about 90%. very impressed with the playback, wonder why the itunes store states a minimum of 2ghz required :confused:, 1.6 is obviously sufficient given my experience here :). any thoughts?

[BWhaler]

Yeah, I gotta agree with the other posters.

I run HD movies with no issues whatsoever on the MBA. I'm not saying it's a perfect device, but it certainly handled HD shows from the iTunes store.

If the OP really is out 2,300 because it can't play HD movies, well, he is probably better off in the Windows world.

[Abstract]

Please step back from the Kool-Aid. For Apple to have introduced earlier this year and continue to sell a [high-end, high-price] computer that is not fully functional with all of their current multimedia offerings is flat out unacceptable.

High price doesn't always mean high speed, since that's not always what you pay extra for. There's just a basic rule that some people fail to understand regarding laptops.

LARGE SIZED = capable of more performance.
small sized = less capable of high performance.

It's an engineering issue.

Dell just released a the E4200 (12" ultraportable with a 1.2 GHz Core 2 Duo) (http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop_latitude_e4200?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd) today. Yes, that's right.....TODAY. It's around 0.7" thick and has no DVD drive, has fewer ports than a large notebook, and includes 1 GB of RAM. It also costs over $2000, and when outfitted with decent specs (up to a 1.4 GHz C2D, and more similar to the MBA), it'll cost over $2500. The Lenovo X300 everyone raves about performs much slower than the MBA in tests, which isn't surprising considering its 1.2 GHz processor.

It's not easy to design an ultraportable. The MBA really is a fine, ultra-thin, good sized mobile laptop, although I think the Dell E4200 looks nicer. :eek: The MBA is great for watching video, but was never meant to be powerful enough to decode full Hi-Def video. Normal sized laptops capable of doing so (i.e. not lightweight ultraportables) are a recent phenomenon. An MBA is a 9 month old system that already had slower hardware put in originally, and yet it can still do it. Nine months after the MBAs release, and newer ultraportables are no better.

I expect the next MBA to be able to do HD well, but if others are releasing slower ultraportables than the MBA, then Apple probably did a better job than you think.

[KamiNoYadoru]

The MBA actually continues to be a peerless ultraportable laptop. The Voodoo Envy costs you more for the same general specs and doesn't even run OSX. It had its problems and its next revision should address a lot of those but come on, acting like this is a **** brick is just rotten attitudes from people who didn't come into their purchase with the right information and now are trying to blame apple for not giving them what they didn't buy.

[aleksandra.]

High price doesn't always mean high speed, since that's not always what you pay extra for. There's just a basic rule that some people fail to understand regarding laptops.

LARGE SIZED = capable of more performance.
small sized = less capable of high performance.

It's an engineering issue.

Dell just released a the E4200 (12" ultraportable with a 1.2 GHz Core 2 Duo) (http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop_latitude_e4200?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd) today. Yes, that's right.....TODAY. It's around 0.7" thick and has no DVD drive, has fewer ports than a large notebook, and starts at 1 GB of RAM. It also costs over $2000, and when outfitted with decent specs (up to a 1.4 GHz C2D, and more similar to the MBA, I might add), it'll cost over $2500. The Lenovo X300 everyone raves about performs much slower than the MBA in tests, which isn't surprising considering its 1.2 GHz processor.

It's not easy to design an ultraportable. The MBA really is a perfectly fine, ultra-thin, good sized mobile laptop, although I think the Dell E4200 looks nicer. :eek: The MBA is great for watching video, but was never meant to be powerful enough to decode full Hi-Def video. Normal sized laptops capable of doing so (i.e. not lightweight ultraportables) are a recent phenomenon. An MBA is a 9 month old system that already had slower hardware put in originally, and yet it can still do it. Nine months after the MBAs release, and newer ultraportables are still under similar limitations

I expect the next MBA to be able to do it, but if others are releasing slower ultraportables than the MBA, then Apple probably did a better job than you think when designing it.

I agree completely. Well, almost completely ;). All other light laptops are either weaker or more expensive. Not to mention uglier and shipping with Vista.

I read somewhere that the real problem with Air is that Apple made it, and people expect more from Apple than from any other company in this market. I was sceptical about it, but after reading this forum for a while I must agree. No one complains about the price of Voodoo's Envy or X300, no, they're worth that much, no matter they are no better. Alright, so Voodoo's ships with external optical drive included. Add $99 to Air's price and it'll still be cheaper for the same specs... but you can get it without it, if you don't need it.

[NathanMuir]

I have a Sony Vaio FE660G, 1.8ghz, 1 gig RAM and I downloaded two free HD episodes (30 Rock and The Office) and I was able to watch both with no problems at all.

[That70sGAdawg]

The "OP" was me, and I never said anything about going to Windows, ... are you kidding? So far, so good on HD playback with the new firmware 10.5.5 (As long as other programs are closed. I can live with that!:rolleyes:

[ishopukisfake]

I downloaded one (cause that's all I have room for) of the new iTunes free "HD" TV shows and 10 min. into it: pixelation, pauses, out of sync audio - Activity monitor shows maxed out, both cores -etc. I had mail, safari (one stable web page), and iCal open.
I'm about ready to make a Genius appointment and try to exchange this for a MacBook Pro - even after 5 months! This latest firmware fix has slowed down my Air and I see the beach ball all the time! I did NOT have heat, or Core shutdown problems before, but Apple needs to own up to product and or firmware mistakes. It's starting to remind me of why I left Sony Vaio and Windows to begin with.
Has anybody been successful exchanging for a MacBook Pro after such a long time after purchase, or am I wasting my time?
Welcome to my world. That is the reason my Air is for sale at the moment. I am switching back to Windows.
Good luck with. I wonder if you can exchange it after this long??

My experience with the genius bar in a similar situation is that they refuse to replace or exchange damaged products after a few weeks into the one year warranty, they are only willing to repair (although the repair also comes with an extended 90 warranty also) My situation was a dysfunctional macbook backlight which is far more serious than slowed performance, and they were unwilling to replace with a few weeks left on the year warranty, so unless you have an exceptionally understanding "genius" its unlikely, I think they have to follow standard procedure.


I have the 1.83 and can watch HD movies.

It's not elegant though since the fans get cranking...

I love my air, but I really hope we see an upgrade soon which has at least a 2ghz CPU, a real GPU, 120+gb of storage and 4gb of memory, and fix the core shutdown/heat issue.

It would be my perfect Mac, and I'd buy it Day One.

This is also a big problem with the regular macbook, as soon as you start doing anything user intensive and using memory the fans kick in, which is really distracting. The macbook pro is free of this, you can do as much as you like and it stays quiet, which is great.

[ishopukisfake]

Thank you very much. I think you are one of the very few people here that admits to the FAILURE of Apple with Macbook Air. I agree, usually Apple makes good products. I have a lot of friends with Macs and they are very happy with them. I thought it would be the same when I bought the Air. Honestly, I am not inclined to buy another Mac unless offers a considerable discount for a trade in or something like that.
I hope the second generation work much better

I was considering a MBA, but after hearing the poor performance and having many issues with mac notebooks I might just go for the new HPTX tablet pc, it looks amazing and does everything i envisaged apple doing in the future, touch screen, rotating screen and so on. So I can understand your disappointment with macs and your change back to pc's. I am using a macbook pro now and it is much better performance wise, but there are still screen issues.
BTW for anyone considering a macbook as an alternative to MBA, i was disappointed with the speakers at first, just to warn you, they are very tinny, and the graphics card isn't that great.

[costabunny]

BTW for anyone considering a macbook as an alternative to MBA, i was disappointed with the speakers at first, just to warn you, they are very tinny, and the graphics card isn't that great.

Isn't the MBA graphics adaptor the same as in the MB ? (X3100)?

[Redline13]

Isn't the MBA graphics adaptor the same as in the MB ? (X3100)?

Yes. There should be no difference between the two in terms of graphic abilities.

[ishopukisfake]

Not sure if they have the same graphics set up, but the only time i tried to play a game on the macbook it was very jerky and had limited expression. This might have been because it was a game designed for power pc, but i thought the new intel macs would handled it, not tried it in the MBP yet, so it may be a config conflict.
If thats the case the only thing I would warn anyone converting to mb is the poor speaker quality, but maybe they will be upgraded in october.

[Olvenskol]

This is also a big problem with the regular macbook, as soon as you start doing anything user intensive and using memory the fans kick in, which is really distracting. The macbook pro is free of this, you can do as much as you like and it stays quiet, which is great.

Ironically, my MB Pro gets hotter and runs louder than my MBA.

[RichardF]

Ironically, my MB Pro gets hotter and runs louder than my MBA.

Same here.

I love the MBA for the 60% I don't need to be running 25 apps simultaneously and SuperDrive. The best feature of the MBA is its design and weight.

[coupdetat]

Meh, well I think this is to be expected from a computer like the Air. It's made mainly for getting work done, not for media... the tiny hard drive and lack of optical drive should have clued you in at the time of purchase.

[impact1290]

I watched the SD version of the free 30 Rock eppisode, and then watched the HD version and saw no difference in quality between the two. Could this possibly be because I'm watching it on such a small screen? I don't have an apple tv or an HD tv yet so I didn't get a chance to see what it looks like on a big screen.

[hvfsl]

To those on Macs having issues playing HD video, are you opening them with Quicktime or playing them through iTunes? Because I have noticed things are a lot smoother played through Quicktime.

I just remove the encryption off the videos I download so I can play them in PowerDVD (has proper hardware acceleration) because even on my PCs (2.4Ghz Quad and 2Ghz Dual) iTunes videos can be slow.

[*Sandy*]

I had a Macbook Air, the minute they released, it's a beautiful piece of work, but for everyday use I sold it and went back to my MB.

I think its a great idea, but really the fans get on my nerves .