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Need help with my G4 500 viewing video

H

HHgolfpro

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2010
4
0
Does anyone know how to fix an issue with my G4 500 Altavec AGP desktop and IMAC G4 800 LAMPSHADE having same issue with both computers .


When I try to view an apple movie trailer or When I go to Hulu to view a TV or Movie .The video is very choppy and slow. I have 2 ghz of memory and have had comcast out to check that the incoming signal is fast and it is. I have a 128 pro rage graphic card so that should be plenty to view video.

Can any member on this Forum offer some advice ?

Thank You .
:confused:
Howard
 
Hrududu

Hrududu

macrumors 68020
Jul 25, 2008
2,299
627
Central US
Unfortunately, what you are experiencing isn't uncommon or unnatural for G4 systems of that vintage. Internet video is extremely processor intensive, and single processor G4 and G3 systems just don't play them well until you get to about 1.33GHz or better. What OS are you running on these?
 
M

Makosuke

macrumors 604
Aug 15, 2001
6,662
1,242
The Cool Part of CA, USA
To add, making sure you have the latest (10.1) version of Flash will help a little--after v9, if memory serves, they improved performance substantially. If there's an HTML5 or QuickTime version available, that will also play a little better than Flash video, since it's far more optimized.

But basically, not going to happen. Even my DP1000 G4 at work has trouble with YouTube videos, so a 500MHz or 800MHz G4 just isn't fast enough to play modern video smoothly, no matter what.

Modern video codecs are vastly more efficient than old ones, but the cost is that a LOT more CPU power is required to play them. The iPhone and other mobile devices can manage because they have special hardware decoders for h264 video, so the CPU doesn't need to do the work--hardware no older Mac has.
 
H

HHgolfpro

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2010
4
0
Hrududu said:
Unfortunately, what you are experiencing isn't uncommon or unnatural for G4 systems of that vintage. Internet video is extremely processor intensive, and single processor G4 and G3 systems just don't play them well until you get to about 1.33GHz or better. What OS are you running on these?
Click to expand...

Hi Thank You for your reply. I am running tiger on my G4 500 with all the latest updates. I am also running Tiger on my G4 800 . I was surfing on this site and read that some guys are running Leopard on the G4 800. I am guessing that it would not make any difference as far as the Video is concerned . I will just not watch any video on this Machine .
Again thank You for taking the time to reply.
 
H

HHgolfpro

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2010
4
0
Makosuke said:
To add, making sure you have the latest (10.1) version of Flash will help a little--after v9, if memory serves, they improved performance substantially. If there's an HTML5 or QuickTime version available, that will also play a little better than Flash video, since it's far more optimized.

But basically, not going to happen. Even my DP1000 G4 at work has trouble with YouTube videos, so a 500MHz or 800MHz G4 just isn't fast enough to play modern video smoothly, no matter what.

Modern video codecs are vastly more efficient than old ones, but the cost is that a LOT more CPU power is required to play them. The iPhone and other mobile devices can manage because they have special hardware decoders for h264 video, so the CPU doesn't need to do the work--hardware no older Mac has.
Click to expand...

Hi Also thank You for your Reply. I was afraid that I was at the point of
spending more money to upgrade to a faster computer to keep up with the latest tech advances .It's a shame I have to get rid of a very nice computer and Monitor that works great for everything else I use.
 
M

Makosuke

macrumors 604
Aug 15, 2001
6,662
1,242
The Cool Part of CA, USA
HHgolfpro said:
ith all the latest updates. I am also running Tiger on my G4 800 . I was surfing on this site and read that some guys are running Leopard on the G4 800. I am guessing that it would not make any difference as far as the Video is concerned .
Click to expand...
While I think there are major advantages of Tiger over Leopard, you're correct that it won't help with video playback.

The computer is still fine for a lot of things, so long as you don't watch video.
 
B

brassguy98

macrumors newbie
Jul 12, 2010
20
0
My 1.42 eMac is running Tiger currently and is okay on YouTube, and news outlet videos, but still is kinda choppy. My dual 1.42 PowerMac runs them just fine. Your machine is really just reaching the end of it's life as far as video is concerned. I have a 700 mhz Lampshade that I like a lot, but only do menial tasks with it, like office documents etc. All of them pale in comparison to my MacBook and MacBook Pro. They're just incredible pieces of machinery. I do find myself missing the PPC days though.
 
CubeHacker

CubeHacker

macrumors 65816
Apr 22, 2003
1,243
251
Please keep in mind that though your macs can certainly play back video just fine, its only flash video's that can cause a problem. Your 800mhz G4 should have no problem playing back most forms of video, such as AVI, DIVX, MOV, and of course standard DVD's. Even lower resolution H264 encoded video's should play back well.
 
H

HHgolfpro

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 24, 2010
4
0
CubeHacker said:
Please keep in mind that though your macs can certainly play back video just fine, its only flash video's that can cause a problem. Your 800mhz G4 should have no problem playing back most forms of video, such as AVI, DIVX, MOV, and of course standard DVD's. Even lower resolution H264 encoded video's should play back well.
Click to expand...

Hi Thanks for your reply . I do not know of any websites that offer Movies or Shows in the formats you mention? If you do or anyone does I would appreciate the info. Thanks to all the members that take the time to give out great information to those of us that are new to trying to fix issues with our Mac's .
 
zen.state

zen.state

macrumors 68020
Mar 13, 2005
2,181
8
If there is a video you really really want to see in a non-choppy way then just download it with one of the many web video capture apps out there and then downrip it with handbrake.
 
CubeHacker

CubeHacker

macrumors 65816
Apr 22, 2003
1,243
251
HHgolfpro said:
Hi Thanks for your reply . I do not know of any websites that offer Movies or Shows in the formats you mention? If you do or anyone does I would appreciate the info. Thanks to all the members that take the time to give out great information to those of us that are new to trying to fix issues with our Mac's .
Click to expand...

"Websites" don't usually offer downloads in formats such as those, because its almost always considered piracy. However that doesn't mean those formats don't exist.
 
raysfan81

raysfan81

macrumors 6502a
Oct 6, 2009
598
2
You might want to try downloading Camino browser because it is optimized for flash videos. I don't have any problems playing youtube videos on my 400mhz powermac g4 with 1gig of ram.
 
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