quicktime HD and powerbooks...

[technocoy]

I'm bouncing back and forth between a new 17incher and a powermac.

I would love to be able to view HD content on the system at at least 720p,
but 1080 would be nice.

I am also considering the elgato 500 DVR, and would love to hear others experiences with using the HD functions with a new powerbook with the 128 graphics card.

My 1Ghz titanium has some issues playing anything other than the 480p files with the 64meg graphics card and 1 gig of ram, but the mini i bought my mother with only 512megs or ram seems to even play the 720 files well...

interesting to say the least...

I use my machine for design (photoshop, illustrator, flash, and some video and audio editing) but i do intend to use the new machine as a multimedia machine as far as video, since i may be buying the 30 inch cinema. The only game a really play on it is WoW, and would also be interested to know others experiences with it on their 17 inchers.

Thanks for any input guys, this is really holding me up. I love the portablility of the powerbook now, but i am torn between a new one or the G5.

thanks!
technocoy

oh and just in case you were thinking about it, i won't be able to keep my current Ti AND get a G5 since i will need the money from it's sale to help with buying the new system. otherwise i would just keep my lovely Ti and get a desktop G5. oh well, you can't have it all right?

 

[Demon Hunter]

I've only played movie trailers, but they're great... I was surprised how well the HD formats playback. That being said, 720p is still much smoother than 1080i, and there are definitely times where the choppiness is obvious with 1080i. Of course I don't watch HD all the time so this is just my impression.

WoW runs beautifully, it's the only game I play as well... I have almost all the options on, textures on high, and all shaders except Full Screen Glow which cuts about 50% of your fps. If you turn Vertical Sync off and set the distance to low it's smooth as silk, 45-60 fps depending on location. Around 15 fps near the auction houses. I also do design, and for these things it's fabulous.

The 17" is leaps and bounds ahead of your TiBook but in terms of HD processing the G4 can only do so much. My advice would be to try out some HD trailers at an Apple Store. The G5 will get you much more power for your dollar, but there's nothing with more beauty and power than a 17". I'm biased, though.

 

[technocoy]

lol...

dferrara,
thanks for the quick review... sounds like it handles things really well. does it really kill it with the distance set to maybe medium on WoW? i have to admit, of all the options, that is one of my favorites is beign able to feel how vast the world is... but it's not a deal breaker thats for sure.

the good thing about getting the 30 inch is i will now longer be using the powerbook as the second display. right now i'm using my 22in cinema display and my powerbook in a spanning set-up, but the 17, when plugged in, would only be driving the 30, not it's own display as well.

again thanks for the run-down and keep em' coming, as i would love to hear as many experiences as possible.

thanks in advance

 

[technocoy]

i guess not many people have gotten into the HD stuff yet. OH well, thanks dferrara!

 

[Demon Hunter]

dferrara,
thanks for the quick review... sounds like it handles things really well. does it really kill it with the distance set to maybe medium on WoW? i have to admit, of all the options, that is one of my favorites is beign able to feel how vast the world is... but it's not a deal breaker thats for sure.

the good thing about getting the 30 inch is i will now longer be using the powerbook as the second display. right now i'm using my 22in cinema display and my powerbook in a spanning set-up, but the 17, when plugged in, would only be driving the 30, not it's own display as well.

again thanks for the run-down and keep em' coming, as i would love to hear as many experiences as possible.

thanks in advance

No problem. Tell us when you make your decision.

As for distance, yeah, I would say it is a killer if you set it to medium. A few notches above "lowest" is usually fine, but I would say medium or above isn't worth it. You could always change it, depending on your location, I suppose.

So you'll be running WoW on the 30"? Will it use the native resolution of the Cinema display then? It would be very interesting to see how it would perform...