1080p high bitrate mp4 on macbook pro

[emikshe]

Hi all! I'll cut to the chase - does a Late-07 Macbook Pro (2.2Ghz, 7200RPM HD, 4GB RAM, 128MB Video RAM) have the horsepower to play and edit a high bitrate 1080p camcorder output?

Specifically, it is a 16mbps file, 60fps (from Sanyo Xacti HD2000), and my macbook only plays it from 16-30fps (more on that variance later). The original file is here, any fellow MBP 2.2 owners - please test it out!
Direct file link (right click then "save target as"):
http://img.photographyblog.com/reviews/sanyo_xacti_hd2000/sample_images/sanyo_xacti_hd2000_01.mp4
Full page link:
http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews_sanyo_xacti_hd2000_3.php

The reason it is 16-30 fps is that when using my Dell 3007wfp-hc (2500-ish by 1600 monitor) external display (my preferred setup) - it is only 16fps. When on the laptop display with the external not plugged in, it has gotten up to 29/30 fps.

Basically, I want to get that camcorder (or one of the new Canon 1080p 24p camcorders coming out) and edit the video in iMovie 09 or Final Cut Express on my Macbook Pro. Is it possible on my current version or am I stuck with the option of either shooting only 720p, or buying a new MBP (ridiculous!). THANKS!

EDIT: Also, I would prefer to edit on my external display, if possible...

Related threads:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/7174717/
(tip for playing in VLC, didn't work)
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/654513/
(thread about laggy 1080p on imac, useful for some background info)

 

[Apachestyle]

Macbook Pro Power...

Hey man i have macbook pro basically the same specs and i am having the same problem as you. when i play my Sanyo Xacti HD2000 file which is filmed at the highest resolution (1080P 60FPS) it only playing between 15 and 30 fps in quicktime.
Now thinking that my Macbook Pro might not be powerful enough to process the file i decided to try it on my Mac Pro which runs 2x3GHz Dual Core and has 8 Gb of memory. I am having pretty much the same problem. It only plays back between 27-31 fps and nothing i can do helps.
I have had success in editing videos in iMovie 09 and Final Cut Pro but so far they are only 30fps when exported. I am trying to export a Quicktime file from iMovie 09 that says its gonna be 60 fps but we will see. Maybe it has to do with Video RAM, which i am not very familiar with.
Have you had any luck? I love this camera and its capable of so much - there has to be a better way to take advantage of its features!

 

[iLog.Genius]

Hey man i have macbook pro basically the same specs and i am having the same problem as you. when i play my Sanyo Xacti HD2000 file which is filmed at the highest resolution (1080P 60FPS) it only playing between 15 and 30 fps in quicktime.
Now thinking that my Macbook Pro might not be powerful enough to process the file i decided to try it on my Mac Pro which runs 2x3GHz Dual Core and has 8 Gb of memory. I am having pretty much the same problem. It only plays back between 27-31 fps and nothing i can do helps.
I have had success in editing videos in iMovie 09 and Final Cut Pro but so far they are only 30fps when exported. I am trying to export a Quicktime file from iMovie 09 that says its gonna be 60 fps but we will see. Maybe it has to do with Video RAM, which i am not very familiar with.
Have you had any luck? I love this camera and its capable of so much - there has to be a better way to take advantage of its features!

I 'm not a video buff but I'm pretty sure the Mac Pro should have no problem. Maybe it's a setting somewhere or the video doesn't really play back at 60fps?

 

[Dale Campbell]

This may not be helpful but I downloaded the file, (thinking about getting that camera so it was nice to have a look!) and playback was very jerky with lots of lines visible.

I am running a 2007 macbook 2ghz with 2 gig of ram. So I though probably just something funny in quicktime, tried in imovie (older version 6.0.3) and it played perfectly... not sure if it was a full frame rate but it seemed smooth and not slowed down. Was able to edit without hassle and it didn't even break a sweat.

 

[Apachestyle]

solution!

Hey guys I think i got it! I did some research and learned that the .mp4 files that the Xacti camera produces are delivery codecs and not editing codecs. This is why you can fit an hour and a half of full 1080p video on a 16gb SD where a 16gb P2 card can only hold like 20-30 minutes of full 1080p video. They are precompressed and not meant for editing. A friend of mine introduced me to a program called MPEG Streamclip. Its a great little file converter. Just drop the .mp4 file in and export as a quicktime .mov file. I used Apple Intermediate Codec, put 60 in the frame rate box, unchecked the interlaced scaling, and left the 1920x1080 (unscaled) marked. After it exported it played back at 60fps without hardly any dropped frames. These files are also easy to use in FCP and shouldnt have to be rendered to play with. I hope the helps.
For anyone looking to get this camera, I am honestly amazed by the quality this camera produces. With the combination of the quality and the amount of feature of both the video and picture camera it simply blew me away. I would definitely recommend it. The only thing i can complain about its the stabilization for handheld video due to its size and weight.

 

[crazzyeddie]

... Just drop the .mp4 file in and export as a quicktime .mov file. I used Apple Intermediate Codec, put 60 in the frame rate box, unchecked the interlaced scaling, and left the 1920x1080 (unscaled) marked. After it exported it played back at 60fps without hardly any dropped frames. These files are also easy to use in FCP and shouldnt have to be rendered to play with. I hope the helps...

This sounds like a free solution to your problem. Hopefully it will work for you. Otherwise, you might want to try using "clamshell" mode on your Macbook when using the external display. This will allow the graphics card to only drive one monitor instead of two, which should make video smoother.

If you decide to upgrade, I would strongly suggest getting a newer Macbook or Macbook Pro because of the video cards. All of the computers based on the 9400M have hardware MPEG4/h.264 decoding, so you see drastically lower CPU usage when playing those formats.

 

[Apple Corps]

FWIW - I don't think 16/mbs is a "high bitrate" - specs on even some prosumer camcorders are at 35/mbs.

 

[sycho]

I think a lot of the reason that it is poorly played back is that is in not 60 frames per second, it is 60 fields per second, which will give everything a weird look on a progressive monitor if not deinterlaced. I'm running it through JES deinterlacer at the moment to see how it will run after deinterlacing.