12" PB DVD playback?

[RJay213]

Hey guys,

I'm very interested in purchasing a new 12" PB for school. With the price after student discounts, it seems the best bet for me.

After reading a number of posts about the 12" vs. 15", the only thing that makes me lean 15 is the comments about the videocard differences.

Is the 12" VC powerful enough to run a DVD from the powerbook to a cinema display at full framerate? I have these nightmare images of it skipping every five frames...

I'm not too concerned with gaming performance, just dvd and non-video productivity applications.

thanks again.

 

[MrBubbles]

I can't say for sure it will run without dropping frames, but here's my experience with my 12".

I have the original (Rev. A) Powerbook 12" with an 867MHz processor and a slightly worse video chip than in the current model. At home, I connect it to an LCD screen running at 1280x1024 (the equivalent of a 17" Apple display). When watching DVD's on this external screen, using the new DVD player in Panther, I notice no dropped frames; everything is as smooth as silk.

The only time I might expect to see dropped frames is in the case of trying to run a 23" Cinema Display off the DVI port, simply because you only have 32MB of VRAM on the 12".

Apple's site has this to say:

You can use the Apple DVI to ADC adapter to connect your PowerBook G4 — even the 12-inch model — to one of Apple’s gorgeous flat-panel displays in seconds.

 

[mymemory]

DVD softwares works in a different way with Video Ram.

I have a Powerbook G3 500 with 8Mb VRam of video ram and the DVD works just fine no matter the video output. It is not the same case when I'm using VJ softwares that suck video ram 10 times more than video games.

A DVD player works in the same way as runing a music CD from the CDrom player. It has an independent processor that works with the data, the managment of ram and processor is different than with other applications. It bypases a huge amount of system resources.

Get yor 12" PB and connect it to whate ever you want if you want to watch DVDs, it won't be a problem.

 

[crazzyeddie]

DVD playback is hardware, not software, so any Mac sold with a DVD drive has no problems playing back DVDs on any screen, regardless of the resolution.