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maître

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 5, 2022
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Russia
Hey there! I've been using a 12" PowerBook for the last year, actually my first Mac, it's really great! However I'm thinking about a bigger screen, and also a quieter, colder machine, better suited for Leopard. I'm peeping at the last pre-unibody Macbook Pro as the perfect do-it-all machine, but there are PowerBooks at lower price and better condition. Hence the questions below:

Do any of you really use the remote control or is there a similar thing for the PowerBook?
How does the reliability compare? I'll be definitely using any of these machines much more.
How much graphics do large PowerBooks handle? My last 12" model can't even play DVD ripped in AVC. Some games of the day are slideshows as well. I'd be happy enough if a 17" can handle DVD-AVC rips (720p would be nice) and maybe Sims 2.

Thanks!
 
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My last 12" model can't even play DVD ripped in AVC. Some games of the day are slideshows as well. I'd be happy enough if a 17" can handle DVD-AVC rips (720p would be nice) and maybe Sims 2.
Video playback on PPC portables is a balancing act of expectation and experiment.

Your 12" can definitely play a ripped DVD if it's done correctly and can also play 720P if, again, the video is correctly transcoded and played with the right software (VLC, XBMC, MPlayer, FFPlay and Coreplayer.)

Getting a MBP will eliminate such concerns and guarantee playback up to 1080P without much worry.
 
I'm peeping at the last pre-unibody Macbook Pro as the perfect do-it-all machine,
If that is the Early 2008 generation (models A1260 and A1261), be aware that defective GPUs can thoroughly spoil the fun with these. My advice would be to look for one that has had the logicboard replaced and thus features a revised GPU. A green dot sticker on the RAM bridge indicates that. Those are known to be reliable.
 
Video playback on PPC portables is a balancing act of expectation and experiment.
Agreed. So far straight DVDs are the best choice all-around. I've seen some amazing results from CorePlayer online, but sadly, it crashes on my machine.
If that is the Early 2008 generation (models A1260 and A1261), be aware that defective GPUs can thoroughly spoil the fun with these.
Thanks! Every time I buy a laptop I make sure it still has its balls :cool:
 
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Hey there! I've been using a 12" PowerBook for the last year, actually my first Mac, it's really great! However I'm thinking about a bigger screen, and also a quieter, colder machine, better suited for Leopard. I'm peeping at the last pre-unibody Macbook Pro as the perfect do-it-all machine, but there are PowerBooks at lower price and better condition. Hence the questions below:

Do any of you really use the remote control or is there a similar thing for the PowerBook?

When I was using remote control functions on my PowerPC Macs (none of which was the iMac G5 with iSight and the Apple remote it débuted), I used Salling Clicker with Bluetooth on my phone (at the time, it would have been either my old Sony Ericsson T610 or Nokia E62). I used the remote function mostly for giving presentations and moving PDF slide pages. Especially with the candybar compactness of the old T610 and its thumb controller, this worked really well.

Salling Clicker would likely work with an aluminium MacBook Pro, as long as you’re running a version of OS X on which the utility works and the version of Salling Clicker you’re using is, at the very least, a Universal Binary.

After I moved to an Intel Mac for giving presentations, an A1226 Santa Rosa C2D 15-inch MacBook Pro, I began to use the included remote control. I still have that remote control and I still use it from time to time — both for presentations and also for media at home.

How does the reliability compare? I'll be definitely using any of these machines much more.

I run both an A1139 17-inch PowerBook G4 and an A1261 17-inch aluminium MacBook Pro. They run almost continuously. I have owned them since 2019, although I only got the A1261 up and running last year (after getting a logic board with the fixed GPU). I’ve also disassembled both multiple times (for repair, maintenance, and care).

What I’ve found is the internal construction of the aluminium PowerBooks is slightly less refined and, at least to me, feels less rigid whenever I pick it up, relative to its aluminium MBP counterpart. The A1139 display is a higher resolution than all of its predecessors, but this is also a display which is known to be a little less bright and vivid than either its lower-resolution counterparts of the time (or the displays which were added to later MacBook Pros). It was an early version of the LG display resolution; subsequent versions by LG tended to be brighter and better with resolving colour vividness.

As for reliability: once the GPU issue on affected MacBook Pros is fixed or replaced, they generally run pretty well, as do the aluminium PowerBooks. Again, I often feel a little more cautious when picking up the PowerBook, because the frame seems to flex ever so slightly.

How much graphics do large PowerBooks handle? My last 12" model can't even play DVD ripped in AVC. Some games of the day are slideshows as well.

Paging @Amethyst1 ! :)
 
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