Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

sambapati87

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 27, 2007
36
0
Hey all, I'll start with my specs

2.16ghz Core Duo MBP (2006)
2GB RAM
Radeon Mobility X1600 256mb
7200rpm 100GB HD
External USB 2.0 500GB HD
10.5.4

Here's the deal: I can't play 1920 x 800 mkv (H.264) video files in either VLC or QuickTime player smoothly. I get tons of dropped frames (QuickTime says I'm getting about 18fps) and even 3 - 4 seconds of no motion at all at times. This is with no other applications running and over 1.5gb of free RAM. Either process never uses above 60% of my CPU.

Weirder: Shorter (1 to 2 minute) 1080p files work perfectly in either player, with no dropped frames.

Is my hard drive (I've tried from both) the bottleneck? Should I wait a few minutes before pressing play for the larger files?

I am able to play two 1080p streams at once from Apple's QuickTime HD gallery at a full 24fps, so I see know reason why this should be a problem.

Any thoughts?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.