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sambapati87

macrumors member
Original poster
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?
 
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