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HD 1080p in MacBook Air ?

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bjdraw

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2008
605
17
Tampa FL
When Engadget got their review unit in (1.6/80) I asked Ryan to try this and play 1080p x.264 trailer (10,000 BC) and this is what he said.

Not impressed. Plays jittery, and during lots of motion/sound it pegs
at almost max. If you actually care about 1080p video then you won't
be satisfied!
Click to expand...

I'm doing to hit the Apple Store at lunch and try it on the 1.8 and see if it does any better. I'll also try some 720p. I certainly hope so as this is the only reason I ordered a 1.8/80.

Ben
 
E

Eric1285

macrumors 6502
Feb 22, 2007
262
0
I doubt 1080p video will be playable. I have a 2.16 C2D MBP with 2GB of ram and when it's not plugged into the wall and running in "Better Performance" mode, 1080p videos will occasionally stutter. Even running at full speed, some videos cause it to slow down. I really doubt you'd be able to get 1080p video on a 1.6 ghz processor.
 
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bjdraw

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2008
605
17
Tampa FL
Maybe I don't watch as much 1080p video as you do, but my original 2.0 Core Duo MBP has never maxed out the CPU laying 1080p x.264 video.
 
snickelfritz

snickelfritz

macrumors 65816
Oct 24, 2003
1,109
0
Tucson AZ
cherishbearpapa said:
Hello all :),

For those of you who already received your Air, could you please try a 1080p trailer at the below link to test the smoothness of HD playback in Air?

http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/walle/hd/

Also wondering if 1080p x264 .mkv HD will have a smooth playback in Air? :D

Thank you very much in advance! :)
Click to expand...

1080P is larger than the display of the MBA, AFAIK.
(it's over 1900 pixels wide)
I would think the 720P would be a more appropriate test for 13" display.
 
design-is

design-is

macrumors 65816
Oct 17, 2007
1,219
1
London / U.K.
indeed. 1080p is overkill and would need to be downsampled.

high definition 720p: 1280x720
MacBook Air resolution: 1280x800

= perfect (with small black bars of 40px each at top and bottom :)
 
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bjdraw

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2008
605
17
Tampa FL
The only reason I care is because I do have some 1080p h.264 movies and I'd hate to have to re-encode them just to take with me on a trip. Especially since I already do a re-encode for my iPhone before I leave.
 
design-is

design-is

macrumors 65816
Oct 17, 2007
1,219
1
London / U.K.
S

sanford

macrumors 65816
Jan 5, 2003
1,265
0
Dallas, USA
bjdraw said:
When Engadget got their review unit in (1.6/80) I asked Ryan to try this and play 1080p x.264 trailer (10,000 BC) and this is what he said.



I'm doing to hit the Apple Store at lunch and try it on the 1.8 and see if it does any better. I'll also try some 720p. I certainly hope so as this is the only reason I ordered a 1.8/80.

Ben
Click to expand...

That's bizarre. Original MacBook 2.0 GHz Core Duo, 2GB RAM, 5400 RPM HDD, GMA 950 graphics chipset of course, Numbers, iTunes, Mail, Safari, and of course QT Player, all open. Spaces turned on, four panes, two with windows in them. 10,000 BC 1080p x.264 trailer, smooth as glass, start to finish. Fan kicked on medium speed right at the end, then went straight down to low speed. (And, yeah, I'm absolutely sure which HD versions of the trailers I played; and I played both of the 10K BC trailers available in 1080p). Replayed one of them, switched to Mail, back, moved some windows, no hitches. I mean, I'm not kidding. But I was told when I bought then thing it would be superb for playing 1080p video, but if I was going to do a lot of 1080p video editing, it wouldn't be ideal.

So I don't get it. Especially the MBP C2D owner who reports some stutters, but of course, not testing with this particular trailer, I suppose.

Added: No, of course it won't play full-frame at 1080p on a MacBook display, so for the sake of argument, I played them on an external display, 1440x900, too. Same deal. Smooth as glass. And we have a BD player, so I know from smooth.
 
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bjdraw

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2008
605
17
Tampa FL
I just hit the Apple store and downloaded the same 10,000 BC 1080p trailer on the 1.8 SSD. Although the CPU wasn't 100% utilized the video did not play back smoothly. I had it set to the fit to window setting.

It was watchable, but by no means smooth. I'd put my money on it being the video card. Also, there were no other apps running at the time, but it wasn't after a clean boot.
 
V

ViperrepiV

macrumors regular
Jan 25, 2008
197
26
bjdraw said:
I just hit the Apple store and downloaded the same 10,000 BC 1080p trailer on the 1.8 SSD. Although the CPU wasn't 100% utilized the video did not play back smoothly. I had it set to the fit to window setting.

It was watchable, but by no means smooth. I'd put my money on it being the video card. Also, there were no other apps running at the time, but it wasn't after a clean boot.
Click to expand...

werd. i did the same test an hour ago and it was the same. not really smooth. 720 was fine though. 1080p is unnecessary with that sort of screen size
 
F

furqan8421

macrumors regular
Jun 27, 2007
140
239
As others have said unless using an external display 1080p is pointless and 720p is a better option. I wanted to try a 720p apple trailer when at the store but had to leave early before it could finish downloading. Anyone want to comment on how smooth 720p is?

I'll see if I have time to go back later today and try for myself
 
R

russtic

macrumors member
Jan 21, 2007
76
0
Hull, UK
hdd the problem?

Wouldn't it be the hdd that is causing the issue. I thought that ssd were slow for sustained reads/writes?
 
Consultant

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
russtic said:
Wouldn't it be the hdd that is causing the issue. I thought that ssd were slow for sustained reads/writes?
Click to expand...

SSD can be 4 times as fast as desktop highspeed Raptor 10k drives.

The default harddrive is fairly slow though.
 
C

cherishbearpapa

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 1, 2008
11
0
Sigh... seems like all negative feedback on the 1080p playback in Air...:confused:

I have a FULL HD Bravia which i believe the Air would be able to connect to at full resolution as written in the website tech specs.

But somehow i still feel that it's pretty possible to have a OK playback with those 1080p movie encoded in x264 with MKV container.

I tried playing Transformers 1080p x264 in MKV file ( which is the heaviest HD file i have with Bitrate of 11 Mbps average ) in a lowest range MacBook 2.0 C2D and it's SMOOTH! Heard somewhere x264 .mkv is 99% CPU dependant, so nothing to do with the GPU.

Still believe that Air should be able to play 1080p MKV files well, but need some solid proof from someone who actually owns an Air to test it out.

Anyway, THANKS a lot to all of you who gave the feedbacks so far. :):)
 
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bjdraw

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2008
605
17
Tampa FL
I was going to go to the apple store again tomorrow, so if you want to make a sample file available to me, I'll bring it with me, but I assume I'll need VLC or perian to playback the mkv.
 
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richard371

macrumors 68040
Feb 1, 2008
3,609
1,802
Don't for get no 5.1 surround possible on air.

My black mb 2.2 plays all 1080p fine at normal performance. I am curious if you want to hook up the mba to your high def tv and surround how would you enjoy the 5.1 surround with no optical out like the MB or MBP. Seems like we keep finding more and more the air can't do or do well. Still a pretty machine. very function follows form.
 
C

cherishbearpapa

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 1, 2008
11
0
Yeah, VLC should be able to run on USB drive.

Please get the latest version of VLC as they fixed some compatibility issues with Leopard.

Thanks!!!
 
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bjdraw

macrumors 6502a
Jan 24, 2008
605
17
Tampa FL
I went down there all ready to go with my USB pen drive, and it looks like they sold the demo. So no tests, sucks.
 
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