Apple HD movie choppy on iBook G4

[MrSmith]

I downloaded a HD movie from Apple's QT page (200MB). It plays fine on my (18 month old) iMac but won't play properly on my iBook G4. Even though it's sitting on my desktop it plays like it's being streamed too slowly: plays for a second then stops then plays for another second or two. The QT menu becomes slow as well so it's as though the whole app is struggling for air. Any idea how I can sort this?

 

[Unorthodox]

Playing HD video may be too much for your iBook. What's its specs?

 

[MrSmith]

 

[jsw]

Sadly, yes, your iBook isn't powerful enough to play the larger-res HD movies. It should play some of the lower-res (720p) ones, though.

 

[MrSmith]

Thanks. That was a 720p. I tried the 480p and it plays OK. Oh, well. You learn something new every day.

 

[neonblue2]

For future reference
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/recommendations.html

 

[Chundles]

My 1.2GHz iBook G4 handles 480p just fine, 720p is choppy and 1080p is like watching a slideshow. But that's to be expected, I'm amazed I can play 480p stuff so well despite my system being outside the recommended specs for that format.

Can't wait till '08 when I replace this little beast with something that can handle anything thrown at it. The iBook will be 4 years old by then and unless chucking the extra 256MB and adding a 1GB stick of RAM to max it out early next year in anticipation for Leopard gives it a massive boost of speed over the current 512MB in there I think it'll be about damned time when I finally hit "purchase."

 

[p0intblank]

I know how you feel, MrSmith. Ever hear of the Podcast "MacBreak?" They shoot in high definition and the only way my PowerBook can handle it is if I scale down the video to about half its original size. Forget about playing it in its native resolution... I'll have an Intel Mac someday.

 

[MrSmith]

Well, according to the specs kindly linked above my PowerPC 2GB iMac shouldn't be able to play the 1080p HD videos. I'm beginning to feel lucky I can play colour movies on my, what, 8-month old iBook...

 

[eXan]

Well, according to the specs kindly linked above my PowerPC 2GB iMac shouldn't be able to play the 1080p HD videos. I'm beginning to feel lucky I can play colour movies on my, what, 8-month old iBook...

Strange. At what framerate does your 2 GHz iMac play the H.264 1080?

Mine does at about 12-19 FPS.

 

[MrSmith]

Strange. At what framerate does your 2 GHz iMac play the H.264 1080?

Mine does at about 12-19 FPS.

Yes, I suppose GHz is more useful info Mine is about 9-11 on the movie I just downloaded (and crap). Thought I'd played 1080, but obviously not.