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Can an iMac G3 play digital iTunes movies (SD)?
- Thread starter Zellio
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Hrududu
macrumors 68020
I'm not sure what format they're in. More than likely it won't be anything a G3 can handle. Most streaming video these days is going to need at least a dual 1GHz G4 to pull it off. About the only iMac G3 that I would assume could get close to doing it would be a 600 or 700MHz model with the full 1GB of RAM installed.
Okay then, how do you reinstall os 9, esp if you got an imac g3 cheap with no os9 disks? There should be a hidden reinstall partition, right?
Until I get a clean install I'm afraid of putting any used PC online or simply in use, and this thing runs slow anyway (probably due to age, but a reinstall wouldn't hurt)
Until I get a clean install I'm afraid of putting any used PC online or simply in use, and this thing runs slow anyway (probably due to age, but a reinstall wouldn't hurt)
ad931
macrumors regular
My iBook G4 800MHz 1.12GB RAM, still running Panther 10.3.9 🙂() & iTunes 7.7.1 has no issues whatsoever playing iTunes movies. I have my movies on my 2012 Mac mini & i use the "shared" option from it to watch them (and my whole music library is available as well) on the iBook.
In fact, watched Home Alone on it last night in bed!
Hrududu
macrumors 68020
The only difference is the G4 vs the G3 chip. The velocity engine really helps with things like video playback. It's hard to say if that would make or break it though.
Anonymous Freak
macrumors 603
No, in video playback on PowerPC, the CPU itself has a *LOT* more to do with it - GPU acceleration of video codecs didn't start until much later. The AltiVec instructions available in the G4 are perfect for decoding video, so a G4 can handle much more "intensive" codecs than a G3 can without losing frames.
For example, at slower CPU speeds (below 500 MHz,) a G3 cannot reliably play back MPEG-2 (the codec used by standard DVDs,) whereas a G4 can.
AVC? (The format used by the iTunes Store,) forget about it on a G3. At any resolution. Apple even recommends a 1 GHz G4 to play back the SD resolution videos. Although when Apple very first added videos to the iTunes Store (when it was just TV shows and music videos,) they were even lower resolution than SD, and those play fine on even a slowish G4.
Anonymous Freak
macrumors 603
There is no reason to go for an earlier OS X version - by and large the latest version of OS X a certain system supports is the fastest on that hardware.
But I believe Panther (10.3) would be the oldest that could play an iTunes Store purchased movie.
But I believe Panther (10.3) would be the oldest that could play an iTunes Store purchased movie.
tom vilsack
macrumors 68000
Maybe you can't install a version higher then 9.1 but....
I had a tiger "superduper" image made from a ibook G4 that had itunes 9.2.1 (5)...i bought my ibook G3 800 and restored that image to it and itunes 9.2.1 runs just fine.
ps: I know Ive tried running mp4 downloaded utube videos using mactubes in both qt and vlc and nothing but lag.....
Last edited:
Intell
macrumors P6
The last official version that will install is the last version of iTunes 8. I think it's 8.2.x. With 9.1, you have to install it on a G4 and move it over or use Pacifist. I've tried getting 9.2 and 9.2.1 working on a G3, but it has never launched. Always getting killed with an error in the syslog complaining about lack of CPU architecture support.
tom vilsack
macrumors 68000
well on this 14" ibook G3 800MHz I have 9.2.1 working np from using a image from a 12" G4 1.2GHz using superduper.....maybe try that. (using superduper to make a image)