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Can your iMac play this 4k movie trailer?

mlsusa said:
I couldn't get that trailer to play. It took forever to download the first few seconds and the video froze constantly.

But it could be that video or the site itself. These two were the first 4k videos I found through a Google search and I was able to load them quickly and they played without any hiccups.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_okcNVZqqI&list=PLD33E5618740295DF&index=1

http://gizmodo.com/5994009/4k-video-at-1000-frames-per-second-will-melt-your-eyes

(Late 2012 27" iMac 3.4ghz i7)
Click to expand...

YouTube 4k is a joke, though. The bitrate isn't high enough to even make it worth it. Even that gizmodo video is lost on us. 4k is just a resolution, - but it doesn't give you any more actual useful image than 1280x720 if the data isn't there. Both those videos have a ton of mosquito noise and lost data.

What you need is good source material that maintains itself in the medium that it is presented. YouTube or any streaming video service is not that medium.

On a sidenote, that Elysium 4k video is "OK," but still could be better (lots of banding, for example).
 
Last edited:
You guys with problems did *download* it first right? I tried streaming it but the site is only serving up data at between 300KB/s to 1MB/s. Not fast enough. (I have an 80Mb connection and get around 10 Megabytes/s download speed when the source can provide it.)

I am downloading it now and will be very surprised if it doesn't play fine. We will see in a moment... or two... or three.

OK, downloaded. Plays it perfectly on my i7 iMac. Circa 12% CPU, zero dropped frames. OS X 10.8.4
 
I was playing around with the trailer again this morning and if I use QT it will stutter in a couple of places but if I use VLC it plays perfectly.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
I know you're asking about playback on the iMac, but I'm currently on the MBP and saw your thread.

cMBP 15" mid-2012
2.3 Ghz i7
16GB 1333 Mhz DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 512MB
Samsung 830 SSD (SATA3)
OS X 10.8.4

I downloaded the 4K and the 720p versions and played them in full screen with QuickTime.

The 4K played well and only stuttered a few times. CPU barely registered anything.
The 720p played well and never stuttered at all. CPU barely registered anything.
Click to expand...

I downloaded this to the iMac just now.

iMac 27" mid-2010
2.93GHz i7
16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM
ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024MB
Samsung 840 SSD (SATA2)
OS X 10.8.4

It played it just a pinch worse than the MBP and stuttered a couple of times for just a second longer. The CPU seemed to work a little harder than the MBP despite have (what I think) is a better GPU.

Screen%20Shot%202013-06-15%20at%208.17.27%20AM.png
 
Played just fine. Roughly 100%(of 800%) CPU, and 1/3 GPU usage. iMac in signature.
 
Plays fine on 2012 3.4Ghz i7, 32GB RAM, 680GTX, booting from external 256GB 840 Pro, using VLC.
CPU bounces around from 8% to 20% CPU in VLC.

Plays fine using MPlayer OSX Extended, about the same CPU as VLC.
Plays fine using DIVX Plus Player, a bit more CPU than VLC.
Plays fine using QuickTime, a bit more CPU than VLC.

Stutters in MPEG Streamclip, with CPU up to 30%.
 
Nuke61 said:
Plays fine on 2012 3.4Ghz i7, 32GB RAM, 680GTX, booting from external 256GB 840 Pro, using VLC.
CPU bounces around from 8% to 20% CPU in VLC.

Plays fine using MPlayer OSX Extended, about the same CPU as VLC.
Plays fine using DIVX Plus Player, a bit more CPU than VLC.
Plays fine using QuickTime, a bit more CPU than VLC.

Stutters in MPEG Streamclip, with CPU up to 30%.
Click to expand...

8-20% in VLC in OS X 10.8.4? That's quite different to what I see in OS X 10.8.4 using the exact same setup (except a Samsung 830 where you're using an 840 Pro). I see up to ~150%. You sure you were watching the Activity Monitor at the time?
 
WilliamG said:
8-20% in VLC in OS X 10.8.4? That's quite different to what I see in OS X 10.8.4 using the exact same setup (except a Samsung 830 where you're using an 840 Pro). I see up to ~150%. You sure you were watching the Activity Monitor at the time?
Click to expand...
I see up to a bit over 100% in CPU monitor, but that's over multiple cores. The range that I posted was what was shown in %User with nothing else running. In Activity Monitor you can click on 'Window' --> 'CPU History' to get a good graphical look at what all 8 cores are doing. Just using %User is much easier, since it gives an average of all the cores.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
I know you're asking about playback on the iMac, but I'm currently on the MBP and saw your thread.

cMBP 15" mid-2012
2.3 Ghz i7
16GB 1333 Mhz DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 512MB
Samsung 830 SSD (SATA3)
OS X 10.8.4

I downloaded the 4K and the 720p versions and played them in full screen with QuickTime.

The 4K played well and only stuttered a few times. CPU barely registered anything.
The 720p played well and never stuttered at all. CPU barely registered anything.
Click to expand...


2012 iMAC i7 - ran fine full screen .
 
My 2010 Mac Mini with 8GB RAM can play 1080p video and 1080p YouTube trailer at the same time while iTunes playing in the background, Safari with 4 tabs opened.
 
Nuke61 said:
I see up to a bit over 100% in CPU monitor, but that's over multiple cores. The range that I posted was what was shown in %User with nothing else running. In Activity Monitor you can click on 'Window' --> 'CPU History' to get a good graphical look at what all 8 cores are doing. Just using %User is much easier, since it gives an average of all the cores.
Click to expand...

Yeah I follow you. So we probably saw the same thing but you were looking at total percentage of all cores. Thanks for clearing that up.
 
I tried it on my PC. Windows Media Player doesn't do 4k very well :D

It worked fine in VLC though, my PC has been upgraded, but at its core it uses 2009 tech.
 
Nuke61 said:
I see up to a bit over 100% in CPU monitor, but that's over multiple cores. The range that I posted was what was shown in %User with nothing else running. In Activity Monitor you can click on 'Window' --> 'CPU History' to get a good graphical look at what all 8 cores are doing. Just using %User is much easier, since it gives an average of all the cores.
Click to expand...

You have an iMac with 8 cores?
 
StephenCampbell said:
My 2006 Mac Pro stutters terribly trying to play this, but Activity Monitor shows only 30% of my CPU being used.

Can your iMac play the 4k trailer? Please also list the percentage of CPU being used as well as the year your machine was manufactured.

http://www.hd-trailers.net/movie/elysium/
Click to expand...

My MBA played it rather smoothly, only 1 or 2 stutters. Maybe it has to do more with the internet speed.
 
You need to download it before playing it. Internet speed should have nothing to do with playback.
 
On my late 2012 27" iMac (3.4 GHz i7, 8 GB RAM), playback was essentially unwatchable streaming in Safari, even after allowing it to buffer fully. Downloading the mp4, it played perfectly in VLC, and pretty well in QuickTime Player (there was a brief stutter around the studio logos, after which it was fine). I didn't try in any other browsers.

I suspect there are some issues with the Safari media playback elements. I've noticed issues where lower res videos in full screen stutter or have other issues (some brief tearing often), so there are likely some performance issues in that code.
 
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