HD DVDs and macbook...

[machurdler]

Can you watch a HD DVD on a macbook? 😕

 

[aaronw1986]

not currently...you need an HD drive, which the macbook's do not have.

 

[machurdler]

aww poop... I'm getting a MacBook for Christmas and I wanted some movies too and I was hoping the HD DVDs, but whatever.. Are HD DVDs way better than DVDs?

 

[vega07]

of course they're better than dvds. but if you're going to watch the movie on a screen smaller than 42'', I don't think you'll discern a difference.

 

[aspro]

I think I read somewhere that it may be possible to use the xbox 360 HD-DVD drive with Mac OS X, vista etc. Does anyone know anything about this or did I imagine it?

 

[garethlewis2]

OS X recognises the HD-DVD from a 360 instantly. Doesn't mean it can play HD-DVDs though. DVD Player doesn't contain the drivers to allow this. When this is done, I have no idea what the performance is going to be like. On the 360 all 3 cores are at maximum load, and the ATi chip is also doing some of the decoding on the GPU. So it might kill all but the fastest Macs.

 

[poppe]

OS X recognises the HD-DVD from a 360 instantly. Doesn't mean it can play HD-DVDs though. DVD Player doesn't contain the drivers to allow this. When this is done, I have no idea what the performance is going to be like. On the 360 all 3 cores are at maximum load, and the ATi chip is also doing some of the decoding on the GPU. So it might kill all but the fastest Macs.

3 cores you say... hmmm never knew it had 3 cores! No wonder I practically get burnt when I walk by my 360..

Still that would pretty super sweet if it did work

 

[Jollins]

OS X recognises the HD-DVD from a 360 instantly. Doesn't mean it can play HD-DVDs though. DVD Player doesn't contain the drivers to allow this. When this is done, I have no idea what the performance is going to be like. On the 360 all 3 cores are at maximum load, and the ATi chip is also doing some of the decoding on the GPU. So it might kill all but the fastest Macs.

It gets really technical, but the Xbox 360 cores are not on par with intel/AMD cores, and the core duo is much better at PC-ish tasks. I'm certain that any intel mac other than perhaps the minis can handle HD-DVD.

 

[garethlewis2]

It doesn't matter whether the cores on the 360 are on par with Intel. It doesn't matter as the data code to decode h264, VC1, etc is run in tight loops and doesn't need to branch. So decoding VC1 suits processors which can run at incredible speed at the expense of branch prediction. And the Xenon and Cell are absolutely brilliant at that. And this also happens to be what the Intel and AMD chips are not execellent at. Sure SSE2/3 and Altivec will help, they just have to get the decoding working first before they start optimising that code.

Nobody has yet managed to get VC1 decoding on a PC at anything above 720p. Though even at that rez, they are constantly dropping frames.

 

[Joony]

Based on this review, the C2D can handle decoding HD-DVDs fairly well!