HD videos playback on PowerMac G5 with VLC

[netsurfz]

Recently, I purchased PowerMac G5 first model (1.6GHz) with additional 2GB of RAM. Did some research, did not find the right answer.

I formatted the harddisk and install Leopard 10.5 and update it to the most recent updates available (10.5.8). Installed VLC for PowerPCs.

The video playback is choppy and sluggish. The audio seemed to have better playback, but not sure how smooth it is. Tested them with 1080 vid taken from Canon 550D (.mov not sure about the codec) and 1080 movies (.mkv) downloaded from torrents.

My question is that my G5 has the horsepower to playback FULL HD movies? I know that VLC for PowerPC is outdated. Just want to know is it the hardware incompatibility to HD vid or software is not supported.

Or is there a way to play 1080 movies smoothly on PowerMac G5?

 

[drewdle]

What video card do you have? The cards that some of those shipped with are less powerful than the integrated video chipsets in a modern netbook, so I suspect that's where your problem is. Also, it's dependent on the video format your camera records in, or that your media is stored in. H.264 compressed MPEG4 (iTunes purchases, etc) video takes far more processing power to decode than regular MPEG4 (DivX) video does.

MPEG2 (DVD) can be decoded with a modern digital wristwatch.

 

[disconap]

My dual 2.0ghz G5 from the same era never handled HD video well, even with VLC. 720p was a bit choppy, and 1080 looked pretty but dropped frames like crazy. Even with the aftermarket ATI 9800pro I put in it, it still wasn't that great with HD video. Part of it is the age of the machine, and I think part of it is the AGP gpu options just not being up to snuff, but really sometimes my G4 ibook did a better job...

You might want to try reencoding in a different codec, that MIGHT help, though chances are you'll drop frames during the reencoding process as well.

 

[MacHamster68]

the more mb your graphics card has the better it it will get
so get a graphics card 256mb better above
and vlc player is allright but i
would get perianhttp://perian.org/#detail

 

[disconap]

the more mb your graphics card has the better it it will get
so get a graphics card 256mb or above
and vlc player is allright but i found it a bit slower when decoding ,
so would get perianhttp://perian.org/#detail

NOTE--this is ONLY true within the same graphics card model. The fastest card with half the RAM will outperform an older, more RAM-filled card.

 

[Hrududu]

On Apple's website, they have system requirements for HD playback in Quicktime. 720p is listed as a minimum of a dual 1.8GHz G5 and 1080 is listed as a minimum of a dual 2.0GHz model. In short, you really need a dual CPU setup to play HD video. Have you considered Pixlet?

 

[MacHamster68]

NOTE--this is ONLY true within the same graphics card model. The fastest card with half the RAM will outperform an older, more RAM-filled card.

yes but the last card that is known to be flashable is already about
2 years +old , and the last card to my knowledge apple shipped was the ati x800
and these will only improve what he can do already with the 1.6
as we know now the bottleneck is the G5 1.6
so investing several $ 100 in a good graphics card will only improve the things the G5 1.6 can do already , so a couple frames per second more @480p and maybe a bit improvement for 720p but not enough to make things perfect

so the cheapest option for the Op is either to invest in at least a PowerMac that can handle 1080p definitely and these are the later 2.3 to 2.7 dual processor or the 2.3 dualcore or a 2.5 quad
if he sells the canon eos 550d he might get the funds

never been a fan of HD video , they use to much HDD space

 

[netsurfz]

Thanks for the response guys.

My G5 has FX5200 installed. Might be looking for 7800GS graphic card (flashed).

Have you considered Pixlet?

Will look in to that. Thanks.

if he sells the canon eos 550d he might get the funds

I'm currently using MBP15" 2009 for my HD video editing. Just want to maximize my G5 to its potential.


Oh well, G5 has an old achitecture. But I totally fall in love with it.

 

[CubeHacker]

A faster video card will have no effect on video playback unless it has hardware acceleration of H264 decoding and the playback software supports that. None of those old video cards do, so I wouldn't count on those improving playback. Upgrading to a dual 2.5ghz G5 might certainly help things along, but a single 1.6ghz G5 is just too slow.

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

My G5 quad can't even play my bluray 1080p mkv rips. It starts off fine then starts dropping off frames like the buffer isn't large enough or something? This is why I love my Mini as it doesn't have any problems .

Don't know if VLC doesn't utilize all the cores effectively or what but I just wanted to try it one day and it failed my test

But yes, your biggest bottleneck is your single 1.6ghz CPU. I'd just load it up with hard drives and use it as a file server. Basically what I use mine for

 

[MacHamster68]

Thanks for the response guys.

My G5 has FX5200 installed. Might be looking for 7800GS graphic card (flashed).




Will look in to that. Thanks.





I'm currently using MBP15" 2009 for my HD video editing. Just want to maximize my G5 to its potential.


Oh well, G5 has an old achitecture. But I totally fall in love with it.

you still can maximize it , get the best graphics card you can get for it , not a fan of flashing a pc card as flashing graphic cards as it might kill the card
max out the ram to full 4 GB deinstall leopard and install tiger again as i found that vlc and other programs run better in tiger then in leopard

here a shootout of some cards
http://www.barefeats.com/radx800.html


a happy user of a iMac g5 1.8 first generation and its quieter then my Mac mini G4 1.42 and has all new Capacitors

 

[VanneDC]

Simply put, that single 1.6ghz g5 can't do HD playback.
Iam not sure about the quad g5' but I only pretty much use divx anyways.

Any intel mini quicker than the 1.88ghz cd models will be fine as long as you steer the he'll away from the ones with the GMA 950 crap in it.

Cheers

 

[netsurfz]

I'd just load it up with hard drives and use it as a file server. Basically what I use mine for

That is probably the only option left.

Thanks again.

 

[DoFoT9]

That is probably the only option left.

Thanks again.

unfortunately that seems to be the only option - your G5 will benchmark less then a new Mac Mini.

i am not sure if Plex is PPC, but its worth a try, probably one of the best coded players out there.

 

[MacinDan]

You all are focused on the hardware, but there's a software solution. It's called mplayer. Using it from the command line, I can play 720p video on a 1.25 GHz G4 Mac Mini. I don't know about 1080p on a G5, but I'd try. If you don't like the command line, you could try out MPlayer OS X Extended.