Hows the 13 MBP for watching movies?

[BigCanoe]

I have an older 15 MBP that I leave hooked up to an external 20 display, keyboard and mouse most of the time. I do unhook it to wander the house and to watch movies on it in bed. Its a little big and certainly gives off a little heat in this use, even with my iLap. Would the 13 work well for this use? How hot does it run?

 

[Fizzoid]

Mine's fine on my lap (I presume that's how you'll be watching movies, and not having it accross the room?), although I probably wouldn't want it resting on bare skin

 

[Sirmausalot]

I have an older 15 MBP that I leave hooked up to an external 20 display, keyboard and mouse most of the time. I do unhook it to wander the house and to watch movies on it in bed. Its a little big and certainly gives off a little heat in this use, even with my iLap. Would the 13 work well for this use? How hot does it run?

It really depends on the movie

 

[Adidas Addict]

Mine is pretty much cold to the touch, the only time it gets warm is if you use while charging.

 

[Eithanius]

Anyone here with a 13-er screens happens to play movies at 720p or 1080p and check on the temp as well as the CPU usage on Activity Monitor...?

Any sluggish on overall performance...?

 

[Apple Ink]

The screen is apt for watching movies on your lap.. you really wouldnt require a bigger size!

The Aluminum ones tend to run cooler than the White MB but any 13" would generally run cooler than a 15/17" except the base 15".

 

[harcosparky]

Why not rip the DVD into an MP4 file, then watch the file.

Should be good enough for a 13" screen plus you wont be constantly running the DVD drive, this in turn should reduce some heat.

 

[TheWart]

Anyone here with a 13-er screens happens to play movies at 720p or 1080p and check on the temp as well as the CPU usage on Activity Monitor...?

Any sluggish on overall performance...?

I have watched a handful of 720p movies on my MBP 13" and I have been quite impressed. Granted, this is my first mac so I don't know what the performance was like on the uMB or older laptops, but this things is quite speedy (I just have the basic 2.26+2gb config).

I can watch a .mkv 720p, browse the web, and even have itunes open without causing a problem. Using VLC, QT+Perian, or Movist all put the temps at about 60c or so (then again, this notebook does run on the hot side), but it doesn't max out the processor, so you can do other tasks while your movie plays in the background.

 

[Fizzoid]

Anyone here with a 13-er screens happens to play movies at 720p or 1080p and check on the temp as well as the CPU usage on Activity Monitor...?

Any sluggish on overall performance...?

I've had mine outputting to my TV in HD without issue, so I expect the screen to be fine
The fans do wind up from time to time, but it's not that distracting

 

[Eithanius]

I was just worried about performances on HD resolution media playback given the nature of my Mac Pro with unlimited amount of resources, going down to an MBP might prove stressful to the MBP.

From my experience, playing a full-HD movie takes up one full core out of 8 on my MP, so I have 7 more to meddle with other things.

All this will change on the way I use a Mac once I downgrade to an MBP.

 

[BigCanoe]

This is watching streamed movies from Netflix mainly, no DVD drive access.

 

[Sounds Good]

I hope the OP doesn't mind my asking this, but how well does the 13" actually sit on your lap?

My 16.4" laptop is wide enough that it rests nicely on my lap, even if my legs are crossed. Can the 13.3" sit comfortably the same way?... or does it need to "balance" on just one leg?

Hopefully this question will make sense to someone!