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Macbook Air and HD movies?

N

Northwestern

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 13, 2011
235
0
Hi,
is the MBA 13" 1,8 GHz, 4 GB Ram and Intel HD 3000 capable to play iTunes HD movies without stuttering or jerking or overheating or fans going loud?

And is it possible to connect a Bluray external drive (like this here) to the MBA? And does it play Blurays without stuttering or jerking or overheating or fans going loud?

Thanks in advance!
 
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I'm running the 13" 1.7 i5 and do not have a single issue playing HD movies at all, so the 1.8 i7 should handle it just as smoothly.

Unfortunately, I do not have an answer about the Bluray; however, based on it's ability to handle raw HD video then Bluray should not be a problem.
 
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Im using my Macbook Air 13" as my Media Station aswell. I use plex for that, for 1080p and 720p movies and its working damn good.

I got the 13" 256 SSD and i7
 
My boxee box with a 1.2 ghz intel atom cpu handles raw bluray files with 30+ mbps bitrate. With no stress.

So ye. Hd movie isnt a problem.
 
Watching HTML5 720p movie uses like 2-5% CPU.
I think iTunes is much the same or even better due to better hardware acceleration.
And no issues with noise or heat either.
 
Macs can't play blue rays natively yet. There's a published "hack" using VLC combined with MKV. If they're ripped though, the MBA will play them perfectly.
 
I have that same Blu-Ray player for my 2011 MacBook Pro and it works great. I got it because my friend with a MB Air told me about it and he uses it for all of his blu-ray movies. Highly recommend it!

App to get: MakeMKV
 
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