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Retina MacBook + 1080p MKV = ???

mgpg89

mgpg89

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 31, 2008
970
16
Belgium
Question for the lucky few who already have their rMB.
I'm still debating whether to order the machine, but the following is a huge dealbreaker for me. (and I can't test this myself in the store)

So if you have an rMB, it would be appreciated if you could take the time to test these scenarios for me:

1. Can rMB play 1080p MKV content smoothly? (no lag, no choppiness)
2. Can rMB stream 1080p MKV content to an AppleTV using Beamer?

Thanks in advance!
 
This has already been asked a few times (also by myself). ;)
Unfortunally no one has played 1080 mkv movies with Beamer app.
Hopefully someone with the new Macbook will use Beamer to test! #
 
Just uploaded a 4.03GB mkv file of Birdman in 1080p. Plays just fine on the MacBook with VLC and fine on my ATV using Beamer. No issues. Had never heard of Beamer, not sure I would ever use it though when I can just use Airplay. I have the base model MacBook.
 
Yeah, my 2011 MBA has zero problems with with this task either and its CPU and GPU are inferior to the MB's by a good margin...I don't even understand how this is still a question in 2015, especially for a brand new Mac. It will breeze through this task without even thinking about it, let alone breaking a sweat.

Haven't we moved on to asking whether new machines can play and stream 4k without a hitch at this point?
 
MyopicPaideia said:
Yeah, my 2011 MBA has zero problems with with this task either and its CPU and GPU are inferior to the MB's by a good margin...I don't even understand how this is still a question in 2015, especially for a brand new Mac. It will breeze through this task without even thinking about it, let alone breaking a sweat.
Click to expand...
It hadn't occurred to me to ask this question since I was of the same mind as you, but given that many reviews suggest that the Core M has about the same performance as a 4 year old MBA, and also given that the iGPU is going to be pushing close to 4 times the number of pixels that a 4-year-old MBA would be pushing, this doesn't seem like a 100% unreasonable question to ask.

-- Nathan
 
dexterbell said:
Just uploaded a 4.03GB mkv file of Birdman in 1080p. Plays just fine on the MacBook with VLC and fine on my ATV using Beamer. No issues. Had never heard of Beamer, not sure I would ever use it though when I can just use Airplay. I have the base model MacBook.
Click to expand...

thanks for testing! :)

the good thing about the Beamer app is, that you can still use your Macbook for other stuff like webbrowsing while watching the movie. You simply drag and drop the file in Beamer and then just minimalize the Beamer App and play it to your ATV.
This you can not do with Apple's Airplay

I am using this Beamer app for about 2 years now, one of the best media Apps out there...my 2 cents
 
Thank you, guys! That's great news.

Can anyone test this with a larger 1080p movie?
My 1080p movies are usually around 10GB.
(so higher bitrate for the machine to process, right?)
 
Geert76 said:
thanks for testing! :)

the good thing about the Beamer app is, that you can still use your Macbook for other stuff like webbrowsing while watching the movie. You simply drag and drop the file in Beamer and then just minimalize the Beamer App and play it to your ATV.
This you can not do with Apple's Airplay

I am using this Beamer app for about 2 years now, one of the best media Apps out there...my 2 cents
Click to expand...

I just Airplay my screen to the TV. Play the video in fullscreen on the TV and do other stuff on my laptop - no extra apps required.
 
Geert76 said:
thanks for testing! :)

the good thing about the Beamer app is, that you can still use your Macbook for other stuff like webbrowsing while watching the movie. You simply drag and drop the file in Beamer and then just minimalize the Beamer App and play it to your ATV.
This you can not do with Apple's Airplay

I am using this Beamer app for about 2 years now, one of the best media Apps out there...my 2 cents
Click to expand...

??? I AirPlay with my iPad to my 90" screen and do other stuff at the same time, web browsing, email, etc. my MBA as well.

Where did you get the impression you couldn't do this with AirPlay? Isn't the only advantage of Beamer that is basically can 'AirPlay' unsupported formats, like mkv, to the ATV, transcoding on the fly?
 
A few things about Beamer:

First of all, it is AirPlay.

And it has numerous advantages over using AirPlay Display:
- You get full support for your Apple TV remote when streaming
- I doesn't have to stream as much data as AirPlay Display, since it doesn't have to show your entire desktop on the Apple TV, but just the video itself, thus requiring less bandwidth.
- It's more elegant in use. There's no enabling and disabling stuff or dragging windows around. There's just double clicking on a file (if you have Beamer as the default app for that file, of course) and then you're off.
- My experience has been that it functions more smoothly for video playback than AirPlay Display, but YMMV on that of course.

Seriously, it's awesome. You should give it a try.
 
Are MKVs more power hungry? I have lots of Blu-ray MKVs on my rMBP and I never noticed the difference between that and iTunes, even if the files were large.
 
where can you get this beamer app, it is not in the app store !

JTToft said:
A few things about Beamer:

First of all, it is AirPlay.

And it has numerous advantages over using AirPlay Display:
- You get full support for your Apple TV remote when streaming
- I doesn't have to stream as much data as AirPlay Display, since it doesn't have to show your entire desktop on the Apple TV, but just the video itself, thus requiring less bandwidth.
- It's more elegant in use. There's no enabling and disabling stuff or dragging windows around. There's just double clicking on a file (if you have Beamer as the default app for that file, of course) and then you're off.
- My experience has been that it functions more smoothly for video playback than AirPlay Display, but YMMV on that of course.

Seriously, it's awesome. You should give it a try.
Click to expand...
 
MyopicPaideia said:
Yeah, my 2011 MBA has zero problems with with this task either and its CPU and GPU are inferior to the MB's by a good margin...I don't even understand how this is still a question in 2015, especially for a brand new Mac. It will breeze through this task without even thinking about it, let alone breaking a sweat.

Haven't we moved on to asking whether new machines can play and stream 4k without a hitch at this point?
Click to expand...

Thank you. It annoys the hell out of me when people say a MB or MBA can "only" do web browsing, email, light iMovie etc. These machines can do pretty much anything other than high end graphics work.
 
I don't understand why people are under the assumption it can't handle [insert video type or resolution here]. Mobile devices can handle 4K video in almost any format easily enough and you have Snapdragon processors that are designed specifically for it. If the new Macbook with a Core M can't handle video, then we have a serious problem. Mine handles everything just fine.
 
shenan1982 said:
I guess I just don't see its purpose. To avoid having to throw stuff at iTunes? From my iPad, VLC plays direct to Airplay, as does my iMac... not seeing the point of another media player.
Click to expand...

As was pointed out to me, the purpose of Beamer (aside from being able to play any format video on your ATV) is to be able to still use your computer while streaming a movie. Also, the same video that played perfectly fine for me in Beamer was lag city using Airplay. Whenever the camera would pan quickly in the movie, frame rates dropped noticeably. Ive even seen this while streaming movies on Airplay from my quad core iMac. Beamer was smooth in the same spots Airplay dropped frames.
 
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