the power of PPC: iBook 1.33 GHz playing 1080 HD video

[mabaker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHhWsrWz2Ns

Watch the video and be stunned how much power is still left in these computers. Unfortunately ever since 2005 no major optimizations have been done neither to Mac OS X nor to major web browsers out there. That is why PPC computers are useless to handle Flash content or heavy content HTML5 sites.

Core Player is the perfect example of highly optimized app that brings the best of a forgotten Apple architecture.

 

[AdrianK]

Extremely impressive.

I've just grabbed the trailer from Apple's site, video specs include Main@L4.0.

The fact that it's using Main profile will make it easier to decode. Would be interesting how G4s would cope with CorePlayer + 1080p at High@L4.1.

 

[JHUFrank]

Very nice.

 

[Veinticinco]

Now if only there was a way to trial this software before shelling out $20

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

Pretty impressive. I wonder how this would do hooked up to an external 1080p monitor. The iBook is only 1024x768.

 

[zen.state]

Pretty impressive. I wonder how this would do hooked up to an external 1080p monitor. The iBook is only 1024x768.

In my experience 1080p video uses the same amount of CPU even if I have it at 1/4 the size in the player window. When I play it full screen the CPU use doesn't go up at all and my screen res. is 1920x1200 which is higher than 1080p.

 

[raysfan81]

That is absolutely fantastic! It is $20 though right?

 

[SkippyThorson]

I really wish there were some sort of trial for this... Even if I got to play with it for 5 minutes, that would be enough for me to decide if it does its intended purpose as well as I'd like. $20 seems more than reasonable.

The only thing is I don't have a lot of content on my iBook / iMacs for this to be worth $20 anyway. I'd still love to give it a shot though.

Software like this for old machines is nothing short of incredible. There are still people out there, like myself, that use this architecture.

 

[Nova77]

Ok, first, I must say that is is more than likely NOT 1080p video content. It is probably 720p HD video.

Still, being able to play 720p video on an iBook 1.33 is pretty awesome.

For those of you out there that might want to know what CorePlayer does, here's my quick review:

Everybody has their apps for HD video playback on their PPCs, and I almost tried them all. Here's the countdown for the best performing app.

5- Quicktime -- it sucks.
4- MPlayer -- good for MKV but still worse than the newest VLC for most things
3- VLC -- a lil better than quicktime, laggy instead of slideshow.
2- NicePlayer -- Uses CoreVideo acceleration, so the graphics card gets used a lil more. The only free player actually worth downloading for a speed boost while playing downloaded HD videos.
1- CorePlayer -- The only one really optimized for AltiVec, and seems to use the graphics card too (changing my card gave me +100% more speed). Sorta NicePlayer + Altivec. At least 1.5 times faster than NicePlayer.

So my advice would be, download NicePlayer, and if you like it, get CorePlayer because it totally kicks NicePlayer's ass (especially for 1080p), which is already by far the best free HD playback app I've ever seen.

Edit: Of course you can play HD video even with quicktime, but that requires specific codecs and converting stuff... My review is based on an average of HD files you might find on the net.

 

[AdrianK]

Ok, first, I must say that is is more than likely NOT 1080p video content. It is probably 720p HD video

The specs at the beginning of the video (resolution and bitrate) are correct for the 1080p trailer of that movie that's on Apple's site, so it's the same file unless it was intentionally switched. Also, as I said, the fact that the profile is Main rather than High will make it easier to decode.

 

[Nova77]

The specs at the beginning of the video (resolution and bitrate) are correct for the 1080p trailer of that movie that's on Apple's site, so it's the same file unless it was intentionally switched. Also, as I said, the fact that the profile is Main rather than High will make it easier to decode.

My bad, sorry.

Should have said this instead : most 1080p videos won't work proprely on that config, but a few will, depending on the codec.

 

[Jmouse]

$20 huh, itll solve my bedroom HD vid playback issue.

 

[Imixmuan]

Buy it

I have and use CorePlayer, and I'd say it's worth the 20 bucks, if only to watch Florence and the Machine rock out in 720p. Yum. My main concern is the developer doesn't seem to be actively developing it anymore, so it may go bye-bye soon. They seem to have moved totally into the mobile space. Maybe if enough of us PowerPC luddites purchase it they'll update it. And maybe Apple will announce a Power7 based MacPro replacement like I dreamt last night...