whats the best quality video i can run on a ibook g4 1.2ghz in either osx or linux

[Anarchy99]

i like xbmc for my xbox unforunately it can barely handle 720p

well i recently got a good deal on a ibook g4 1.2ghz and i was thinking maybe i could use that for a xbmc replacement media player that could do 720p and 1080i/p because of the more ram, faster gpu and faster processor

although i hear the ibook cant handle high def
is this true
is there anyway i could?
i plan on leaving it be a media player so linux or osx wouldnt be a issue

also if this is possible whats the best media center app i could use


thanks

 

[fluidedge]

the screen size is 1024x768 so in theory the best footage you could play would be something like 1024x768 in h.264 Quicktime. Whether the iBook could keep up with the pace i'm not sure about.

 

[Chundles]

OK from experience on my iBook G4 1.2GHz:

480p - fine
720p - like a slideshow
1080p - like an art gallery exhibition, you see the same image until somebody manually changes the pictures.

AppleTV preset from DVD rips in Handbrake - Not good, very stuttery.

DVD videos - fine

Video playback is all processor and the G4 was pretty damn slow - it handles DVDs fine but nothing HD at all. High (2Mbps+ bitrate) H.264 bitrates were really bad too which explains the AppleTV from Handbrake issue - the G4 just can't crunch all those bits in H.264. MPEG-4 was fine though all the way up to 8Mpbs.

It's definitely not going to suit as a HD media centre.

 

[Consultant]

What Chundles said.

G4 cannot play HD videos at full speed, but can play many other more smaller (but more common) resolutions.

 

[ppc_michael]

Well I think it depends on the codecs involved as well. For example H.264 will require more processing power than Sorenson at the same resolution.

On my old iBook I was able to get relatively fluid fullscreen playback in some situations.

 

[CaptainChunk]

My old PB G4 1.5GHz drops frames on 720p web video (like from Apple Trailers, for example), so it's pretty safe to say G4s really don't have the horsepower to keep up with HD video.

You really need an Intel-based machine for this.