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Why can my PPC play DVD's fine, but not the same file in .mp4?

H

HarCees

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 15, 2013
46
9
Ibook 1.42ghz

How come DVDs are playable trough the internal dvd-reader, but the same dvd ripped and encoded to itunes chopps and are just unplayable.(in quicktime as well) Can someone explain the mecanism behind this?

(Note: There is nothing wrong with the ripps or anything. I have a lot of rips of
dvds, and while the Ibook can play them from the dvd-player, to play the actuall .mp4/mv4 file is just a big nono..)

Thank you :apple:
 
PowerPC Macs have a hardware decoder for the DVD video, but lack one for most every other video format. Thus requiring they use the CPU to decode it.
 
Intell said:
PowerPC Macs have a hardware decoder for the DVD video, but lack one for most every other video format. Thus requiring they use the CPU to decode it.
Click to expand...

Wow thanks! Does the same apply to intel-macs?
 
I am pretty sure my iMac 800 mhz G4 can view dvd rips . Are you talking about HD 1080p stuff?
 
MacBH928 said:
I am pretty sure my iMac 800 mhz G4 can view dvd rips . Are you talking about HD 1080p stuff?
Click to expand...

nono! Far from HD. The DVD's are ripped and then encoded by handbrake. My Iphone 4s plays them fine.
 
If you're ripping in H264 MP4 in Handbrake, the average 1Ghz G4 can only handle 480p(SD), anything higher you'll need an Intel Mac as the CPU/GPU is optimized for playback. Faster G4/G5 Macs can handle 720p.

Keep in mind ripping pre-H264 used MPEG encoding/decoding which requires more disk space but plays on most PowerPC/pre-Core 2 Windows PCs at 480-720p.
 
Well...

...this post just makes me miss Coreplayer. On an ibook G4 1.25 ghz I could watch 720p files with about 60% CPU usage. 1080p was just out of my reach, a faster G4 or G5 probably could have handled it. I guess there was never any success at cracking it for PowerPC. Shame, such a great piece of software, all locked up in a vault somewhere in California, never to be seen again.

I'd willingly buy it again, and again, for every Powermac I own or ever own in the future. The ibook G4 it was on bit the dust, and the next week Mobihand closed its doors, and that was that.
 
HarCees said:
nono! Far from HD. The DVD's are ripped and then encoded by handbrake. My Iphone 4s plays them fine.
Click to expand...

then I am guessing its something to do with encoding in H.264 . IIRC, videos were in .avi and I could watch them easy on my 800mhz G4 . I stopped using it in 2009, which also IIRC people were still not encoding in H.264 and .mkv. At least it was not popular. I think it used to be xvid or divx or something like that
 
happyfrappy said:
If you're ripping in H264 MP4 in Handbrake, the average 1Ghz G4 can only handle 480p(SD), anything higher you'll need an Intel Mac as the CPU/GPU is optimized for playback. Faster G4/G5 Macs can handle 720p.
Click to expand...
Can't speak for earlier G5s as I don't have experience with them outside of service, but late model G5s can run 1080p just fine.
 
Intell said:
PowerPC Macs have a hardware decoder for the DVD video, but lack one for most every other video format. Thus requiring they use the CPU to decode it.
Click to expand...

Ahh so would it play the same quality with more chopping in MP4 than DVD format?
 
DVD playback will nearly always be 24 or 29 FPS. MP4 can be encoded to have the same FPS, but the system may not be able to show them all due to limitations of its CPU.
 
Frost7 said:
Can't speak for earlier G5s as I don't have experience with them outside of service, but late model G5s can run 1080p just fine.
Click to expand...

Original G5(970) I'm talking about were single processor 1.6/1.8Ghz(PowerMac & first gen iMac G5s), Apple used an under-performing GeForce 5200 as the base GPU which ends up dumping more load to the CPU instead(like you see on 12" PBs)... Radeon 9600 and better were optimized for video decoding/playback(Radeon Mobility 9600/9700 given the 15"/17" PowerBook G4 decent headroom to the point stuff like EyeTV at 720p is possible).

Later G5s could push higher due better GPUs and 970fx had a more optimized pipeline(made the gap between G5 vs Pentium 4 wider).
 
happyfrappy said:
Original G5(970) I'm talking about were single processor 1.6/1.8Ghz(PowerMac & first gen iMac G5s), Apple used an under-performing GeForce 5200 as the base GPU which ends up dumping more load to the CPU instead(like you see on 12" PBs)... Radeon 9600 and better were optimized for video decoding/playback(Radeon Mobility 9600/9700 given the 15"/17" PowerBook G4 decent headroom to the point stuff like EyeTV at 720p is possible).

Later G5s could push higher due better GPUs and 970fx had a more optimized pipeline(made the gap between G5 vs Pentium 4 wider).
Click to expand...

Have to jump in here.... sorry but no ppc mac has ever seen a decoder using hardware acceleration. There are some extra cards which would allow to encode certain codecs faster.

Btw, I saw insidious (yify) at 1080p the other day on the powerbook G4 1.67HR model using tiger and xbmc 9.04. How? Well, while the ppc mac has no VDADecoder (graphics accelerated video playback) it DOES HAVE a sort of capable altec velocity chip that helps the decoding process. On my 1Ghz powerbook I can easily watch 720p with it.

Of course not only the resolution is important, the bitrate is also a big factor. Using HD with a lower bitrate (like yify/yts) does help a lot... maybe around 1500-2000kbit/s is a good limit.
 
MrPilot said:
Have to jump in here.... sorry but no ppc mac has ever seen a decoder using hardware acceleration. There are some extra cards which would allow to encode certain codecs faster.
Click to expand...

What about the DVD decoder card for the Wallstreet and Lombard G3's?
 
Just for comparison...

Here is full screen video on a 20 year old 25mhz (yes, I said 25mhz) 040 Quadra. Its encoded with Cinepak, 320 x 240, at 15 fps and 3 mbs bit rate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9PyMmlUhNI

I can distinctly recall watching broadcast quality video being edited on a Quadra in 1993. Granted it had a dedicated AV card, but still....it blew my mind at the time, and the above totally blows my mind today.

Its all about the codec.
 
MrPilot said:
Have to jump in here.... sorry but no ppc mac has ever seen a decoder using hardware acceleration. There are some extra cards which would allow to encode certain codecs faster.

Btw, I saw insidious (yify) at 1080p the other day on the powerbook G4 1.67HR model using tiger and xbmc 9.04. How? Well, while the ppc mac has no VDADecoder (graphics accelerated video playback) it DOES HAVE a sort of capable altec velocity chip that helps the decoding process. On my 1Ghz powerbook I can easily watch 720p with it.

Of course not only the resolution is important, the bitrate is also a big factor. Using HD with a lower bitrate (like yify/yts) does help a lot... maybe around 1500-2000kbit/s is a good limit.
Click to expand...

Using OpenGL to render video is still a form of acceleration, disable it on OS X and see how your Mac "feels" & Quicktime playback suffers like an iMac 233-333 non-supported Rage II/Pro :rolleyes:
Bitrate matters, however the encoder is a factor--some MP4s are pure H.264 but others may use MPEG(some YouTube MP4s have their video compressed by MPEG and audio track is MP4)
You have "hardware acceleration" on ATI Radeon 9xxx series, ATI optimized the platform as it was part of their "All-In-Wonder" platform--MacOS drivers take advantage of the OpenGL strength(which nVidia lagged until the 6-series). Try comparing video playback on a 12" vs 15" PowerBook to an external monitor, a slower 15" will spank a higher clocked 12"... my 12"(1.33ghz) chokes on 720p EyeTV recordings however a slower 15"(1.25Ghz) is smooth even though it has a 4200 RPM HDD.

nVidia Pure Video H.264 acceleration launched on the 6-series... which is why the 6600GT is popular for Power Mac G5 owners :rolleyes:
 
While some GPU's in PowerPC Macs have hardware MPEG4 or h.264 decoding abilities, it isn't used in PowerPC Mac OS X. Support for such things didn't come around until 10.6.3, and even then only with some of the then newer GPUs.
 
Imixmuan said:
Here is full screen video on a 20 year old 25mhz (yes, I said 25mhz) 040 Quadra. Its encoded with Cinepak, 320 x 240, at 15 fps and 3 mbs bit rate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9PyMmlUhNI

I can distinctly recall watching broadcast quality video being edited on a Quadra in 1993. Granted it had a dedicated AV card, but still....it blew my mind at the time, and the above totally blows my mind today.

Its all about the codec.
Click to expand...

I always wondered how did these machines that probably could not run Quake could edit video for TV (maybe films?) . I think I saw Amiga machines in the 80's that did video editing. I remember my G4 800mhz took serious time to encode video.
 
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