VLC drops frame, will not play 720p HDDVD.DTS.x264-ESiR.mkv

[derekm69]

I'm running a Powerbook G4 with 1.5 ghz processor and 1.25 GB ram. Trying to play an "HD" movie for the first time, it's a large movie file claiming to be 720x264. The movie never starts, error message reads: ffmpeg: more than 5 seconds of late video -> dropping frame (computer too slow ?)

Is this simply my comp not able to handle this or is it VLC is not capable of playing HD content?

Thanks,
Derek

[minordv8]

I'm having the same problem while trying to play a an AVI file created with the H264 codec, 856x480. My hardware is a G4 PowerPC, 1.33 GHz, 1.25 GB RAM and I'm running Mac OS X 10.4.11. System is a few years old but not close to being obsolete. Any help would be appreciated.

[supabass18]

I am pretty sure your hardware is too slow. I have a PowerBook G4 667MHz and it will not play 720p video. I get maybe 1 frame every 2 seconds.

[derekm69]

Thanks for your replies. Has anyone out there been successful playing 720p content with VLC on a Powerbook G4??

Do I have to upgrade to an Intel Mac to play HD???? :O

God I hope not!

[derekm69]

Crap. Found these Min System requirments for Quicktime........sure VLC would be similar.

For 852x480 (480p) video at 24 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:
1.25 GHz PowerMac G4 or faster Macintosh computer
At least 128MB of RAM
64MB or greater video card

QuickTime 7 for Windows:
2.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or faster processor
At least 512MB of RAM
64MB or greater video card
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista

For 1280x720 (720p) video at 24-30 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:
1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer; 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
At least 256MB of RAM
64 MB or greater video card

QuickTime 7 for Windows:
2.8 GHz Pentium 4 or faster processor
At least 512MB of RAM
64MB or greater video card
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista

For 1920x1080 (1080p) video at 24 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:
Dual 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer; 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
At least 512MB of RAM
128MB or greater video card

QuickTime 7 for Windows:
3.0 Ghz Intel Pentium D (dual-core) or faster processor
At least 1GB of RAM
64MB or greater video card
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista

[madmax_2069]

if you ask me anything even a low quality divx video in a .mkv play's like crap in VLC, so far VLC isnt a good player to play back anything in a .mkv. if it was the same file out in a diffrent file format like .avi, .mov, .mp4 (not in a .mkv) it will play allot better. that is why you get a good framerate in Mplayer then in VLC. its known that VLC dont handle anything in a .mkv well period.

that is why i can go on a apple trailer website and play a 480p video at 20 FPS and 720p video at 10 FPS in quicktime on my DA G4 533, allot there has to do with the GFX card as well. the GFX card in a G4 laptop is not good when compaird to a video card in G4 desktop. a desktop in general dont have the power even if it has a good CPU (mainly due to the low end GPU in them to keep the temp cooler in the cases.

also VLC has limited ability to accelerate video playback (if any at all) due to the way OS X uses the GPU to accelerate the GUI and other things using the video card.

so dont hold your breath on getting any good performance playing anything in a .mkv in VLC let alone high quality video in a .mkv on a G4 laptop. that requires a fast CPU to get any sort of performance out of it.

now VLC on a windows machine dont suffer from these setbacks as much cause VLC can accelerate video playback with the video cards help.

i recomend using QT or MPlayer for HD in a .mkv playback and leave everything else to VLC to play.

i also have a P4 2.8ghz northwood that will play anything i throw at it using VLC but mainly due to the CPU and not as much as the video card (I865G chipset = intel extreme graphics 2) but basicly like everyone said you need a fast CPU to do high end video playback in VLC.

as a example, i have a divx video (low quality) that is in a .mkv i try to play it on my DA G4 and i am lucky to get 1 - 2 FPS. the same video not in a .mkv will play at full speed. a video in x264 format is hard on a CPU allone now one in a .mkv spells desaster. it wint even show a good video (all corrupted looking)

the specs listed above my post are probably double that for (CPU speed wize) for HD video playback using VLC in OS X. heck most of the new C2D Macs cant play HD video wile using VLC

also there is perian, a QT plugin pack that adds .mkv support. but VLC does lack some ability to play back .mkv when using sertian codecs. i dunno if it stands the same with perian

[derekm69]

Madmax - you are the man!

Thanks for the thorough post and your time. I'm gonna try the QT .mkv plugin...let yall know how it works.

[madmax_2069]

also try out MPlayer OS X and niceplayer, VLC for Mac and .MKV files dont do well. i can at least play my high quality divx videos in a .mkv container with the above players. the QT add-on might do you well but i always see it as a good thing to have more video players then not enough, cause there is always one that dont do something well or at all that the other does. VLC dont handle h.264 well either and dont handle anything in a .mkv container well. you get what i am talking about when you mix the 2 it gets allot worse and VLC falls very hard on its face.

test them out tho (niceplayer gets a bit cranky at times with the sound, and Mplayer is hard to remember how to switch subtitles and or audio language cause its all selected by key combo and there is nothing telling you what they are and are not located in the drop down menu) but they will play videos in a .mkv container with ease. also another thing allmost all players even QT with the add-on will preload any movie in a .mkv container which takes allot of CPU power to do, its good to wait till the time line fills all the way up before you play. there is a option to disable the preload of the .mkv in vlc which does help allot when you play a video in a .mkv container but still it stalls out where the other players do not. but all players will preload the files and its usually a good thing to wait for it to finish before playing.

OH by the way, try opening the VLC preferences and put a checkmark by advanced and expand input/codecs then demuxers then select matroska and remove the check from preload directory and save and quit VLC and restart. that will keep VLC from preloading .mkv files when you try to play them. its like its decoding the files in the container and loading it into memory or to the HDD and can take a wile to do. i know it takes longer in QT to preload it then the other players and takes allot of CPU power to do.

i know my DA G4 still cant play my low quality divx video in the .mkv in VLC even if i uncheck preload directory it does play better but still falls on its face (video freezes but audio plays but the video will at least unfreeze at times unlike with the preload enabled) . the other 2 players play it even if i dont wait for the preloading to finish it will stutter in spots but not to the point of a total video freeze. the video players take less time to preload the files wile not playing the video when the player is still preloading. the QT plugin does take its time to preload even wile not playing the video but still plays better then VLC does.

good luck and post back on how they do and tell me about what i told you to do in VLC on how it affects video performance (if at all)