Macbook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo + 1080 H264

[theflo]

Hello,

I have a big question. Is the Macbook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 Ghz capable of playing 1080i or 1080p .ts files in H264 with VLC? I am planning to buy one, would be great to connect it to an HDTV. I tried it on a friends Macbook pro but could not get it to work with VLC 8.6.
Does anybody have experience doin this? Any info is more than welcome!!!!

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

1080i, yes.
1080p. dunno. It should be, but we don't know.

[gusax]

It doesn't work on an iMac core 2 duo, which has almost the same hardware as the macbook pro so I'm betting it doesn't work on a macbook pro either.

99% of the time, h264 in .ts-files stutter. You'll get maybe 10-15 frames out of 25 at 1080p for a while, then the whole image locks up for 5 - 10 seconds or so.
Some recordings don't open at all.
If you take the time to convert the file from .ts into .mkv (which requires a Windows only program...), the movie always opens and it plays a bit smoother than if it were a .ts-file but you can't really watch anything anyway because of all the dropped frames and sudden pauses.

MPlayer is a lot faster but it still drops so many frames that the movie is unwatchable.

[adisor19]

It doesn't work on an iMac core 2 duo, which has almost the same hardware as the macbook pro so I'm betting it doesn't work on a macbook pro either.

99% of the time, h264 in .ts-files stutter. You'll get maybe 10-15 frames out of 25 at 1080p for a while, then the whole image locks up for 5 - 10 seconds or so.
Some recordings don't open at all.
If you take the time to convert the file from .ts into .mkv (which requires a Windows only program...), the movie always opens and it plays a bit smoother than if it were a .ts-file but you can't really watch anything anyway because of all the dropped frames and sudden pauses.

MPlayer is a lot faster but it still drops so many frames that the movie is unwatchable.

I have to say i wish i knew this information before buying my MacBook Pro 2.16Ghz... If i close all applications that might consume CPU, then it will play a 1080p just fine with maybe 2-3 skips during the entire movie (tested this on a .ts of Assault on District 13) so it's not bad, but i wish it would be perfect. I would have deffinetly went for the 2.33Ghz CPU option if i knew about this.

I have to ask though, isn't there any possibillity of adding GPU x264 decoding acceleration ? I mean, on windows ATI's drivers provide some form of decoding acceleration for x264 even on the Radeon X1600 that we have on the MacBook Pro...

Adi

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Well, H.264 might be multi-threaded in the future and so use both cores with would help the problem to be fixed.

[robus]

Hello,

I have a big question. Is the Macbook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 Ghz capable of playing 1080i or 1080p .ts files in H264 with VLC? I am planning to buy one, would be great to connect it to an HDTV. I tried it on a friends Macbook pro but could not get it to work with VLC 8.6.
Does anybody have experience doin this? Any info is more than welcome!!!!

If you are planning to watch dvds with the MBP, bear in mind that it's region-locked. Only those with the LG drive might be flashed.
viewtopic.php?p=103898#103898

[SaintSinner]

Have to ask, which windows only program will convert from .ts to mkv? I'm looking to do this and the only way I found so far is a guide on nwgat.net that doesn't seem to work, or at least doesn't work for me. I assume this program you speak of will only work if the .ts is a h.264 ts file, so it won't do all that I want, but it is a start.

Thanks!

[adisor19]

Noticed something weird about some .ts files.. They play fine under Nero ShowTime in windows but they don't play under VLC (mac or windows) under any circumstance. I only have 2 such files for the moment : StarWars ep 1 and ep 3.

Has anybody encountered the same issue ?

Adi

[dornadeluxe]

Yesterday i tried to play a 1080p H264 TS File on my MBP Core Duo 2GHz under OS X. Couldn't get it running smooth, just got worse every second.
As I use Bootcamp and Win XP on my MBP too I tried to run the movie in VLC there but it didn't run better than on OS X. On both operating systems you could clearly see that VLC mainly uses only one CPU core for playback.
So next I tried powerdvd for windows (sadly there is no os x version ) and what can I say, the movie ran perfectly smooth. In the task manager you could clearly see that power dvd uses both CPU cores for playback (got about 60% CPU usage on both cores) .
So I hope you guys can bring this "feature" to OS X because the bootcamp solution is just a stopgap for me.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Well, only a H264 Decoder multi-threaded could help.

[phunqe]

The VRAM or the amount of RAM must be of great importance apparently, because I have the 2,33Ghz MPB with 256 VRAM and 2GB RAM and I've played around 10 1080p H264 movies now without one single stutter basically.

No FPS issues at all. I'm using the 0.8.6a.

[tji]

Hello,

I have a big question. Is the Macbook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 Ghz capable of playing 1080i or 1080p .ts files in H264 with VLC? I am planning to buy one, would be great to connect it to an HDTV. I tried it on a friends Macbook pro but could not get it to work with VLC 8.6.
Does anybody have experience doin this? Any info is more than welcome!!!!

I have the same system (MBP C2Duo 2.16GHz, 2GB RAM). I think you'll be able to find examples of both fles that will play smoothly and files that won't. There are a few variables that would effect how much CPU is required:

- Type of video encoded. Film-sourced content, like movies, originate in 24 frames per second. So, there is a lot less video data than a 1080p60 (60 frames/second) clip.

- Bit Rate of video. This is probably related to the first point.. it will take a higher bit rate to encode higher fps. But, you can tweak the quality/bit rate quite a bit when encoding video. A 10Mbps file would require a lot less CPU than a 30+Mbps file from a blue ray disc.


I can play Apple's 1080p trailers from their site (like the Warren Miller Higher Ground trailer), and I still have quite a bit of CPU left. But, QuickTime uses both CPU cores, the video is 24fps, and the bit rate is around 9Mbps.


It's a shame that we cannot take advantage of any GPU offload capabilities. Just throwing more CPU at it seems inefficient.

[marcosmh]

hi, i have the same problem

my files is: war.of.the.worlds.1080p.h264.ts

in windows xp or vista all its ok, but in my MacBook Pro intel core duo 2.0 Ghz / 1.5 GB ram / ati radeon x1600 128 MB

i can watch all movies in 1080p encoded in x264 MKV

[gangst]

What are the chances of VLC becoming multi-threaded? I really hope this happens as this would really benefit me on my PowerMac G5 Quad 2.5GHz as at the moment I can only watch .mkv's in 720p on there, and my 2.0GHz Macbook Core Duo outperforms it at HD playback in VLC!!

Bring on multithreaded support!!!

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Well, some people are working on it. DOn't know if and when it will land.