MacBook Pro: the ultimate portable HD machine!
posted Mar 2nd 2006 12:57PM
I have had my MacBook Pro 2.0 for almost a whole week and let me tell you, it is fast! The only way I have been able to max out both cores is by playing a H.264 and HD DivX files at the same time. (If I try two H.264 files QT crashes) The 2.0 Core Duo has more than enough juice to decode any HD files I can find for my computer. It can decode two HD videos at once and watch them in Expose, but not without dropping a few frames
So far I have been enjoying H.264, XviD, DivX and MPEG-2 HD clips. The only content I have not been able to enjoy is
WMV because there is no CODEC that will work. The Quicktime CODECs I have been using other than the MPEG-2 CODEC are in
beta and all were universal binaries.
The most impressive thing is how
well it plays H.264 HD encoded material, the CPU never goes over
60% and is usualy closer to 50% and scrubs perfect. My Mac mini couldn't even come close to playing H.264. I was at the
Apple store and I loaded the same H.264 file on both a MacBook Pro and a Powerbook. The MacBook played flawlessly and
the Powerbook could hardly play 12 frames a second. I have played a few HD movies trailers from Apple's site and for
the most part they all play perfectly even when minimized or in Expose, but sometimes it does drop frames. At this
point you should be asking "Why are there dropped frames if you have enough processing power?", I am
wondering the same thing. My only guess is that CODEC is not mature enough and I hope that in future versions they can
play without dropping frames. The most surprising thing is the fact that Apple's CODECs (both H.264 and MPEG2) drop
more frames than the beta's for Xvid or Divx.
The DivX CODEC works the best and easily plays all the sample HD material from their
site perfectly. Notice in the screen shot that even though I have a dozen open apps and playing the HD file I am still
only at 30% CPU utilization. The Xvid CODEC works well but if I try to do anything else, such as open the stream
information window while the clip is playing it causes the video to freeze and requires me to press pause then play
again. This may also be my files as I was not able to find any sample HD XviD files
so I had to make my own and video encoding as never been my forte, anyone who has tried it knows it can be a dark art.
The worst support is by Microsoft, who hasn't
released a Windows Media player 10 for OSX never the less a universal binary. Microsoft is now distributing Flip4Mac's WMV component for Quicktime which doesn't work with Intel Macs
yet. Their site indicates that they are working on it.
Just like
my Mac Mini the best player is VLC, it has no trouble playing any file I
throw at it with almost no droped frames. I am using the latest nightly build of VLC which can be downloaded here. The nice thing about VLC is that it is so versatile, it
can play almost any file with any type of audio including TS files captured via 1394 or EyeTV. It is hands down the
most versatile player for every platform.
I also tried EyeTV's
player but their latest version that supports Rossetta requires registration and I don't own an Elgato capture
device. In previous versions the EyeTV was one of the best performers, second only to VLC. EyeTV's software also
supports automatic conversion for iPod Videos which is pretty slick. Maybe Elgato will send us a EyeTV500 for testing
when they finally releae a universal binary version.
Overall I am very satified with the performance of my
MacBook Pro. It is wonderful to be able to play HD files so easily that I can multitask without worrying about droping
frames, but I can't wait until the decoding software matures so I can take full advantage of this powerfull HD
machine!
I like your site but dodn't you just publish the article proclaiming the MacMini was the ultimate HD HTPC?
Please try to keep your inner Fanboy under control and add some unbiased opinion to your reports.
Ahhhh...to be a blogger with a Mac, it must be so exciting and liberating.
You call the MacBook pro the "Ultimate HD Machine", funny you don't call it a DVR or PV or TV or HTPC or even worstation. So what exactly is an "HD Machine" used for?
As for the MacMini being the ultimate HD HTPC, I notice it has a tiny hard drive, no PVR software, and no tuning or capture cards of any type.
I can hardly wait for tomorrow's headline: iPod HiFi - the ultimate audophile sound machine.
:)
You dont need to use Grab to take a screenshot in OS X. Command-Shift-3 will take a full screen capture, and Command-Shift-4 will let you select a region. They are saved on the desktop as PNG files.
cfree,
Thanks for your comments. My ultimate HTPC woudln't have a PVR of any kind. I would download all my HD content or play it off a optical disk. It would be small, slick and easy to use. The new Mac's are the closest to that so far.
PVR's are an interm technology to deal with the lack of downloadable content.
A HD machine is a box in which a person watches HD on. The MacBook Pro is one of the first laptops that has enough power to watch HD encoded h.264 material (important for downloadable content) and has enough power left over to use as a computer.
Jeez, would you guys get off the mac-crack. OMGZ like a computer with DVI. Granted VLC is an awesome video player and Windows Media Player does suck the big one on both Windows and OSX. But ultimate? I think the problem is you have never used a real pc. Dell, Gateway, HP/Compaq is all so-so computers. ABS computers and Sony build better multimedia Machines. And AMD>Intel (on any platform)
Ben, I know you are a hard core Mac Fan, but everything you list can be done better on a Windows duo core laptop. You CPU utilization is so high when playing back H.264 clips becuase OSX does not yet have the ATI GPU H.264 decoders, windows does.
Ben, thanks for the update. Considering all the speculation about the Core Duo and its HD chops on the mac platform, its good that someone who owns an actual machine has put the hardware through its paces. I'm glad you posted this because it will help me on my next hardware purchase.
Gentlemen, I see no need to turn this venue into Mac vs. PC trolling battleground (gosh, I wonder how many million boards are out there where you can do that?). So you don't like word "ultimate" in the title, so what? So there's a bunch of mac news this week, so what? Apple doesn't make HD news that often anyway. Big deal.
Should we all go back to arguing about HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray again? That'll be way interesting . . . again.
I am a network engineer by trade and I have been using Windows PC's my entire life. I bought my first Mac one year ago and I am also very experienced in Linux. I understand the challenges with HDTV playback on a computer, especially H.264.
That being said, this was not a comparison, it was a review of HD playback on a MacBook pro. Ok maybe "Ultimate" wasn't a good choice for words since it implies a comparison, but I see nothing wrong with explaining how well the MacBook pro decodes HDTV video. If I had another Core Dou laptop I would compare them.
I do see your point and I will try to refrain from using words like "ultimate" or "perfect" in my future Mac related titles.
It's not my intent to turn this into a Mac vs PC batle. I started on Macs and used them exclusively for 15 years. I still use a Mac st work. About 5 years ago I got interested in HTPC and I built my first PC. At that time the Mac was unable to do anything HTPC related. Thee Macs have come a long way but they are still behind the PC.
I do take issue with Mac fanatics claiming the Apple has invented the ultimate (insert new product here) everytime they announce a new product. Most times these people do not own or use PC's so they are not qualified to judge either way. I use both and I choose the best tool for the job and at this point that is a PC. Show me the OSX versions of Powerstrip, Girder, FFDshow, etc, I could go on and on. Today I have a 4 tuner server that records NTSC and ATCS, schedules recordings, burns them to discs plus distributes gigs and gigs of stored content to just about every room in my house.
I love these gadget sites but if if I keep reading this kind of uninformed crap I will go elsewhere.
I want to point out that the display on the macbook pro is only 1440 by 900. For me to be able to call a laptop an "ultimate HD machine" it would be able to do 1080p. that would mean that it would need to be 1920 by 1080, right?
@cfree: Get over yourself. Good thing it's only your "informed" opinion that matters. Have you tested a MacBook Pro? If not, then you are just as uninformed as I. This was a simple review that touts the abilities of a piece of hardware. Did the author make wild and unsubstantiated claims? He did not. He simply stated what the machine is capable of. That is what I expect from a review. I'm a big boy. I can make my own comparisons without being swayed by the title of the article.
Dare I say that you are just as fanatical about your "ultimate system" as you have accused Ben of being. Don't like what you're reading? Go ahead and find a new place to shop and stop complaining. Sheesh. Oh, and here's my smiley face too, just like in your first post, so I can also pretend the intent of this comment was all in jest.
:)
I am sick of windows users. I don't have time to mess with a poorly made OS. I don't have time for virus protection, I don't have time for spyware protection, I don't have time for crashes, I don't have time for firewall protection, I don't have time for a complicated file system, I don't have time for a poor UI, I don't have time to follow dumb driven cattle. When one sets out to do something, make sure that it is done right. Don't half ass it. Please! I don't want to dirty my hands with such a waste of binary code.
Ben, thanks for a very useful article. Your comments really help put the MBP's performance abilities in perspective.
im thinking of getting a macbook and im a switcher how did u get the "rodney" on your Macbook and in HD? is it live or a download?
I recorded it via firewire off my Mitsubishi's OTA tuner.
The OSX Firewire SDK includes software called VirtualDVHS that makes it possible.
ben, care to elaborate briefly on your setup? (i.e. devices/ software used, manual hacking etc.) thanks!
MaestroJAL,
It's obvious I touched a sensitive spot. As soon as I started to talk aboud real world tools that comprise an HTPC you run from that argument and tell me to get lost.
When someone calls the MacMini the ultimate HTPC then I start to ask about flexible infared control, image postprocessing and extensive monitor flexibility.
I'm only trying to point out that there is much more to a HTPC than just an HDMI connection.
Also the smiley face was referring to the iPod HiFi headline...An yes that was in jest.
00011000,
I was using QT's MPEG2 plugin and their H.264 plugin.
I was using a beta DivX codec from the DivX homepage and a beta Xvid codec from http://n.ethz.ch/student/naegelic/
I am not using any external equipment. I did capture via Firewire you can check out my hd content article here from a few weeks ago for details on how to do that.
Useful info. I'm really on the fence about this one. I'm looking toward a new notebook in the near future and while I see great potential in this macbook, the lack of ATI hardware acceleration is disappointing. I mean, what't the point of such a beefy vid card if it's hampered by software support. I'm not pointing the finger at either Apple or ATI but does anyone feel me? I've been a Windows user the majority of my "computer life" but am defintely tire of it, for many reasons that dpsuperfly mentioned. On top of it, I've tested beta 2 of Vista and am not very impresses at all. Seems more like what Me was to 98SE but not much else. And all the anti-this and anti-that is very obtrusive. Thus, I want to join the ranks of the OSXers.
Does anybody forsee the pertinent software modifications being ironed out so that the hardware being put into the MacBook Pros can REALLY be utilized for HD? If that happens and the screen resolution is upped I'm sold!
Just bought a core duo Mini, it's going back. HD 1080 plays well, CPU is maxxed out. Main problem is there is still a long way to go before software actually works correctly for Intel. I was suprised what a mess it was, completely unusable except for Apple's native stuff, Quicktime, etc. Apple's actually becoming the more difficult OS to configure/upgrade these days, changes too often. Has been the more difficult OS for a while, actually.
HD on my Macbook pro??
I am new to the macs and I would lilke to know how to use HD.
Talking about how great one and the other is!!
well, on the new mac with Intel cpu you can install windows, That is just to make everyone happy.
I respect everyones opinion about OSs
I think MAC OS is Simply THE BEST!