here is a quote from a pro
http://macosx.com/forums/hardware-periph...video.html
Your processor is the culprit. HD video, particulary H.264 encoded video, requires a huge amount of processing power just to play.
I had the last G4 Powerbook made (1.67gHz, 2GB DDR2 matched pair, ATI 256MB video) and could barely do 720p at native size without skipping and other issues. Same issue on a MDD with dual 1.42gHz G4s. The MBPro I have now has no issues at all.
Might be a good time to consider an upgrade if you're going to be messing with a lot of HD content. The new iMacs (and the Minis for that matter) will handle it with no problems. G4s like yours are still fetching around $650 to $800 on eBay last I saw.
Apple's
official recommendation for 720p HD in Quicktime 7 is:
- 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
Your current maschine only meets the requirement for 480p playback.
Apple's official recommendation for 480p HD in Quicktime 7 is:
- 1.25 GHz PowerMac G4 or faster Macintosh computer
- At least 128MB of RAM
- 64 MB or greater video card
I still think it would be great for PPC, But since you can use linux on PPC, and run XBMC from there. Linux on Power KICK %^. Fast FAST FAST Even on a old beige g3 server. Plus you can use all the video acceleration features you can get your hands on.
http://forums.nvidia.com/lofiversion/ind...35695.html
Again, VIA Technologies company does support hardware acceleration for more than just MPEG-2 for their S3G UniChrome UniChrome Pro graphics chipsets, they support decoding of motion compensation (mo comp), Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform (iDCT), and Variable-Length Decoding (VLD) for MPEG-2, MPEG-4 ASP (H.263), and MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video. These very active open source projects provide source code for the device drivers, and a updated forked version of libxvmc:
http://openchrome.org
http://unichrome.sf.net
But then again you run into hardware problems. You jus can't stick any card in your mac to male it work. Even in linux. It Possible for greater amount and variety of the hardware, but you still run into physical restrictions on the hardware side on the PPC macs that make them still more trouble then it's worth. AGP 4x is one of them. Sadly, there will be a day that OSX "Lion" will not be supported for PPC. then we are all just stuck. Just like allot og beige g3 owners out there that are stuck with 10.2.8. Next thing we got is FRANKEN MAC with a intel PC Card (just like in the old days) doing all the work and having the PPC hardware just display the video. Sometimes it was the only way to play games on your mac was using the PC card.
Today, we have to sit down and see what is the future. So far the 360 and the PS3 both have POWER based CPU's But the fact is that the instruction set is totally different. there close but no cigar. What would not surprise me is that osx would run faster on a 360 then a G5 computer. If you really want to port something to 360, xbmc linux would work, But to those who have a 360, most are on there 2nd one. I was on my third. then then i just sent it back to circuit city and got my money back. overheating is a issue.
http://www.hackaday.com/2007/03/20/xbox-...-released/
Lastly, fan noise on full tilt on G4 will drive you bezerk while watching a movie. They made special boxes for the boxes to keep the noise down in the video editing environments. Just imagine this in your living room. ever time you play a video the cpu goes to 100% and the fans blow enough hot air to keep you warm in winter.
And how are the imac g3, Imac g4s and emacs going to output SDV? Well we got A firewire convertor, but that like a 200 option, then you are back to the xbox that does sit for 50-100 bucks
Then you got the other g3's and g4's that need a video out, fpr SDTV and the only one that has it is a \beige g3, but it only works well in os9. then you got to buy a $100 video card because all mac cars cost more then PC cards do/ (How the hell you sell a ATI radeon 7000 for 100 bucks plus is beyond me! AND SOME DO NOT EVEN HAVE VIDEO OUTS!) Then if you want a new card to work with your mac, it has to be a new G5 becase they don;t make new pci express cards for g4 macs, just more pci based cards! that cost over $100 bucks. And $200 for a AGP based card!
All this stuff, and you still get your pee pee slapped by a mac mini for 500 bucks that beats out a G5 dual.
And NOW you know why we mac heads LOVE FreeX86. You could actually run the best software on the best hardware!
Why else do you think apple switched? OSX ran like lighting on the P4 at 3.4Ghz And took advantage of all the hardware aceleration the windows guys have been getting for years and put it too good use. No matter how you stack it. Less then a 1000 people will ever use it. And less then a 100 will keep using it for more then 3 years.
XBMC for linux will be used forever. XBMC on the mac will be used till the next software update makes the rebuild necessary every year. I can't imagine the work the Dev guys are doing to make this work. But god bless them!