Another night of testing and a more confusion.
Updated results:
Media: Back to the Future III Blu-ray - ripped with MakeMKV
Info:
http://pastebin.com/nZNZ2j2zCode:
Macbook - Late 2008 ALU Unibody - 2Ghz, 4GB Mem, 160GB Intel SSD, 9400M
CPU% CPU%
OS X VDADecode On VDADecode Off
------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.6.3 | 50-57% | 135-170%
10.6.4 | 50-57% | 135-170%
10.6.5 | 50-57% | 135-170%
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MacMini - Mid 2010, 2.4Ghz, 4GB Mem, 500GB Drive, 320M
CPU% CPU%
OS X VDADecode On VDADecode Off
------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.6.3 | 30-42% | 120-140%
10.6.4 | 100-110% (unplayable) | 130-150%
10.6.5 | 100-110% (unplayable) | 130-150%
------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.6.5 = Build 10H571
We can prove:
XBMC VDADecode helps in 10.6.3 builds with 320M
XBMC VDADecode "breaks" in 10.6.4, 10.6.5 builds with 320M
XBMC VDADecode helps in 10.6.3, 10.6.4, 10.6.5 builds with 9400M
With that information it would seem h264 acceleration is broke in 10.6.4 and 10.6.5 on 320M.
However if we are going to say it is strictly an Apple problem that is global with the 320M and 10.6.4/10.6.5 then we should compare some QuickTime Player tests which uses VDADecode with h264 by default.
Without confusing things by adding Perian to the mix for QuickTime playback of mkv I remuxed the mkv to mp4 with a downmixed DTS to stereo AAC. I left the video stream alone.
At this point we are not trying to compare a mkv vs mp4 playback but VDADecode playback in QuickTime vs. XBMC .
MediaInfo for remuxed mp4:
http://pastebin.com/YjfqqFJy
An even simpler test that can be done is to just use an Apple 1080P HD trailer. You can go to trailerfreaks.com and grab the Apple 1080p trailers if you can't figure out how to get it from the Apple site.
I'm using the Tron Legacy 1080p trailer from here:
http://www.trailerfreaks.com/trailer_pro...ron+Legacy
MediaInfo:
http://pastebin.com/R4gpfTjL
Results:
Code:
MacMini - Mid 2010, 2.4Ghz, 4GB Mem, 500GB Drive, 320M
Back to the Future III - MP4 remux
CPU% CPU%
OS X Quicktime VDADecode On VDADecode Off
--------------------------------------------------------------------
10.6.3 | 10-16% | 40-43% | 110-137%
10.6.4 | 8-15% | *98-100% | 113-131%
--------------------------------------------------------------------
*Stuttering / Unplayable
Tron Legacy Trailer - MOV AVC MPEG4 encoded
CPU% CPU%
OS X Quicktime VDADecode On VDADecode Off
--------------------------------------------------------------------
10.6.3 | 9-12% | 30-32% | 45-57%
10.6.4 | 7-14% | 91-93% | 45-54%
--------------------------------------------------------------------
For the most part a common theme here on the mkv, mp4, and Quicktime tests.
Quicktime Player isn't affected by 320M so we can't say to Apple it is a global problem.
What is a bit surprising is the CPU Usage gap on 10.6.4 with the Tron Trailer.
In that case we are just about half of with VDADecode On.
As much as I would like to say this is strictly only an Apple problem with 320M and 10.6.4+ I don't think we can say that yet.
