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Thread ID: 57362 2005-04-30 09:46:00 Watching H.264 on WinXP sal (67) Press F1
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350781 2005-04-30 09:46:00 I've seen the codec being mentioned in numerous places over the last half year, and recently apple opened a gallery full of high def. content (www.apple.com) encoded with this codec. I notice they mention that Quicktime7/OSX Tiger can play it (Win currently only goes upto Quicktime 6.5) but I downloaded a 110MB file anyways. It was a real tease when I saw the player (I tried QTP, MPC and VLC) enlarge to something huge, but could only hear sound.


However, you'll still need a G5 system to display so much media.
I dont believe them. anyone know how to experience this awesomeness on WinXP?
sal (67)
350782 2005-04-30 11:54:00 Copied off the main Apple Trailers site:

High Definition Trailers:
(QuickTime 7 for Mac Required)
04.29
Batman Begins 720p, 1080p
04.29
Fantastic Four 720p
04.29
Kingdom Of Heaven 720p, 1080p
04.29
Serenity 720p, 1080p


Looks like we miss out for the time being. Just Apple trying to falsely drum up Mac superiority. Just like old Bill not distributing Office to the Mac desktop.
Aurealis_ (7897)
350783 2005-04-30 13:23:00 This might work but it isnt free Moonlight’s Elecard MPEG Player 3.0

www.moonlight.co.il

I tried a basic h.264 file. It worked. BUT there was no sound. BUT I got the video.
Speedy Gonzales (78)
350784 2005-05-09 12:36:00 Thats weird, in other programs you get sound and no picture, with this you get picture, but no sound, damn. Well at least you can watch these with a PSP. Good enough reason to get one, right? heh sal (67)
350785 2005-05-11 08:11:00 Just Apple trying to falsely drum up Mac superiority. Just like old Bill not distributing Office to the Mac desktop.

Actually, Microsoft publicly said a year or so ago that their Mac version of Office was better than the Windows version... ;)

Anyway, back to the topic. Decoding H.264 is extremely processor intensive and of course requires a player that supports it. At this stage Apple hasn't made QT7 available for Windows, so obviously they aren't going to list equivalent specifications. I tried the 720p Serenity trailer from the QuickTime HD Gallery on both of my current computers. My iMac G4 800MHz with a 32MB GeForce 2MX, just over three years old, was definitely not up to the challenge. It only achieved around 2 to 5 frames in complex scenes and the maximum I saw in a very uncomplex scene was 14 frames per second. I also tried it on my PowerBook G4 1GHz with a 64MB 9600 Mobility. The playback was better, I wouldn't have wanted to watch a whole movie though as it jumped quite a bit and never went above 19 fps. I will probably be upgrading my iMac to the latest 20-inch iMac G5 in the next few weeks and I expect perfect playback from that.

If you convert my tests (which aren't very scientific) into equivalent x86 requirements, I would say a Windows based computer would need a processor of around 1.8GHz for jumpy playback and 2.4GHz for perfect playback (with at least a 64MB graphics card) for a 720p H.264 video. :)
maccrazy (6741)
350786 2005-05-11 08:20:00 Actually, Microsoft publicly said a year or so ago that their Mac version of Office was better than the Windows version... ;)

Anyway, back to the topic. Decoding H.264 is extremely processor intensive and of course requires a player that supports it. At this stage Apple hasn't made QT7 available for Windows, so obviously they aren't going to list equivalent specifications. I tried the 720p Serenity trailer from the QuickTime HD Gallery on both of my current computers. My iMac G4 800MHz with a 32MB GeForce 2MX, just over three years old, was definitely not up to the challenge. It only achieved around 2 to 5 frames in complex scenes and the maximum I saw in a very uncomplex scene was 14 frames per second. I also tried it on my PowerBook G4 1GHz with a 64MB 9600 Mobility. The playback was better, I wouldn't have wanted to watch a whole movie though as it jumped quite a bit and never went above 19 fps. I will probably be upgrading my iMac to the latest 20-inch iMac G5 in the next few weeks and I expect perfect playback from that.

If you convert my tests (which aren't very scientific) into equivalent x86 requirements, I would say a Windows based computer would need a processor of around 1.8GHz for jumpy playback and 2.4GHz for perfect playback (with at least a 64MB graphics card) for a 720p H.264 video. :)
I am glad you aren't the only one that hadproblems.My g4 imac struggled
plod (107)
350787 2005-06-07 14:09:00 I see today that a public preview of Quicktime 7 for Windows (www.apple.com) is now available which brings with it native H.264 video playback. I found out a while back that the latest beta version of vlc media player (which might soon be nonexistant (www.videolan.org)) could playback h.264 video although it was quite choppy on our lowly system. sal (67)
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