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HD 720p Video Playback Solution for G4s

just.in.time

Well-known member
Want to watch movies in 720p on your higher end G4 without maxing the CPU? Good, there is a way!

All of this is referenced on a 20” iMac G4 1.25ghz w/ 2GB RAM running OS X 10.5.8. CPU usage for the playback runs right around 50% utilization. Based on that, playback is using up ~625mhz of the CPU. The remaining system is using 10% CPU, so ~125mhz. With all that said, I’d say this probably won’t work smoothly for single CPU systems clocked below 750mhz. I’m not sure if it can split into multiple threads, so a safe bet for dual CPU systems is probably at least 625mhz clock. At any rate, the instructions...

Download MPlayer OSX PPC 1.0 rc1

With the playback controller selected, go to MPlayer OSX -> Preferences

Select Video & Audio tab

check Drop frames on slower machines

set video out module to CoreVideo(BETA)

Select Miscellaneous tab

check Enable AltiVec

check Use Cache (I set the slider to 8 )

Click OK, quit MPlayer completely.

Reopen and load a 720p divx video file. Video plays smoothly in window and full screen.

I have tested this on a divx version of Sunshine (2007), and there is no stutter, dropped frames, or video - soundtrack separation throughout the entire movie.

View attachment MPlayer_OSX_PPC.zip

 
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