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    Is the new macbook capable of 1080p mkv

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by pdinh001, Mar 2, 2009.

  1. pdinh001

    pdinh001 Newbie

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    Hi all. I am planning to buy the new aluminum macbook. This will be my first mac experience. Will the base model at 2.0ghz be able to play 1080p mkv file? And yes, I do know the resolution is only 1200x800. The 1080p mkv movies are from my desktop computer. It would be a hassle to convert everything to lower resolution to be able to play on the macbook. Thanks.
     
    pdinh001, Mar 2, 2009
    #1
  2. MaX PL

    MaX PL Notebook Deity

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    i'm gonna say yes to the macbook being able to play 1080p.

    you planning to connect it to a 1080p monitor though right?
     
    MaX PL, Mar 2, 2009
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  3. Chrysaor

    Chrysaor Notebook Consultant

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    If they are high bit rate 1080p videos (direct Blu-ray rips), you might have problems (frame drops, slowdowns etc) under OS X since it doesn't do GPU acceleration.
    In Windows, they should play without any frame drops and with minimum CPU usage, thanks to DXVA and Purevideo.
     
    Chrysaor, Mar 2, 2009
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  4. hehe299792458

    hehe299792458 Notebook Deity

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    You can only access HA in Windows if you use one of the supported players - e.g.powerdvd.
     
    hehe299792458, Mar 2, 2009
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  5. ltcommander_data

    ltcommander_data Notebook Deity

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    I modern CPU should be fast enough to handle 1080p. It shouldn't be a problem from a viewing perspective. It's just not as efficient from a power or heat perspective as GPU accelerated decoding.

    The Unibodies do support hardware h.264 acceleration now although I'm not sure if they can see it through a .mkv container.
     
    ltcommander_data, Mar 2, 2009
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  6. pdinh001

    pdinh001 Newbie

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    Thank you for the replys. And yeah, I've also read that apple is not the greatest at playing mkv. Most likely I will use CoreAVC as the codec to play the movies on windows in bootcamp.
     
    pdinh001, Mar 2, 2009
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  7. jjahshik32

    jjahshik32 Notebook Deity

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    Even the previous generation macbooks can play 1080p mkv files just fine.
     
    jjahshik32, Mar 3, 2009
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  8. hehe299792458

    hehe299792458 Notebook Deity

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    that depends on the bitrate. Try playing a 30mbit file and I'm sure it won't be so fine.
     
    hehe299792458, Mar 3, 2009
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  9. sulkorp

    sulkorp Notebook Deity

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    If you have problems with quicktime, try Plex. Better HD performance than quicktime for me and others.
     
    sulkorp, Mar 3, 2009
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  10. Colton

    Colton Also Proudly American

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    I'm having a problem with Plex... When it starts up, it tells me there is an update. Well when I go to click on the update, it doesn't allow me to click the "yes" for the update.. Any Ideas? :)
     
    Colton, Mar 3, 2009
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  11. Chris27

    Chris27 Notebook Deity

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    Using Plex, I've been able to play MKVs encoded at ~18MBs smoothly
     
    Chris27, Mar 3, 2009
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