At 7:26 AM -0800 11/24/2010, Jonas Lopez wrote:
Could a "good" server operator have done this processing for us and then downloaded the worked on file, so that the video would play just as good as a local DVD does?
Yes, but...
Keep in mind that these new $9 per month movie services may have done just this very thing, since no way will the consumer pay for a movie that is of the general quality that is downloaded from the web and shown using Quicktime or Real.
MPEG-2 is often decoded in hardware. That hardware is either a special chip in the DVD drive or in your video card's GPU. Some newer video cards have the necessaries for decoding h.264 in hardware.
Iffa your Mac no gots the required hardware, then QuickTime (or VLC etc) has to do ***all*** the decoding your main CPU.
Now... That $9 service. They PAY thru the nose for their network bandwidth, so they have NO interest in streaming lower-compression data to you. They want to send you as little as possible, hence the use of advanced codecs such as h.264.
So to view compressed stream smoothly, you need two things: 1) A fast CPU or some sort of hardware decoder and 2) A fast/smooth network connection. If either of the above isn't up to par, then will get pauses, stutters, etc. Your 450-MHz G4 is simply not fast enough, I think. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth. -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
