how good is Virtual PC for mac?

[mackaveli]

I have quite a bit of video files that don't play on my MAC. i tried vlc player and does not work. If i get Virtual PC will video playback be at 30fps (or whatever the video file has its FPS set as) or will it slow down and drop frames?

Also is VPC a good program in general cause i really dont want to use a pc but i might have to so, do a lot of standard pc programs that dont use 3d graphics or the graphics card will they run well or will it run like crap?

thanks

edit- if i do get VPC when i install windows XP does it have to use a separate partition (NTFS or something i think) or can i like have my music on mac partition (itunes) then run windows XP and use winamp to play the music in my itunes folder? I wouldn't do that but its just an example or do i have to copy whatever file i want to use on windows to the partition?

thanks

 

[MacDawg]

You have a lot of questions that are good, fair questions.

A search of the forum for VPC will supply you with a ton of information in previous threads.

In short, I use it, but only for VPN access to work. Otherwise I wouldn't. Video will be slow. Games are out. The better alternative is a cheap PC, but if you don't want the extra footprint, try one of the free alternatives first.

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[mkrishnan]

The better alternative is a cheap PC, but if you don't want the extra footprint, try one of the free alternatives first.

With the caveat that, according to unscientific tests, the free ones seem to be substantially slower than VPC. I'm about to find out, though, since I am getting VPC.

 

[GFLPraxis]

What kind of video files are these, and what kind of a Mac is it?

Because there is no reason I can think of that they would run on Windows and not OS X.

 

[dotdotdot]

All videos should work on OS X.

Anyway, I don't reccomend VPC anyway. Too slow, especially for video.

But, remember, when Intel Macs ship in 2006, you may be able to dual boot Tiger and Vista, assuming that 10.5 doesn't ship yet.

 

[mrgreen4242]

What kind of video files are these, and what kind of a Mac is it?

Because there is no reason I can think of that they would run on Windows and not OS X.

There could be some DRMed files that require WMP10 or something, but other than that I agree.

 

[mkrishnan]

There could be some DRMed files that require WMP10 or something, but other than that I agree.

I know this is a FAQ and keeps getting repeated. AFAIK, there is *no* way to play videos that are in the WMV3 format that WMP10 uses, DRM'd or not. These are the videos that require WMP10 to run on Windows. I don't think the codecs are available for any of the players to play these videos. I don't know how to specify them though -- I guess there are some WMV3 videos that use a codec that WMP9/Mac *does* support. These former videos, though, are rare, but they're out there.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

All videos should work on OS X.

Anyway, I don't reccomend VPC anyway. Too slow, especially for video.

But, remember, when Intel Macs ship in 2006, you may be able to dual boot Tiger and Vista, assuming that 10.5 doesn't ship yet.

Not all videos play well on the Mac. Had to make the switch to VLC in order to most if not all to play without worry about which codecs to download. Wonder why Apple has an issue, when VLC does not?

 

[MacDawg]

Not all videos play well on the Mac. Had to make the switch to VLC in order to most if not all to play without worry about which codecs to download. Wonder why Apple has an issue, when VLC does not?

Not sure of your point Chip... VLC is on the Mac as well. You say Apple has an issue, but VLC does not, but VLC is running on the Apple (Mac). Do you mean QuickTime has the issue, and not all videos play in QuickTime?

Woof, Woof – Dawg

 

[MacDawg]

With the caveat that, according to unscientific tests, the free ones seem to be substantially slower than VPC. I'm about to find out, though, since I am getting VPC.

True, with emulators there is slow and slower... have not tried anything but VPC, but I go way back with SoftPC and the like. Nothing works really well, but VPC is serviceable for certain needs. I use it to connect to my work through VPN to get work email and a few things. But anything more than that and I would get a PC. I'm running XP though, and should have gone with 2000. That was my bad.

Perhaps the switch to Intel will help in that regard, but I have little use for Windows now, though I know that there are still some apps that people need to use. You have to weigh the cost of a cheap PC or VPC. There will always be pros and cons.

Woof, Woof – Dawg

 

[pubwvj]

I have VPC 3, 4 and 5 (or is it 6?).
Ironically 3 is the best of them.
With 3 VPC emulated hardware graphics
which allowed me to run Janes flight simulators.
All of them run the tax software I need fine.
I have run sound and video as well as done web browsing and my kids have run some children's educational software in them (Magic School Bus, etc) and all the applications seem to run fine.

This was all on a PowerBook Pismo G3 500MHz and a PowerMac G4 500MHz. The emulated speed of VPC came to a Pentium (I) at about 200MHz. Newer Macs would do a lot better.

 

[Platform]

All videos should work on OS X.

Anyway, I don't reccomend VPC anyway. Too slow, especially for video.

But, remember, when Intel Macs ship in 2006, you may be able to dual boot Tiger and Vista, assuming that 10.5 doesn't ship yet.

Just to say.......Leopard will proberly ship before Vista

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Not sure of your point Chip... VLC is on the Mac as well. You say Apple has an issue, but VLC does not, but VLC is running on the Apple (Mac). Do you mean QuickTime has the issue, and not all videos play in QuickTime?

Woof, Woof – Dawg

Sorry if I wasn't clearer. The orginal post I replied to stated that all videos should/would play on a Mac. That is not the case. There are some that I have come across that require different codecs to be added in order for Quicktime to play them. And even then, some don't.

Enter VLC and most everything that Quicktime fails to play, VLC will. Just was wondering why Apple can't get their act together like the VLC people.