PowerMac G5 HD Video Help

[boodyup]

Hi All,

I have a Dual 1.8Ghz G5 (3.5GB Ram) that I have connected to an LCD Tv. It is also connected to my Airport Extreme Base Station via Ethernet cable or optional 802.11N Wireless USB Network Adapter.

I want to play 1080p mkv files on this computer. The problem is, that when I do play them, the resulting video is unwatchable. It's too choppy and slow. I was wondering if I upgrade the video card from it's stock ATI Card with 64MB of Ram to a Radeon X1900 with 256MB of Ram would this improve the video quality to the point that I wouldn't require having to buy a whole new set-up?

I also have the newer Mac Mini (2.66Ghz) and that seems to handle 1080p just fine. When I did a comparison using Activity Monitor between the two computers, I noticed that the CPU load wasn't that much different. I'm assuming that the graphics card is the bottleneck.

BTW - I want to keep the mini for my office computer so switching them is not an option.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Tech-Minded]

According to this guide, it would solely depend on what codec you're using. Read the guide for more detail.

 

[DoFoT9]

i assume you are using VLC? which is not really optimised for OSX, let alone OSX on a PPC.

i would suggest using Plex - but its intel only

converting to .m4v might be your only option, i dont think a new GPU would give you 100% perfect playback because i think the machine is too old.

 

[MattA]

About a year ago I upgraded my Powermac G5 to a Mac Mini with the 9600M. The difference in video playback is night and day. The Mac Mini will play 1080p all day long without a hiccup. Honestly, with the amount of cash you'd have to dump into the Powermac to make it even play 720p properly, you could buy a Mac Mini.

To give you an idea on the speed difference, ripping a movie for the iPod Touch/iPhone with handbrake went like this:

Powermac G5 1.6: 6 hours
Mac Mini: 45 minutes.

$600 is pretty reasonable.

 

[boodyup]

Thanks for the info.

I decided against going with the power mac for two reasons:

1) Size - thing is huge and in my small condo I can use that extra room around my set-up

2) Thing is loud! All those damn fans make it difficult to hear what I should be hearing

3) Due to the limitations posted, I decided to get a popcorn hour c-200. The problem with the Mac Mini (and any apple computer at this time) is that it doesn't have hdmi and therefore can't run HD audio.

Thanks