PowerBook G4 12" lags on playing DVDs
It looks like every few seconds DVD Player lags and misses frames playing DVDs, I've tried quite a few. I don't think this happened on my iBook in X and especially not 9. Could it be the stupid NVIDIA pos card? I'm really not liking this. It lags! It's a freaking DVD! Especially when the whole screen is moving, it really annoys me. Matsu, anyone else notice this?
Comments
-alcimedes
I ordered the same configuration of PowerBook yesterday. Should be here soon.
I just did an experiment. Golden Eye did NOT skip in windowed mode, at regular size or maximum. However, it DOES skip in Full Screen mode. This is annoying and I'm calling Apple tomorrow. I mean I spent more than $2000 on this machine!
edit: Yes I have 10.2.4 and nothing else running. I ran top and there were no pageouts. I have 640 megs of RAM. GoldenEye, Vanilla Sky, and Austin Powers 2 all skip when in Full Screen mode. This must be a software issue but it's going to be annoying waiting 2 months to fix it.
[ 03-05-2003: Message edited by: Aquatic ]</p>
<strong>Well it's downright pathetic and a class action lawsuit should be started if Apple doesn't fix this in an update.
I just did an experiment. Golden Eye did NOT skip in windowed mode, at regular size or maximum. However, it DOES skip in Full Screen mode. This is annoying and I'm calling Apple tomorrow. I mean I spent more than $2000 on this machine!
edit: Yes I have 10.2.4 and nothing else running. I ran top and there were no pageouts. I have 640 megs of RAM. GoldenEye, Vanilla Sky, and Austin Powers 2 all skip when in Full Screen mode. This must be a software issue but it's going to be annoying waiting 2 months to fix it.
[ 03-05-2003: Message edited by: Aquatic ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that the skipping only occurs in full screen mode. Not in windowed mode. Not sure what the deal is. I think it must be a video card thing because Diablo II plays like complete shit on it. Funnily enough, UT X does well. I haven't tried other things full screen.
[quote]Read about this odd little trick on one of the other forums-- while in full screen mode, also have the CPU Monitor app running. You'll notice two things. First, DVD playback uses relatively little processing power (maybe 30-40%), AND the DVD playback is no longer choppy. That's right, when CPU Monitor is running, DVD playback is very good, when it's not, it's choppy in full screen. Obviously, there is some bizarre software problem at work here, that hopefully will be addressed soon.
<hr></blockquote>
This trick DOES work for me! This is really weird. Come on Apple at least acknowledge this is a problem and publish a release saying you're working on it.
edit: you need to have the CPU monitor floating window over the top of the DVD player or else it will still be choppy. This is ridiculous but an interesting fix.
[ 03-05-2003: Message edited by: Aquatic ]</p>
edit: you beat me to the link. That's an interesting fix. I'll try it sooner or later...
[ 03-05-2003: Message edited by: torifile ]</p>
Lawsuit? Are you serious? I swear people are all to willing to threaten a lawsuit for the most trivial matters. I hope you're kidding... or at least exaggerating.
[ 03-05-2003: Message edited by: aribus485 ]</p>
<strong>I am. It is kinda annoying tho. It's fscking NVIDIA I bet.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Although it doesn't seem to be a CPU processing power problem, traditionally Nvidia cards haven't been as good as ATI Radeons for DVD playback, as the CPU usage can be upto twice that of the equivalent Radeon.
VM: 1.88G + 70.0M 19828(0) pageins, 4379(0) pageouts
I have over half a gig of RAM and look at all those pagein/outs. 10.2.4 is looking shady. <a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=001967" target="_blank">http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=001967</a>
edit: Matsu did you try in Full Screen mode?
[ 03-05-2003: Message edited by: Aquatic ]</p>
<strong>Yeah, weird. I don't detect any skips, but mebbe I'm just not paying attention. Mine was an early unit for Canada but rather late by American release standards. Could it be an issue with earlier units?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Matsu, given your history of disdain for Apple, I'd say that if you're not noticing any skips, then your machine isn't skipping.
It could be that it's an early release thing, but I can't imagine what the differences would be.
Could you fire up Apple System Profiler and tell me what these values are for your machine:
Machine Model (Powerbook6,1 version = 3.3)
Boot ROM Info (4.5.5f4)
And in the Devices and Volumes tab:
(Under the PCI>built in AGP)
ROM# (2030)
Revision (a5)
My values are in parantheses. TIA.
<strong>PhysMem: 62.7M wired, 248M active, 83.5M inactive, 395M used, 245M free
VM: 1.88G + 70.0M 19828(0) pageins, 4379(0) pageouts
I have over half a gig of RAM and look at all those pagein/outs. 10.2.4 is looking shady. </strong><hr></blockquote>
What is your uptime? If you've had it running for a while, those are not many pageouts at all. I have only 256 MB of RAM in my iMac (for now) and I had upwards of 25,000 pageouts after 2 days of use. Pushing her a bit hard with that little of RAM, of course. I'll be adding another 512 this week.
Pageouts aren't evil. Hell, if you have zero pageouts after a few days of use with 640 MB of RAM, you should probably be a bit embarrased. You're not *using* the thing.
Have a little patience on this one, I'm sure we'll see some sort of fix before long.
flick.
<strong>I'm not seeing any Lag either {640meg of ram) and I'm watching DVDs through the PB on to a TV Via the Video out deal. not sure what to say.
flick.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I think it's supposed to be better through the video out. How is it when your watching it fullscreen on the LCD?
I'm watching on my 12" PB and the DVD playback is perfect in 10.2.4 in fact it plays a few discs that had probs for me on the iBook in 10.2.3...
But I do have a SuperDrive maybe that helps?.....
<strong>not a very useful post but...
I'm watching on my 12" PB and the DVD playback is perfect in 10.2.4 in fact it plays a few discs that had probs for me on the iBook in 10.2.3...
But I do have a SuperDrive maybe that helps?.....</strong><hr></blockquote>
Could you check the specs I posted earlier in the thread and post them here?