why Divx distortion on Mac Powerbook and not Dell Inspiron?

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  • whogoesthere
    Junior Member
    Junior Member
    • Jan 2008
    • 3
    #1

    why Divx distortion on Mac Powerbook and not Dell Inspiron?

    I have some avi files that I ripped some time ago from MY OWN DVDs to take with me while I travel...they play fine on my Dell Inspiron 8600 (yeah, I know, I know...I should not have used the avi format, but I did for whatever reason back then...). Recently though I tried playing them on my PowerBook G4...replay was choppy and in places there was severe pixilation.
    Is there an obvious reason for this...and could this reason be processor speed, or is there something else wrong? What codec should I have used, or should I use now?
    I have a Dell Inspiron with a 1.6 GHz processor running Windows XP SP3, ~1.3 GHz of RAM...the PowerBook is an early G4 with a 500MHz processor running Mac OS X 10.4.11, ~800MHz of RAM.
    I hope you don't consider this to be a DVD ripping question, as it's meant to be a "which codec is a better choice" question, or a "why won't this work?" question. I realize the DVD ripping forums have been dropped, and can certainly understand why...just the fact that I have to even comment on the content of my post shows how very serious the problem is.
    Any (constructive) suggestions would be helpful...thanks in advance.
    Tags: None
    • Chewy
      Super Moderator
      • Nov 2003
      • 18971
      #2
      playing an avi takes a lot of cpu, just a little ram and quite a bit of video power

      your mac probably only has enough ram

      no codec will fix a 500Mghz cpu, especially when it's about all it can do to run the OS X

      playing an avi on my 2 year old computer takes only 19% cpu, a dvd/mpeg2 almost 40%

      that laptop's over 6 years old, we have come a long way since then

        Comment

        • UncasMS
          Super Moderator
          • Nov 2001
          • 9047
          #3
          i have flic4mac installed on my macbook and also VLC and everything runs fine (even with QT)

          since vlc is freeware maybe you should give that player a try

            Comment

            • whogoesthere
              Junior Member
              Junior Member
              • Jan 2008
              • 3
              #4
              UncasMS...thanks so much for the tip on the VLC software...IT WORKED PERFECTLY! I actually had used the Windows version years before on the Inspiron. You have saved me the hours spent converting to a different format that probably wouldn't have worked anyway.
              Thanks also to Chewy for confirming though what I have suspected...it's time to upgrade. I've used the Mac mostly for my work, and only recently have I began exploring options outside of that.
              I have another question about other formats...I've heard that the .avi format is perhaps not as desirable as others...for example I've been told .mov would be a much better choice for Mac viewing. Should I consider converting my .avi files and use this format in the future?
              Thanks again for all your help.

                Comment

                • Chewy
                  Super Moderator
                  • Nov 2003
                  • 18971
                  #5
                  stay away from any h264/x264 files with an old computer

                  instead of 20% they take 100% of my computer and stall a lot

                    Comment

                    • UncasMS
                      Super Moderator
                      • Nov 2001
                      • 9047
                      #6
                      i personally do not like mov much

                      was mov suggested to be used with what c hewy already addressed: h264/x264

                      if so: so codec is fine but needs powerful hardware.
                      any other codec inside the mov-container wont make mov a better choice than avi

                      you can create very good looking videos with the avi-container and they will run fine on mac os, windows or linux so i would not switch to mov

                        Comment

                        • whogoesthere
                          Junior Member
                          Junior Member
                          • Jan 2008
                          • 3
                          #7
                          was mov suggested to be used with what c hewy already addressed: h264/x264

                          No...actually while looking around online researching my options I came across a program called "DivX Doctor 2" that converts avi to mov...in another forum someone commented that avi is older and outdated software, mov works better and is more compatible. I downloaded a free trial, used it and it seemed to work okay to me...but I am concerned with re-compressing a file that has already been compressed once.

                          I confess I don't know enough about the formats to understand what h264/x264 is. I think I'll probably just stick with avi, since I can now play it with VLC.

                          Again, thanks to both of you for your help...it is much appreciated.

                            Comment

                            • UncasMS
                              Super Moderator
                              • Nov 2001
                              • 9047
                              #8
                              don't recompress because you will loose quality and dont fool around with your files just because something is (said to be) newer!

                              mov isnt considered a good choice in the windows world because it will require additional software most of the time - of cause it's the other way around on a mac but that doesnt make mov the better format

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