Best codec for Powerbook G3 (400 MHz)

[cecco]

I currently want to archive some TV stuff. Original is in muxed high quality mpeg2 format from a PVR. I'll mainly watch it in quarter screen or fullscreen on my Powerbook G3 Pismo (400 MHz). First I opted for SVGA or Halve-DVD Mpeg4 compression, but found my Pismo not be able to play the format without dropped frames.

Can someone recommend a compact format, that plays well on the Pismo.

Thanks

Cecco

[major]

Have you tried mplayer to play? It is significantly faster than Quicktime Player for mpeg-4.

[dylanpank@msn.com]

Smaller resolutions may be the answer, 384*288 for 4:3, 480*272 for 16:9 and 576*240 for 2.35:1.

I find these resolutions play fine on a 500mhz ibook so they should be fine for even a slightly slower powerbook.

[cecco]

mplayer indeed is a bit faster than QuickTime Player ... and I found VLC to be even faster than mplayer

384*288 indeed plays well on a PowerBook G3 400 Mhz. But I find it a bit small to play at 100% and 200% or fullscreen doesn't look very well.

I'm currently investigationg to find the max. resolution, that plays well on my PB.

Thnaks for your tips

Cecco

[major]

While the movie is playing in mplayer you may open terminal.app and type the following command to obtain more speed.

sudo renice -20 mplayer [enter your OSX password blindly when requested]