The Ultimate macOS Thread

The main issue with VLC on the mac is that there's only one developer on it, so there's not much optimization work anymore on it. The other devs are working on the next full version, codenamed Lunettes, which will be a complete rewrite of the user interface.
 
Shawn, I've been having the exact same problem with VLC for a little over a month now, except it happens with just about all videos. I've tried installing different versions but it hasn't made a difference. My MacBook isn't as powerful as yours (2.0ghz C2D with 4GB of ram and whatever video card it came with) but with something as simple as a standard definition rip of Fifth Gear it shouldn't cause any problems.

Is this after you finished downloading? I remember that some osx process tries to create a preview during the download and fails while doing so, leading to a lot of cpu power being used and causing the hickups in vlc.
 
No, I never play a video until it is fully downloaded.
 
Movist turned out to be a great tip. Just watched Boardwalk Empire with no issues whatsoever.
 
I use it to watch 720p on my old Core Duo Mac Mini :-D

You might also like to check plex, a more media center oriented application that reads HD without an issue :)
 
I use it to watch 720p on my old Core Duo Mac Mini :-D

You might also like to check plex, a more media center oriented application that reads HD without an issue :)

My 1.6 Atom N270 netbook can almost do it. Anything this side of a Pentium 4 should have no problem.
 
Use VLC, turn off loop filters, ???, profit.

I'm curious what's in that ???, because I still get better performance with Windows Media Player. Some videos it can play but some it just can't. It seems to like divx better than h.264.
 
Turning off loop filters only works for x/h264 content, divx performance will not change.

I understand. I'm trying to say that I have turned off loop filters and performance is still worse than Windows Media Player (I use CCCP). I'm also saying that divx content plays better than h.264 content, loop filters or no. But my original point was that you don't need a particularly powerful computer to play 720p video.

EDIT: I should specify that it is Windows 7 with WMP 12, WMP was pretty much garbage before that.
 
Indeed. A DXVA-capable (or similar tech) GPU would help more than a faster CPU.

But no modern Mac (since the Intel switch at the very least) should have CPU that isn't up to the task. Which is why it seems that VLC is not preforming adequately.
 
Lots of things perform badly on a Mac. For instance, the feature I'm working on in my master's thesis within our research group's graphical modeling software suite had bits that were one hundred times slower on a Mac than on Linux or on Windows. Similarly to VLC, nobody puts a lot of effort into the Mac JVM.
 
My 1.6 Atom N270 netbook can almost do it. Anything this side of a Pentium 4 should have no problem.

I've posted here numerous times how you can actually get your N270 netbook to play 720p files.

It went to hell with Windows 7, but under Windows XP a combination of The KMPlayer and CoreAVC codecs allowed me to watch 720p videos without any issues. I mean there's little point on a 1024x600 resolution display, but at least I didn't need to convert or reacquire my videos to/in SD.
 
Mini Display port is the bane of my existence


Why the fuck couldn't apple just put in a HDMI slot instead?
 
Mini Display port is the bane of my existence


Why the fuck couldn't apple just put in a HDMI slot instead?

They put a standard DVI port on their first-gen MBPs.

Then they realized that everyone can sell DVI-to-VGA adaptors and switched to something that forced the customers to buy an Apple adaptor.
 
My Dell monitor has a full sized DisplayPort err port so I bought a mini DP to regular DP cable. Runs fine.
 
Then they realized that everyone can sell DVI-to-VGA adaptors and switched to something that forced the customers to buy an Apple adaptor.

The very first MBPs actually shipped with the DVI-VGA adapter.

I hate it too Kat... my mom bought herself a 37" TV while she's staying with me and it would be nice if I could just plug it in without any adapters. Stupid part is Apple sells the DVI-HDMI cables for $30, luckily I know better than to buy anything other than Apple products from Apple.
 
I've posted here numerous times how you can actually get your N270 netbook to play 720p files.

It went to hell with Windows 7, but under Windows XP a combination of The KMPlayer and CoreAVC codecs allowed me to watch 720p videos without any issues. I mean there's little point on a 1024x600 resolution display, but at least I didn't need to convert or reacquire my videos to/in SD.

CoreAVC is the one thing I haven't tried because it isn't free and I have no idea if it will work. And yes, I recently found a solution to easily re-encode so it's not that big a deal anymore. Videos play fine at 1024x576 size.
 
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