Snow Leopard and MKV = unwatchable (White Macbook)

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Hi there,

So I installed Snow Leopard (clean install, i.e. complete formatting, then fresh installation of SL), and in general, everything does run faster, except HD movies.

I tried this with several .mkv files (the usual format for 720p), first with VLC: movie laggy, out of sync audio, and even laggier on secondary monitor, even more in fullscreen, and then I tried Plex, Quicktime with Perian and finally Chroma, which gives me the best result, but still, all of those 4 players are extremely laggy.

Moreover, the rest of my applications also run slower while watching those movies. Seemingly no problem with normal .avi DivX files (in QT X).

Specs: White Macbook 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM.

I hope there is some solution to this, because otherwise, I'd have to go back to Leopard I guess.
 
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Have you done any basic trouble shooting beyond trying the video in different players?

Did you update your other software to make sure you have the newest version as some software is not fully snow leopard compatible? You might have something causing problems on your system at startup or login.

if you haven't already, read through and try the steps in:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/93819-basic-os-x-mac-troubleshooting.html

and let us know what's happening.
 
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OK, so I did steps 1-6, but before continuing, I'd like to know what 7-10 are going to do, please?

7) Run Disk Repair - Boot from your restore/install disc and run a Volume/Disk repair on your startup disk.

8) Resetting the PRAM: When booting, hold down Command-Option-P-R and wait for the triple startup chimes.

9) File System Check - When booting up your computer hold down the Apple Key & the S key and it will boot into single user mode. When the text is done loading on the screen type in /sbin/fsck -f and hit enter.
When that is done if it fixed things then do the check again to make sure it is cleared
When finished with that type in exit and it will start the computer in normal mode

10) Reset Nonvolatile Firmware - When booting, hold down Command-Option-O-F and wait for the command prompt. Type "reset-nvram" and hit enter.

I now tried the following:

I installed MPlayer and MPlayer Extended and I upped the cache to 256MB (in the extended version, I also tried standard with 16MB cache), but to no avail.

It works fine as long as I try to watch it on my Macbook monitor, or in a not-too-bit window on my secondary (24") monitor, but as soon as I go fullscreen on the second monitor, or even drag the window to an almost-fullscreen size, it's crazy choppy.

I don't understand this, it looks like my hardware is too slow, but everything worked fine with Leopard (while Snow is supposed to be faster).

EDIT: One more detail: I have a 24" iiyama secondary monitor, connected via an iiyama HDMI-to-DVI cable (with a DVI to mini-DVI adapter, Apple standard model).
 
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7 and 9 are file system check functions to make sure the filesystem itself is healthy.

PRAM is NVRam that stores parameter information - here's a link to what's stored there: Mac OS X: What's stored in PRAM

AFAIK all intel Macs use EFI firmware and not the older Open Firmware used in the PPC based machines, so step 10 won't do anything for you.

what resolution is your external display? Have you tried closing the lid on the laptop and using only the secondary display to play and see what happens? Were you able to play the video before full screen on the secondary display with the laptop open?

Also - take a look here:

The VideoLAN Forums • View topic - 13" MacBook Pro, Snow Leopard and VLC 1.0.1

and see if that's similar to what you're seeing with VLC...
 
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7 and 9 are file system check functions to make sure the filesystem itself is healthy.

PRAM is NVRam that stores parameter information - here's a link to what's stored there: Mac OS X: What's stored in PRAM

AFAIK all intel Macs use EFI firmware and not the older Open Firmware used in the PPC based machines, so step 10 won't do anything for you.

So do you think I should do steps 8 and 9? Is there any possibility that this might solve the problem?

what resolution is your external display? Have you tried closing the lid on the laptop and using only the secondary display to play and see what happens? Were you able to play the video before full screen on the secondary display with the laptop open?

- 1920x1200
- I have no tried closing the lid, because it goes on standby immediately. Also, I want to continue working on my primary monitor.
- With Leopard, there was absolutely no problem watching even 1080p videos on my secondary monitor, while continuing to work on my laptop monitor.

Also - take a look here:

The VideoLAN Forums • View topic - 13" MacBook Pro, Snow Leopard and VLC 1.0.1

and see if that's similar to what you're seeing with VLC...

I had already seen this thread after a Google search, but they don't exactly offer a solution. They suggest waiting for the next VLC release, but this mostly concerns problems with subtitles afaik.
 
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So do you think I should do steps 8 and 9? Is there any possibility that this might solve the problem?

*probably not* but, it couldn't hurt to try.

How much HD space do you have available on the system? and how much RAM do you have? it sounds similar to something running in the background using some of the GPU for something causing the video to stutter...

- 1920x1200
- I have no tried closing the lid, because it goes on standby immediately.

if you have an external keyboard/mouse, you should be able to just wake the computer back up with the lid shut - this is how I use my laptop at work most of the time (still waiting for work to get me the stand I want to bring my laptop screen to the right height as the main screen).

Also, I want to continue working on my primary monitor.
- With Leopard, there was absolutely no problem watching even 1080p videos on my secondary monitor, while continuing to work on my laptop monitor.

have you checked your cpu usage to make sure something isn't interfering? try installing istat menus and watch cpu usage while you're working doing things and check the activity monitor to see what's going on with your RAM...

I had already seen this thread after a Google search, but they don't exactly offer a solution. They suggest waiting for the next VLC release, but this mostly concerns problems with subtitles afaik.

Well, they were referring to HD video and mkvs that had subtitles in them it seemed - not just subtitles - but I agree that it didn't provide a satisfactory solution, I was more wondering if you had seen it, and also if the output you were experiencing was similar to their descriptions...
 
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Sorry for the delay, I had stuff to do at University, etc.

*probably not* but, it couldn't hurt to try.

How much HD space do you have available on the system? and how much RAM do you have? it sounds similar to something running in the background using some of the GPU for something causing the video to stutter...

- Tried it, didn't help.
- About 60GB (of 120GB) available.
- 3GB of RAM
- Concerning the GPU, I read that the GMA950 chipsets seem to be affected most (or only).


if you have an external keyboard/mouse, you should be able to just wake the computer back up with the lid shut - this is how I use my laptop at work most of the time (still waiting for work to get me the stand I want to bring my laptop screen to the right height as the main screen).

Yeah maybe, but I need to be able to use the laptop screen, too.

have you checked your cpu usage to make sure something isn't interfering? try installing istat menus and watch cpu usage while you're working doing things and check the activity monitor to see what's going on with your RAM...

I have the iStat widget, nothing seems to be interfering. On RAM, I
usually have more than 1.5GB "free".

Well, they were referring to HD video and mkvs that had subtitles in them it seemed - not just subtitles - but I agree that it didn't provide a satisfactory solution, I was more wondering if you had seen it, and also if the output you were experiencing was similar to their descriptions...

I tried VLC 1.0.2 now, but it didn't help. I tried both the 32bit and the 64bit versions.
 
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bump, thread had pretty much disappeared, and I still need an answer, so there might be someone who knows what to do now?

thanks
 
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I have the same specs (except 2gb of ram) and have been having the same troubles as you, particularly HD content on my 46inch Panny.

It basically comes down to wait and see what happens. In my opinion SL has unseated the way these HD video players utilize the resources; we will just have to wait for updates to those programs as the developers catch up.

You could always in the mean time partition a disk or run on a mobile hard drive, run a instance of osx 10.5 for movie duties and maintain you current OS.

So far my favourites have been taken down by SL (tsMuxer, Plex) with no end in sight....
 
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I have the same specs (except 2gb of ram) and have been having the same troubles as you, particularly HD content on my 46inch Panny.

It basically comes down to wait and see what happens. In my opinion SL has unseated the way these HD video players utilize the resources; we will just have to wait for updates to those programs as the developers catch up.

You could always in the mean time partition a disk or run on a mobile hard drive, run a instance of osx 10.5 for movie duties and maintain you current OS.

So far my favourites have been taken down by SL (tsMuxer, Plex) with no end in sight....

Glad to see I'm not the only one. Well, as I said (I think) I waited for VLC 1.0.2 (32 and 64-bit versions), tried them, no change.

For your proposed solution, firstly, I don't have my Leopard install disc anymore, and secondly, I don't feel like resetting all the time just to watch a movie in HD. Plus, I've grown accustomed to SL, not sure why though.
 
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Snow Leopard video problems and more

Snow Leopard does not allow me to restart my computer. If I hit restart the power light turns on, but all I get is a black screen forcing me to shutdown with the power button. I am however able to shutdown from the menu and reboot the computer without any problems.

I am having trouble with all things video and web. I am supposedly using the latest and greatest software versions. Quicktime plays videos buggy, the picture freezes and skips as the audio continues on. Same trouble watching youtube videos. Premiere and Aftereffects do the same thing as well and have even crashed as a result. I'm running a dual core 2.66 with 7 gigs of ram. I ran Leopord with 3 gis of ram and didn't have these problems. Safari and Firefox both run buggy, with ahuge time lag, even as I reply to this thread. Social network sites are the worst followed by youtube.

My Wacom tablet seems fine most of the time, but then the selection arrow takes off without any warning. It seems to recover pretty quick. This is not a huge deal for selecting files, but its a very big deal when working on involved Photoshop files. I am extremely disappointed thus far with Snow Leopard. I was also disappointed to learn that Ilife was not included in this version. I clean installed Snow Leopard and did not bother to make a copy of Ilife before doings so. I lost all of my Apple codecs and can't read any of my old IMovie movie files, not that that they would have played very well under this OS. I may have to reinstall Leopard as I am losing too much time to these problems. I think Apple jumped the gun when they released:( this update.
 
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I was also disappointed to learn that Ilife was not included in this version. I clean installed Snow Leopard and did not bother to make a copy of Ilife before doings so.


iLife is on the original disks that came with your machine just re-install them from there.

Amen-Moses
 
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the OP did a clean install, i dont see the point in some of reply and trouble shooting,. he said that reg vid works, not the HD vids (see where this is going), am thinking we need better codec within the OS, am bored now...
 
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I had the same issue on my Macbook Air 2.13 with 9400M. 720p/1080p videos were really jerky and simply unwatchable. I switched back to Leopard and the videos play fine once again. I'm still looking for a good explanation of why this is so.
 
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hello!

Same here, but I can watch 720p , mkv fils with no troubles but the 1080p no chance tried several players. I'm on a with MacBook with 4Gb ram and OSX 10.6.1. with the old OSX 10.5 , never had such a problem.

if any one know solution different then switching back to the old OSX will be happy to hear it ;)!
 
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Is this issue stil outstanding?

Wondering if anyone has seen a resolution to this issue? I am considering to roll back to 10.5.
 
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Wondering if anyone has seen a resolution to this issue? I am considering to roll back to 10.5.

Is this problem limited to mkv files? Try remuxing one that is problematic into an m4v container using Subler (unless the audio happens to be dts... that is unsupported in m4v). This will not affect the quality of the video at all and only takes a minute or so. Once done, try playing the new m4v file in VLC or Quicktime and post your experience back.
 

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