Apple Post your Apple

Nothing except what you buy on iTunes goes on straight. I use a (free) program called Videora to transcode the videos to iPod format. I do TV (read: simpsons seasons 1-16) at 512k and movies at 768k rates, and both are excellent. I'm quite happy with it. Transcoding takes some time, of course, ~10min for a 23min TV show and ~45min for a 2hr movie on my setup at those settings. Everyone I've shown clips from is quite impressed, although you get some blockiness from encoding at low bitrates (naturally). From a "lossless" Xvid source (AutoGK target quality=100%, AC3 5.1), 768k produces very minimal artifacting - I'd say slightly better than most 700MB compressions.

In short: videos look awesome. Battery life in video mode isn't superb, of course, but it's enough to get a full movie in, if you were so inclined to watch a movie on a 2.5" screen.

On that note - to anyone who has a 12" iBook: is it worth it? Easy transition from Windows (I'd be mainly doing office-type work, maybe the occasional movie watching)?

 

Yup, it's quite easy to encode mp4 videos using Videora iPod Convertor, however it can be tricky to get the settings correct. You often have to fiddle with different settings to get audio syncing to work and I still can't get avi videos encoded using Div3 to play on it. Pretty good quality for the videos that do work though.

 

Easy transition to anyone with half a brain, but nowhere near worth it. You can get a much higher spec PC laptop that's going to give you many less headaches for the same price, if not cheaper.

 

higher spec doesnt always mean better performance.


ever wonder why a 1.5ghz g4 could smoke a 2ghz pentium 4?

 

Less headaches with windows :/

Switch is simple. For some reason many people are shocked when they realise there is MS Office for mac, and its actually better to use than the windows version.

 

Seebul:
http://www.sam0r.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Aqua-Blue-Grrl.jpg

 

Pft, forget smoking a 2Ghz p4, My dual core G4 867mhz smokes my old athlon 3200 system!

 

my sing 1.8 g5 smokes a 3.2ghz athlon xp

 

I enjoyed reaidng through this thread, fun to see how apples have evolved since it was started. I like them better now.

 

...My 64-bit 3200+ will kick the **** out of your system. Done.

By higher spec, I mean better performing. Don't even start lecturing me. Also, I'm sure you use OS X on all your Macs, full of broken strings etc. etc.

 

MAYBE if you are running XP64 otherwise performance, your 64 is torched by the apple.

 

Nah, Adnuo is probably right. I have a 3200+ (see sig) running 32bit WinXP and a Powerbook 12" (1.5GHz) and the 3200+ is loads faster for anything "heavy duty" - I.e. encoding music/ DVDs, Photoshop etc, but I love the mac and use it much more often. However there is no way in hell that a dual 800MHz Mac could beat a decent, recent PC in terms of raw power. Maybe the new dual cores, as you would expect for the money they cost...

In answer to the original question: The iBook would of course handle those tasks with ease Firehed. Especially if you have a PC to use on the side for other tasks. Don't listen to the fanboys, the iBook is a very good computer. When someone can find a smaller, lighter, fully-functional PC laptop that is more robust than the iBook, with a better battery life, that is also cheaper, I would recommend that. But in the meantime, the Apple will do perfectly

I wouled be very surprised if Adnuo has ever used a Mac IRL

 

Tomm, Don't forget you're limited by the hard drive speed. Thats one thing I noticed drags the apple laptops down

 

Take note Aduno was commenting that he could beat the dual proc apple, i might believe him on the guy talking about the single but hes torched by the dual proc.

 

my 3800+ will run at the same speed as a Dual 2GHz PPC... but my PC was significantly cheaper.

 

I believe that, jsut not that a single 3200 would smoke a dual proc apple

 

depends what you were doing tbh... a PIII 600MHz would out load a web page running firefox than a single 1.8Ghz PPC would do.

Similarly, i reckon a single 3200 would still beat a dual PPC... because firefox isn't optimised for dual CPU operation.

 

what? how would a 600 mhz PC be quicker than 1.8GHZ apple?
confused.


Oh and p.s. thanks for the background sam0r!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

it all really depends on what youre doing and how you do it. i personally use macs bcause its what i grew up with. im so used to it and its justr a matter of personal preference. by no means are they perfect. but i think they are mch better than windows computers. i know both OSes quite well, and i think OSX just handles things much better.

i wouldnt ever give up my G5 for any other computer. Lest it be a MacIntel...

 

Meh, I just want something stable and with good battery life and portability. The iBook boasting ~5.5hrs seemed to fit the bill nicely, compared to any Windows-based laptop I've seen recently. Though some vague looking for a whitebox notebook that I can build up myself led me to something that'll quench my carbon fibre thirst... but I'd imagine it costs a small fortune.

Tek - what video/audio syncing problems have you had with Videora? Everything I've checked so far (8 full DVDs worth of content, though I haven't watched most of it) seems fine.