# G4 too slow to run streaming video?



## J-Money (Jul 30, 2005)

I've had a G4 iBook (with a failed logic board) lying around for the past year. I've been thinking about buying a used iBook and just swap parts with my old one, but now I'm not too sure if it's worth it.

When it was still working 2 years ago, I remember it being able to do everything I wanted it to do. While I was on a buddy's G4 MacMini, I wasn't even able to stream video online from sites such as CTV.

Is it his mini that's buggy? Or did everything go "hi-def" that the G4s can't handle it anymore? Or is it that he's running Leopard on the G4, when Tiger can run things more smoothly?

This will be the deciding factor whether I part out my G4 iBook, or try to repair it...


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## gwillikers (Jun 19, 2003)

The speed and reliability of your internet connection is the main factor in watching streaming video. The G4 itself should have no problem with it otherwise.


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## J-Money (Jul 30, 2005)

We had another laptop on his network, and his connection was fine. The sound worked fluidly, but the video was choppy as heck. Maybe the site itself is what slowed it down... Not only did it have the flash stream, but also flash ads on the side. And we all know how well macs handle flash....


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## gwillikers (Jun 19, 2003)

It can be fairly hit and miss with web sites offering streaming content. There's so many variables, like traffic and bandwidth, that can affect their ability to provide reliable streaming. 

But if you had trouble with streaming from a large number of different sites, then I would suspect your own connection or computer. Trying different web browsers might also be something to try.


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## jfpoole (Sep 26, 2002)

gwillikers said:


> The speed and reliability of your internet connection is the main factor in watching streaming video. The G4 itself should have no problem with it otherwise.


I'm not so sure with a G4; I've run the same streaming video on both a Power Mac G5 and a MacBook Pro (both of which used the same internet connection) and while the G5 made the video look like a slideshow the MacBook Pro had no problem playing the video.

I'm a fan of repurposing old computers but you need to keep in mind what the systems can do; things that are easy for modern processors tax old processors like the G4 because, well, the G4 is slow.


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

jfpoole said:


> I'm not so sure with a G4; I've run the same streaming video on both a Power Mac G5 and a MacBook Pro (both of which used the same internet connection) and while the G5 made the video look like a slideshow the MacBook Pro had no problem playing the video.
> 
> I'm a fan of repurposing old computers but you need to keep in mind what the systems can do; things that are easy for modern processors tax old processors like the G4 because, well, the G4 is slow.


+1; pre-G5's and Intel-based Macs are known to have issues playing back online videos, including YouTube ones. (HQ.)


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## i-rui (Sep 13, 2006)

my dual 1ghz g4 can't stream hd video. it use to be able to stream from my slingbox pro, but when i upgraded to a slingbox pro HD it began to drop frames.


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## gwillikers (Jun 19, 2003)

J-Money said:


> Or did everything go "hi-def" that the G4s can't handle it anymore?


Judging by the replies, the above question is the most important one. Because watching streaming video on any G4 I've owned (in the past) was not a big problem. The content must have changed, and changed on a wide scale, since 2005. (2005 being the last year that Apple was selling G4 machines, I believe)

I would have never thought that streaming video would play a role in the obsolescence of the G4 Mac in such a short period of time. It's certainly a bummer for G4 owners, because streaming video is a huge part of the online experience.

So, there ya go J-Money, don't bother with the reviving of that piece of...


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## Newdeal (Nov 2, 2009)

*...*

not sure how it compared but I used to have an atom netbook which could not stream HD at all it was horrible and even SD could be problematic through safari (it was a bit better in firefox). Yes I had it hackintoshed running leopard. I am not sure how a atom 1.6ghz with gma950 compares but I have to assume its probobly not that far off in speed from a G4 so likely its not worthwhile


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## andreww (Nov 20, 2002)

I'll tell you my old titanium powerbook G4 could not play streamed video very well at all. It was useless in Safari, but barable using Opera. My internet connection speed is more than adaquate.


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## bsenka (Jan 27, 2009)

The main contributiing factor in my buying an Intel iMac was that my G4 tower simply could not do youtube (or other streaming video). Nevermind HD, even the SD stuff was pretty much unwatchable.


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Likewise, I just mothballed two G4 towers where YouTube video looks like a slideshow. If video is a dealbreaker, then part out the iBook to someone who just wants to use it for other tasks.


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## GlassOnion (Mar 22, 2004)

I have two ibooks G4, the 1.33Ghz 12" and the 1.42Ghz 14". They were the top of the line iBook models in 2005. The two machines are full config, run 10.5.8 and are connected to a fast internet cable connection. No problem watching youtube clips or streaming movies on the web. OK there's a good performance difference compared with my MBP 2.26Ghz who's more snappy but all in all they're good performers for such old machines.


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## J-Money (Jul 30, 2005)

GlassOnion, which integrated chip do you have, and how much RAM is installed?

I remember installing an extra 1gb of ram to the 512mb soldered on the logicboard. And I believe the chip in it was the ATI 9220 or something like that..

If it's similarly spec'ed, I'll give my buddy my ram stick, and see how his G4 streams video with it.


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## gwillikers (Jun 19, 2003)

*Partly on topic, partly iMac G4 admiration...*

The contradictions in this thread made me curious enough to do a test on my friends iMac G4 1.25 GHz, with only 512MB RAM. He's running Tiger 10.4.

-The CTV site videos were completely watchable, with some dropped frames, but otherwise quite passable.
-MuchMusic's videos were much (no pun intended) worse, and were just barely tolerable with many dropped frames. I chose a "Degrassi" show to watch, and decided that trying to watch it for a half hour would be very painful.
-Next, CBC, and I chose "The Best Of The Mercer Report 2009". Again there were dropped frames, but it was watchable and not too bad.

All those videos were watched in their small form, and I didn't even consider trying fullscreen options.

Finally, I watched the same videos on my MacPro 2.8 octo, and there were no dropped frames. Everything was smooth, as I had suspected it would be.

So, there you go, perhaps even more contradictory results, but it also convinced me that the death knell for the G4 hasn't quite been realized. It also reminded me how much I admire the G4 iMac, particularly the high end versions of that model. Great design, great LCD, and a very useful computer for most needs, even today. Bump up the RAM, and hey, it's really still viable in many ways. And it looks really cool too.

Sorry for deviating from the subject, but I'm still enamoured with the top of the line G4 iMac. To me, it's a collectable classic.


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## GlassOnion (Mar 22, 2004)

J-Money said:


> GlassOnion, which integrated chip do you have, and how much RAM is installed?
> 
> I remember installing an extra 1gb of ram to the 512mb soldered on the logicboard. And I believe the chip in it was the ATI 9220 or something like that..
> 
> If it's similarly spec'ed, I'll give my buddy my ram stick, and see how his G4 streams video with it.


Yes 512 megs ram soldered to logic board and 1gb stick in the ram slot. 5400 rpm HD and ATI Mobility Radeon 9550 video card. Same config for the two iBooks.


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## J-Money (Jul 30, 2005)

Did you try running full-screen like gwillikers did? That's pretty much what I'm looking to do with it. Stream video online, and run full-screen on a 32" 720p TV.


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## laserbluemini (Oct 6, 2009)

I don't think there's a point in reviving the G4s... like the others have said, they are helpless when compared to the newer Mac models. 

Why would you want to revive something when you know that it cannot even do a HD youtube playback.

I had a G4 Mac Mini running at 1.42ghz with 512 mb ram. Honestly if you have high tolerance, it can stream videos, but the frames will be choppy. Needless to say I sold it asap. (it was a temp computer I bought second hand because my MBP was in Applestore for warranty work for a few weeks)

I think I've read somewhere that. to the G4's credit, it's not the G4 that's the problem, but the Mac Flash player that is the problem. It is just not optimised. 

Someone said they have a hackintosh Atom 1.6ghz. I am quite sure you can watch videos fine if you run windows on it. my other notebook is a 6 years old Sony running 1.8ghz Pentium I-dont-know-how-old, and it does everything fine, tons better than the G4 at least.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Friend of ours has a G4 iBook on which she does little APART from watch YouTube videos and play flash-based Facebook games. She is only just now _beginning_ to see evidence that her "lifestyle" will soon require a more powerful computer.

So to answer the question, NO the G4 is not too weak to play YouTube or flash video. OTOH, what j-money is proposing to do would definitely overtax most G4s and so for his particular desires the answer is YES, the G4 he has is inadequate to the task.


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## singingcrow (May 6, 2005)

My 12" 1.5 G4 powerbook with 1.25 gb of ram on Tiger can play Youtube videos just fine, as well as ctv videos. However, cbc videos are choppy, and with other video sites, sometimes it just depends on the video. Other sites I have no issues at all, although the video looks like lower quality. 

This started when Firefox moved to 3.1 or 3.2 (it started eating up the cpu) so I assumed it was a software issue, especially since I was getting Firefox crashes all over the place with video. It's like I can play it, but not fastforward to many times (to find my place from when it crashed)or it will freak out and crash again. I've actually thought about downloading 2.whatever again just for this reason. Safari is no better. On Firefox 3.6 beta things are a lot more stable and less choppy.


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## J-Money (Jul 30, 2005)

Alright, thanks for the help guys. I was trying to find an alternative to using this giant PC box for the simple task of streaming videos to the TV in my room. I thought I could use the ibook as a "dedicated room computer" and use it to stream live feeds. I also download a lot of TV shows and watch them by season, so I might end up doing that if I can find a logic board for cheap.

I have a MacBook air that I bring around everywhere, so it's really not to use as a laptop, unless I give it to my girlfriend.


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## rampancy_fatalin. (Dec 17, 2004)

I'd generally agree that yes, the G4 is much too weak for things like Flash video (let alone YouTube HD), but with a little tinkering it is possible to get a passable YouTube/.flv experience out of a G4. I've been able to get a somewhat decent experience out of a 400 MHz Sawtooth G4 (with as little as 640 MB RAM and a GeForce 4mx from a Quicksilver G4) by downgrading to Flash Player 8, the minimum version that YouTube requires. 

I've read that some tricks like disabling hardware acceleration can boost performance on Flash Player 10, but for the most part, Flash Player 10 and even Flash Player 9 are just far, far too slow for a G4. I downgraded a friend's G4 Mac from FP9 to FP8 and the difference when playing YouTube videos was like night and day.


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## J-Money (Jul 30, 2005)

Hmmm, any "how-to's" I can follow to downgrade? Or is it a simple Trash & Copy?


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## rampancy_fatalin. (Dec 17, 2004)

J-Money said:


> Hmmm, any "how-to's" I can follow to downgrade? Or is it a simple Trash & Copy?


The first thing you need to do is uninstall flash; you can find the uninstaller at Adobe's site, but I've also had success going to /Library/Internet Plug-Ins and deleting the files pertaining to Flash in that folder. 

You can download Flash Player 8 and/or 9 from here, or here. I suggest Flash Player 8, since it's the lowest version YouTube supports and performs far better than version 9 or 10.


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## Guest (Jan 21, 2010)

Would be interested to see if the HTML5 beta stuff for youtube plays any better on the G4's ... not sure it will (it's likely still high bandwidth H.264) but might be interesting to try it out and see if it's at least better than flash is ...

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

mguertin said:


> Would be interested to see if the HTML5 beta stuff for youtube plays any better on the G4's


There are reports elsewhere on the forum that it does indeed play a lot better with G4s.


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