Question about OS X Performance

How come when i am trying to uncompress a file, be it zip, rar etc.. Whenever i try to watch a video using vlc, mplayer, Quicktime etc.. the video always skips lags etc...

But when i am doing the same thin on windows size it doesn't have any of these issues.

 

I'm not sure about yours, but I can do video encoding using handbrake, and then use my machine normally also. Its a bit slower due to processor usage, but osx seems to keep on par with windows most of the time, if not above it. I've never had a video that stutters on osx, unless the correct codec is not installed.

What type of video are you trying to watch. VLC can sometimes cause issues; try the latest one if you haven't already. Where did the video come from? That one could be corrupt and then it would skip, etc.

For unzipping, use osx built in, or stuffit; its free and works really well.

 

I've never had those issues either. Odd

 

Thanks for contributing.

Anyway, OP, I heard that increasing the priority can help out. I'll look into another possibility though.

 

How would i go about increasing the priority. The type of video file does not matter. When i am not uncomressping i.e unzipping unraring a file videos will play fine its when i am unzipping or unraring it starts to stutter and lag.

My first post didnt sound clear. I get the video lag/stuttering problem when i try to do that and uncompress at the same time. Alone they are both fine.

 

In HPUX and AIX I could use the nice/renice commands to adjust the priority of a process.

I don't have my Mac in front of me at the moment but see if you can do a man page on those commands. I'm not even sure if they are available within OS X, I'd be surprised if they were not.

use "nice" when you want to launch the program from the command line with a specific priority (higher numeric values are given less priority when scheduling them for CPU time)

use "renice" to adjust a process that is already running. You would have to use the ps command to determine the process id.

Maybe you could write a short little script to always launch your favorite processes with a high priority using the "nice" command (lower numeric nice value).

 

OP, I'm assuming the machine in question is the one in your sig? That's not good news as it's one of the higher end models with dedicated graphics.

I don't have a MBP yet but I'm assuming the fault isn't OSX's even my Vista machine can do that just fine and I have a 2 year old Dell (T5270 + 2GB DDR2 + Intel graphics)

 

Sounds like your RAM issue... can you reset your P-RAM? Try swapping the 2 ram stick around.

This popup in my mind because when you unzip, it goes into your ram before it hits the temp folder / mount... writing on the HDD.

Same goes for video as you play it, it buffers into you ram first.

 

Ok I feel REALLY REALLY REALLY STUPID. This was when I was on batter power and i forgot that on battery i had coolbook set up so my cpu was downclocked to the lowest setting.

Thanks for all the help guys

 

epic......

 

Why would you need to downclock your cpu?

 

I think apple forces the downclock to save battery life. I know it doesn't make a lot of sense... but I'll bet that's what is happening. because I can do all that stuff on battery power with my computer.

 

no, he is running 3rd party software. it is to save battery life, but it is not made by apple.

 

Downclock + undervolt my cpu for more battery life.

 

I had a feeling it was 3rd party settings.

 

You have to buy a Rar adapter, a VLC adapter etc. They come in a pretty white
color and cost $99 each.

I feel so silly. I just looked at the tech specs for the new i-Pad, thinking that it might have one -just one mind you- USB jack.

Isn't that the silliest thing you have ever read?

It gets worse. I new it did not, but I still feel -even seeing with my own eyes that it does not even have a USB jack- that every i-Pad should have an HDMI jack.

That's just retarded isn't it?

Well, now I'm going to go buy a $500 entry level i-Pad and then pay another $200 for adapters so it can do all the things Apple promises it can do. All the things a $350 netbook does without buying anything else.

And the netbook has an HDMI jack too. Plugs right into your plasma.

And "it just works".

Unlike the Apple.
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