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ThinkPad T43 + blu-ray = Awesome!!

T40/T41/T42/T43 Series
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kfzhu1229
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Location: Toronto, Canada

ThinkPad T43 + blu-ray = Awesome!!

#1 Post by kfzhu1229 » Mon Jul 04, 2016 8:57 pm

Here is what I've done/requirements:
A ThinkPad T43/p with ATI graphics (of course with appropriate drivers)
CPU upgraded to max (Pentium M 780 or else I do not think it would work at all)
Use TPFanControl and enable fan 64 mode as you may need that to prevent throttling
I currently have 2gb of RAM maxed out but I don't know if lower than that will impact the performance or not
UXGA display (For best 1080p experience)
Windows 7 recommended (Windows XP does not have as good support I think and Windows 10 gives a little less frame rate at complex scenes)
Media Player Classic with output video option set to Enhanced Video Renderer
(Stock Windows Media Player or Movies & TV app for Windows 10 result in no sound even in the fastest computer because audio codec is not supported)
Close as may other apps as possible
Use something to cover the status LEDs as they can be annoying to you...
Then of course, your favorite MKV 1080p Blu-ray extract or Blu-ray disc + player (It is around 8GB and I have a 160gb Hitachi IBM-approved IDE HDD anyways)
However, subtitles are not supported under EVR mode... :(
You get better frame rates if you do not choose fullscreen (I left it in windows mode and turn off every distraction I can and set the background and windows color to black)
Do not try to pause or else you have to use arrow keys to forward/backward your video to get video & sound in sync
And the image quality is much better than typical 1080p MP4 files and it looks very pretty especially in this love scene of the cartoony How to Train Your Dragon movie
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

kfzhu1229
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 2484
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:59 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: ThinkPad T43 + blu-ray = Awesome!!

#2 Post by kfzhu1229 » Mon Jul 04, 2016 9:17 pm

Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

kfzhu1229
Senior ThinkPadder
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Posts: 2484
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:59 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: ThinkPad T43 + blu-ray = Awesome!!

#3 Post by kfzhu1229 » Mon Jul 04, 2016 9:36 pm

Update: I tried a stock Pentium 750 with 14.1" SXGA+ also as what I tried before was a Pentium 780 with 15" UXGA both Radeon X300, same Windows 10, and same player settings, the Pentium 750 one is choppy enough that the video cannot keep up with audio while 780 works just fine
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

ZaZ
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Re: ThinkPad T43 + blu-ray = Awesome!!

#4 Post by ZaZ » Mon Jul 04, 2016 10:53 pm

I found my R60 with T7400 and BD drive could play Blu-rays, but CPU utilization was running between 95-98%. This was using XP/Vista. If I ripped and re-encoded the BD, which took a while, it could play the resulting Mp4 file between 30-40% CPU utilization and it looked pretty good, though I'm no expert.
ThinkPad L14 - 2.1GHz Ryzen 4650U | 16GB | 256GB | 14" FHD | Win11P
ProBook 470 G5 - 1.6GHz Core i5 | 16GB | 2.2TB | 17" FHD | Mint

kfzhu1229
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Posts: 2484
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:59 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: ThinkPad T43 + blu-ray = Awesome!!

#5 Post by kfzhu1229 » Tue Jul 05, 2016 2:07 pm

ZaZ wrote:I found my R60 with T7400 and BD drive could play Blu-rays, but CPU utilization was running between 95-98%. This was using XP/Vista.
Well on my T43 with single core 2.26ghz CPU it runs between 75%-100% so you may need to check decide settings (the ones that support subtitles will absolutely eat more CPU than others)
ZaZ wrote:it could play the resulting Mp4 file between 30-40% CPU utilization and it looked pretty good, though I'm no expert.
I ran the same movie off from Netflix and mkv extract and the differences are real (the mkv one looks more vibrant and realistic!!) and the weird thing for my T43 is that it plays the 1080p Blu-ray fine but even 360p Netflix it struggles so I have to use my T530i to complete the comparison
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

axur-delmeria
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Location: Metro Manila, Philippines

Re: ThinkPad T43 + blu-ray = Awesome!!

#6 Post by axur-delmeria » Thu Jul 07, 2016 3:50 am

Try checking the video codec in the mkv file using Mediainfo

It's possible that it's encoded in an older format like MPEG-2 (which requires much less CPU processing power than H.264), or at a lower bitrate.

I don't know about Netflix's software, but if it uses web technologies (Flash, Silverlight, etc.) to decode and display the video, then it's automatically less efficient than using a standalone media player, due to the overhead of the web browser, as well as the Flash/Silverlight plugin.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons :lol:
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

kfzhu1229
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Posts: 2484
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:59 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: ThinkPad T43 + blu-ray = Awesome!!

#7 Post by kfzhu1229 » Thu Jul 07, 2016 9:30 am

It is impossible that it is not h264... That 1080p H264 23fps quality is the very best ive ever seen in my life and YouTube H264 720p 23/24/25/30fps video play just fine under UXGA. Like the decoder Netflix uses isn't efficient. All of which are H264 for sure as I tried mpeg4 before and the color rate isnt good (you have blocks of colors at times) while this mkv 1080p produces realistic shadows like in video games and the experience is just great...
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

MrMaguire
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Location: Merry Olde England
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Re: ThinkPad T43 + blu-ray = Awesome!!

#8 Post by MrMaguire » Thu Jul 07, 2016 2:58 pm

Which Blu-ray drive are you using?

kfzhu1229
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Posts: 2484
Joined: Tue Sep 22, 2015 10:59 pm
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: ThinkPad T43 + blu-ray = Awesome!!

#9 Post by kfzhu1229 » Sun Jul 10, 2016 4:09 pm

It is Blu-ray quality FHD mkv video... I don't have any budget to purchase any discs... Also I found it has to be ultrawide (1920*816) to work properly.
Dell Lat CP MMX-233 64mb 40gb W2k
600 PII-266 416mb 40gb WXP
T23 PIII 1.13ghz 1gb W7
Precision M4300 X9000 8gb 160gb WUXGA Ultrasharp fp W10
T530i 15.6" i7 16gb fp W10
UXGA:
A30p PIII 1.2 1gb W7 (IDTech)
T43p 2.26 2gb fp W10 (Sharp)
Lat C840 P4-2.5 2gb 60gb W7 (Ultrasharp)

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