ThinkPad T43 + blu-ray = Awesome!!

[kfzhu1229]

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

[kfzhu1229]

https://1drv.ms/i/s!At7-rt1KJ7Wvh-1IY5UEHsHTpp3PmQ

[kfzhu1229]

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

[ZaZ]

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.

[kfzhu1229]

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)

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

[axur-delmeria]

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.

[kfzhu1229]

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...

[MrMaguire]

Which Blu-ray drive are you using?

[kfzhu1229]

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.