End of Life for the T40-T42 series due to 720p playback?

[MisterB]

I have no real issues playing back 720p HD video on my T42s. There are some videos that stutter but most play. It does use up quite a bit of the processor--around 40-60% depending on the video and codec.

I have one on now that is using around 40% on my T40/T42 Frankenpad that has a Radeon 9000. The T42P fire GL does HD a bit better. This is straight video file playback, not Youtube. I can barely do HD video streaming due to the slowness of my Internet connection, not due to the T4X series limitations.

Anything with a dual core processor does video much better, of course, but a Pentium M T42 can still handle most video formats.

[precip9]

There is a very specific point in the development of Intel chipsets relevant to choice of an older machine for hidef playback.

The T61 and the X61 were the first Thinkpads for which the Intel Integrated graphics had programmable pipelines. As far as integrated graphics is concerned, this is a requirement for hardware codec acceleration, although, of course, a T60 with Nvidia graphics has another path. But those machines could still not render full hidef with integrated graphics. That came with the next rev of the chip set.

[MisterB]

T60 with Nvidia? I think you meant the T61. The T60s with ATI GPUs do much better than the ones with Intel Graphics. I should try some HD on my newly acquired UXGA T60p. I've been experimenting with security tweaks on it now but I should try an HD movie and see how it compares to the T42.

I just tried an MKV 1280x960 video and a 720P BD rip on both an Intel Graphics T60 and the T42P I'm posting this on. The MKV video was about the same on both machines. Smooth and pleasant playback. The BD rip had no audio but I probably haven't updated the codecs on this Thinkpad in a long time. Playback of this file had the CPU at around 80-100%. So a T42P will do 720P video but not much else at the same time. I will try the T60P next.

[MisterB]

The T60P, as expected, handled the 720P video beautifully with CPU at around 52%. The GPU is ATI 256mb FireGL. CPU T2600@2.1ghz. The codecs come from the K-Lite codec pack. Media Player Classic was used for playback.

What surprises me is how well the T42p holds up in comparison. I found that I had a slightly older version of the K-Lite codec pack installed which is probably why the audio didn't work. The CPU is a 1.8ghz Pentium Mobile. It is still a bit more than a typewriter even though it's really good at that. I never try to torture old computers with new software that they can't handle so the system is still Xp and a fairly lean install of Xp. I don't have a lot of background processes going that could interfere with a CPU intensive task.

OK, I had to try 720P Youtube after the BD rip. This T42P could do a Warner Brothers trailer at 720P with some stuttering and it burped at 1080P. CPU usage is at 79% but my Internet bandwidth is maxed out so it looks like the stuttering is due to my bandwidth, not the T42P.

[landdie]

"Never say die"

1080 HD I can't comment on but it's highly unlikely it will run on a T42 as in my experience one seems to need at least a dual core CPU to play them however 720 HD is no probs as noted in comments above.

I run a T42 with no hard drive, no battery, no bios battery and 1GB of RAM from 18GB USB drive I won't go into why I run a machine like this now but suffice to say Youtube works fine as do all other things internet including the dreaded FaceBook which is probably the biggest pain of a site on the net for old machines. I should add that I had to block all ads, trackers and beacons to get FaceBook running smoothly but that is something I routinely do on all machines as a matter of principal!

The OS I use right now is Kali (Linux) and my browser is Iceweasel but I've also had things running fine with Gentoo (Linux) and Opera on the same machine.

Kali does not have a non PAE download available but it's not to hard to rebuild the Kali 32bit PAE iso to non PAE if you have another machine, which does support PAE, to do it on and have a bit of hair to pull out whilst doing it!
I'd be happy to give a couple of pointers if anyone fancies giving it a whirl.

My Better Half is running an R40/1 GB RAM with Ubuntu 12.4 on it and FireFox for a browser all is fine for her to including streaming films from our, way out in the forest, ADSL connection.

To be honest I think the R40 is a better machine than the T42 but I would never swap either of them for anything else. There may come a day I have to but I reckon it's a way of yet... Fingers crossed, touch wood etc.
Should that dreaded day happen I'll be going for a Open Source laptop.

As a footnote... Flash was a pain for a while, at least for *Nix users, but aDOBE got their act together eventually and released a new version and all is fine again!

[calvinb]

I've never actually had problems with Windows 7 on my T42. (If it could run Windows 8.1...) What will kill performance is Windows Update running a check for updates, and that will take a bunch of RAM and slam the disk. Once you disable that and check for updates manually, it's pretty snappy. Office 2010 runs perfectly fine, Firefox is tolerable. I don't watch video though, so...

For Linux, I just used "forcepae" and for the most part it works. Well, except for the Mobility Radeon 7500, which most stuff considers basically software rendering.

Also: replace the disk with an SSD. Most computer slowness is due to I/O, especially if it's a dying laptop disk.

[Johan]

I've never actually had problems with Windows 7 on my T42. (If it could run Windows 8.1...)

Welcome to the forum, Calvin!

Hint; try have a look in the thread Windows 8 on a T42 - anyone? (and especially the links pointed to in that thread, incl. Windows 8 installed on a T42!)...

Johan

[irus]

i use windows xp (pos ready registry hack for updates till 2019) and a firefox addon where a right click on youtube video opens the video in vlc as a network stream, it does 720p easy. 720p is enough for the sxga+ screen. overall works well for me!

[MrMaguire]

This thread was started around the time that Adobe Flash Player 15 was released. Version 15 included a lot of changes that resulted in Flash content running less CPU intensively, which is especially good for older computers. I found that a Pentium M (1.86GHz) with Intel graphics could play 360p YouTube videos perfectly fine in fullscreen mode. Whereas with version 14 360p was a struggle, even in the smallest player window.

i use windows xp (pos ready registry hack for updates till 2019) and a firefox addon where a right click on youtube video opens the video in vlc as a network stream, it does 720p easy. 720p is enough for the sxga+ screen. overall works well for me!

I'd be very interested to know which add-on this is, please.

[Hans Gruber]

I still remember the T42. I always found it difficult to differentiate the T42 from a T43 by sight from a distance. Does discrete graphics help on the T4x systems with regards to video acceleration in youtube videos? It had been years since I used XP on any computer. I have been optimizing my T43p to be an everyday computer. With the 9 cell batteries, you can really optimize your T4x computers for performance. I do think a 1.5ghz Pentium M with 2GB of ram is probably the lowest you would want to go for youtube videos above 480p with discrete graphics.

[dr_st]

Does discrete graphics help on the T4x systems with regards to video acceleration in youtube videos?

I don't think so. Too old, designed ages before the modern Youtube compression codecs became mainstream.

[brchan]

Instead of using flash to play youtube videos, use html5 in chrome. The performance is much better than flash. Don't use firefox for html5 youtube videos though, since the codecs it lack make it slower than flash and frequently limits you to 360p.

[irus]

I'd be very interested to know which add-on this is, please.

easy 720p

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... t/?src=api