In article , Alan Browne
wrote:

No issue for 1080 - used to do that with my SO's prior MBA w/o issue and
it was slow.

there absolutely is an issue with 1080p.

both my '08 and '09 macbook pros drop frames with 1080p, and the latter
has an ssd.

Sucks to be you - did same with aforementioned MBA w/o issue. SSD is
irrelevant since the HD has way more that enough BW to deliver the content.

ssd is very relevant and has made a noticeable difference in overall
performance on my '09 mbp, but even with an ssd, there absolutely is an
issue with 1080p.

i tried it prior to posting my previous post and it was dropping frames
like crazy and losing sync.


h.265 is rare in most respects.

nope. it's actually rather common, and that's even before it became the
default format for iphones.

And yet one has no issue finding most content in 264 on the web and
elsewhere. Default ‚ required. I haven't to date been unable to view a
video because it was .265. True non issue.

there's plenty of h.265 on the 'net and more every day.

I sold an iMac (late 2007 v.) with a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo with 6 GB of
RAM. The family that bought it still use it daily and w/o complaint.
I'm not sure what OS it is at. I sold it to them with Mavericks
installed.

it's probably still on mavericks, and also quite a bit faster than the
macbook.

Not really. The iMac was a 2007 model. If the Macbook quoted is
2009/2010 then it has a pretty good processor.

a core 2 duo of unspecified speed, which can be anywhere from 2-2.4
ghz.

Yep, fine for general use. 2010 is 2.4 actually.

the ad did not specify 2010.

the ad simply said core 2 duo and high sierra.

that means anywhere from late 2009 (the earliest that high sierra
requires) to mid-2010 (when the macbook took a hiatus). the 2009
started at 2 ghz and the 2010 ended at 2.4 ghz.

since the ad did not specify a speed or year, it's highly likely it's
the older and slower model.


If I were to invest in improving that laptop at all it would be for the
SSD first and the RAM only possibly depending on the configuration as
sold.

at which point, it becomes not such a good deal.

It's more than fine for someone who is "Mac curious".

it's not representative of what a modern mac can do. for example,

It doesn't have to be for someone who simply wants to see what OS X is
all about. If one likes that experience then sell it off and get the
real thing.

it will be a ****ty experience because it's old and slow compared to a
modern mac and it also doesn't do all of the extremely useful things
that have been added since 2009-10.

there's no handoff & continuity. the display is also not very good as
well as being pre-retina.

So what? My 2012 iMac (this one) is not retina either. Doesn't stop me
from doing anything I need to do.

i didn't say it would stop anyone.

a retina display makes a *huge* difference and handoff & continuity are
*extremely* useful.

it's stuck with usb 2 and a sata ii internal drive, so even if one
replaces the hd with an ssd, it's nowhere near as fast as a mac a
couple of years newer with pci-e nvme ssd and any external drives will
be slow compared to usb 3.

it also lacks bluetooth 4, so a number of bluetooth peripherals won't
work, or they'll fall back to classic and its awful pairing process.

sure, someone can manage without any of that, but it going to give the
wrong answer to 'what this mac thing is about'.