[P1] iBook and DVD movies

[Ken Anderson]

On Saturday, October 11, 2003, at 08:25  PM, Michael Adams wrote:
>
> You should have no problem watching an entire DVD on one charge. You 
> could try reducing the brightness of the screen to save juice, but it 
> isn't critical.
>
> Not quite sure what you mean. Do you mean the size the movie plays 
> back at? If so, yes, this can be changed, but I believe the only 
> options are full screen, in a window at 100% and then in a window at 
> 50%. IIRC smaller sizes take less cpu to decode.
>
> --Michael.

On Sunday, October 12, 2003, at 02:09  AM, George Slusher wrote:

> The one thing that will give you the most efficient use of the battery 
> is
> to copy the DVD to the hard drive, then run it from there. That will 
> use
> a LOT less power than using the optical drive.
>
> Doing this is quite simple. The following refers to OS 9/Classic, but 
> the
> process should be the same in OS X.
>
> To copy the DVD:
>
> 1. Put the DVD in the drive.
> 2. Stop Apple DVD Player if it starts to autoplay the DVD.
> 3. Use command-I to find out how big the DVD is and ensure that you 
> have
> enough HD speace to store it.
> 4. Open the folder where you want to store the DVD and drag & drop the
> DVD's icon onto that window. Once the DVD is copied, you will get a
> folder containing two more folders, AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS.
>
> Warning: it can easily take 20-40 minutes to copy the DVD, depending on
> how big it is, of course.
>
> To Set up Apple DVD Player:
>
> 1. Launch Apple DVD Player
> 2. In the preferences, choose the "Advanced Controls" panel. Check "Add
> 'Open VIDEO_TS' menu item to File Menu" and click on OK.
>
> To Play the DVD:
>
> 1. Launch Apple DVD Player.
> 2. Choose "Open VIDEO_TS" from the File menu (or use command-O).
> 3. Navigate to the folder where you dropped the DVD, then open the DVD
> folder.
> 4. Click once on the VIDEO_TS *FOLDER* to select it, then click on
> "Choose." Don't OPEN the VIDEO_TS folder. (If you do, you probably 
> won't
> see anything in the open dialog; you will, of course, in the Finder.)
> 5. That should start the DVD. You can use the controller window or the
> keyboard controls as you like. Play around with the Apple DVD Player
> before you leave so that you're familiar with the controls.
>
> Battery operation notes:
>
> 1. If you have the Energy control panel set to reduce the processor
> speed, you should get a dialog box suggesting that you override that
> feature for better performance. I've found that the DVD player works
> pretty well at the reduced speed, and I'm using a slower (600 mHz 12")
> iBook, so I choose "no."
>
> 2. Reducing the backlight brightness (the F1 key) will give a little
> improvement in battery life.
>
>
> There are four size options:
>
> command-0 = smallest size. This is REALLY tiny.
>
> command-1 = half size (320 x 240)
>
> command-2 = full size (640 x 480)
>
> command-3 = fill screen. This is actually two different sizes. If you
> choose "Present Video on Screen," I get the the full 1024 x 768 pixels.
> (As I recall, the 14" iBook also has a 1024 x 768 screen.) If you 
> choose
> "Present Video in Viewer," it will be slightly smaller. You can choose
> either "Present Video in Viewer" or "Present Video on Screen" for any
> size. The "Present Video on Screen" puts the image in the center and
> surrounds it with a black border. (You can easily get to the menus by
> moving the cursor to the top of the screen.)
>
> The "full size" (640 x 480) will often be a bit sharper than the "fill
> screen" size. That is the actual size of the digital picture. When it 
> is
> scaled up to 1024 x 768 (or slightly smaller), it may get a bit 
> fuzzier,
> as the pixels must be interpolated. (1024 x 768 is not an integer
> multiple of 640 x 480.)
>
> I don't know if the smaller size will save much on battery power. If 
> you
> want to play around with this, you could probably figure it out. One
> caveat: the "power meter" in the control strip doesn't react instantly 
> to
> changes--wait a minute or so before trying to judge whether or not the
> power drain is different.
>
> George Slusher/Eugene, OR
> gslusher at rio.com

On Sunday, October 12, 2003, at 02:20  AM, Richard McKay wrote:
>
> I found the best set up to be:
>
> while still connected to mains power start all the programs that you 
> will
> use during the flight and have the windows / program interfaces at the 
> stage
> where you will use them (and then minimize them to the dock), as well 
> as
> having the DVD in the drive and started to at least past the legal 
> bits and
> then put your iBook to sleep (I would also suggest disabling the unused
> network / internet connections in system prefs by unchecking the boxes 
> next
> to each type of interface...airport especially as this will otherwise
> constantly search for new networks and drain battery power).
>
> Other notes to consider are that the noise level is really quite high 
> in an
> aircraft and the volume will need to be near full (at least for these 
> poor
> ears of mine!) It may sound counterproductive but I use earplugs that 
> you
> should be able to find in any drug store to cancel the noise of the 
> aircraft
> and then use headphones with the volume at near max to enjoy the 
> movie...
>
> Screen brightness is again dependant on what time of day you fly but 
> it may
> also need to run at full...or you can wait till the lights go down and 
> most
> are sleeping...will help tremendously with brightness and sound volume 
> as
> well as interruptions.
>
> unless you are going overseas or completely across the country you may 
> find
> that there are many distractions that will require sleeping mode
> again...food and beverage passes of the crew, etc..
>
> I don't have them but it may be worth trying the Bose sound cancelling
> headsets to see if they are worth the money should you travel often.
>
> BTW, you can happily leave your iBook in sleep mode during take off and
> landing (indeed during the entire trip!) as it will not interfere with 
> any
> plane electronics in this mode and may be useful when going through 
> security
> zones of airports.
>
> I have personally run the movie in full screen mode as it makes it 
> easier on
> the eyes. I have always wondered if the full screen mode or the window 
> is
> better for battery power and without supporting evidence suggest the 
> full
> screen mode is lower drain. I can only go on the experience of using 
> iTunes
> visual effects with the same issue (full screen vs. window) where I 
> found
> that the window mode required much more battery power due to the need 
> to
> refresh the rest of the desktop and contrast differences as well as any
> other changes to the desktop.
>
> HTH,
>
> Richard
>
>

Thank you very much for the information guys!
I searched the help file as well as the Apple site and failed to find 
this kind of information that answered all my questions and then some! 
This list is a GREAT source. Armed with this I am now looking forward 
to the trip that much more.

One more question though has been raised about the sleep mode.  I have 
heard that it is best to be in sleep mode for the security checks thus 
making for fast approval but I wonder as to how that affects battery 
life?  Is the sleep mode affected by open apps at sleep time or does it 
not matter?

Ken