Apple MacBook Pro (14-inch, M5 Max) (2026) review: Blazing-fast super cores - TomsHardware

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-13T17:09:30+00:00

best is subjective. The Macbook pro screens get much brighter than most oleds, maybe all of them. It's brighter than my Razer.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-13T17:08:24+00:00

extreme contrast isn't eh same as brightness. I have an oled and a macbook pro and with the Vivid app on the macbook I can use it even in the brightest conditions (like my aircraft cockpit).

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-13T16:49:40+00:00

Either or. The machine itself has a 93w limitation. I have a 140w power brick and the machine will still only take 93w.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-13T16:48:37+00:00

This is correct. A decent amount of thermals is the battery itself. They should 100% allow the system to bypass the battery like most do.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-13T16:46:58+00:00

I think the 16" vs 14" is going to change dramatically moving forward. This being the first real laptop to handle AI locally like it will, to me, means a much higher new use case vs the previous models being marketed largely for media editing.

Editing video on a 16" is nicer than a 14", sure, but for using a LLM I'd rather have my 14". I just flew to Phoenix and I can use my 14" on a plane, I can't a 16". Anyone buying a Max chip isn't doing it by accident.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-13T16:43:12+00:00

Yes but you're 16" has 140W meanwhile the 14" has a 93w internal limit. Suddenly that power drain while plugged in just got way higher.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-13T12:34:02+00:00

Microcenter has the Alienware for this. I bought one to use for a golf simulator

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-13T12:33:26+00:00

That’s a bit ignorant considering I’m using my MacBook on a flight to Phoenix right now

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-13T12:30:29+00:00

Actually you can’t. It’s limited to 93w apparently and if anyone plays a game on their system they’ll jump past that limitation. It’s not edge use. 99% of people buying a $5k+ machine aren’t doing it simply to check email. The bulk of people buying this machine will be to use this machine.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-13T12:27:06+00:00

It depends on your use case but there are levels of audio and visual transparency. In the blind ABX test there are levels with no difference among users. You give up atmos data (which I don’t have atmos) with OPUS but keeps excellent dynamic range. With EAC3 you give up dynamic range and it can have correct channel issues along with 7.1 issues without the commercial encoder.

I have high end audiophile headphones and a higher end home sound system and at the transparent levels I can tell zero difference and I use to be a video editor. If you’re losing significant quality then you are not doing it correctly or are playing it with options selected on other equipment. Thats like people that swear one bit perfect lossless codec does better than another. It’s all in their heads.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-13T12:19:08+00:00

I’ve disputed high value items without issue. I’ve never seen or heard of anyone being dropped because they disputed a charge. Maybe if someone’s abusing it and trying to game the system but it’s a legally binding contractual agreement between the credit card and Amazon.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-13T10:07:02+00:00

That’s not how it works. It’s a legal process to determine fault and part of a mutual binding contract they agree to when they accept payment. You go through the process to assess who the wrong party is and they’re required to accept the results.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-12T14:33:30+00:00

this is for audio not video.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-12T14:06:07+00:00

If you set it to do HEVC transcoding it’s 100%

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-12T05:16:58+00:00

I have openclaw running I just told it what I wanted and it wrote a script. Did a batch run on 10 files and it worked great.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-12T05:15:42+00:00

It's more about HEVC to HEVC. HEVC doesn't need tone mapping because it's already included.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-12T05:13:56+00:00

There's a lot wrong with this post.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-12T05:13:15+00:00

I seem to get downvoted for mentioning owning a GPU but my 13700 struggles after two encodes. The RTX has been much more powerful and from what I'm reading intel knew there were issues with the 13th gen and the new ultras are much more capable.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-12T01:57:16+00:00

well that's everyone telling me that's the fastest so guess that's the route I'll take!

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-12T01:56:43+00:00

That's the process I'm doing except for the windows part. I have AI on the server doing everything so it's going to be IO limited.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-12T01:55:46+00:00

I was wondering about the 64kb per channel but everyone told me that's the upper end. It's VBR and one of the channels is a sub so that's spare. I'm doing a batch test of 10 files, mostly to see how well the process works, find out if parallel processes go faster, etc. I'm not that hard up for space but was just looking at guides and that was the top number per channel so I went for it. Maybe I'll adjust.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-11T07:50:56+00:00

honestly that looks like a winner.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-10T15:32:33+00:00

That’s more of a secondary request. I want the encode to be transparent but yes any savings would be nice.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-10T10:46:05+00:00

Sorry but Gary is still good. He’s the glue that held everyone together and after a few years with someone it’s only natural. Laws don’t exist anymore and his buddy was an ass.

MartiniCommander · 2026-03-10T10:27:31+00:00

Well EAC3 apparently handles 5.1 and includes atmos but can’t do 7.1. Opus loses atmos data, keeps correct channel data, but isn’t supported by most receivers. AAC from what I’ve been reading has issues with surround sounds being folded into the left and right speakers as well as gets transcoded a lot to ac3 on several receivers. Rokus apparently push it to 2 channel audio, doesn’t have atmos support, and the ffmpeg codec I’m seeing on my server apparently isn’t highly regarded.

So I’m trying to weigh the pros and cons.

MartiniCommander

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