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Level 1

50 points

Choppy Youtube and flash video

I've been plagued by choppy flash video playback on my MacPro in all Mac browsers (Firefox 3, Safari). I have the latest released Flashplayer v 9, and its a MacPro, so its not underpowered.

Youtube videos but other flash videos consistently hiccup, a few frames freeze but the audio goes on. It makes watching action, sports or music videos unbearable.

I can rule out the cable provider, the router, the network or the specs of the MacPro with one solid piece of evidence: on my MacPro with the stuttering youtube video, playing the same video in a Parallels Windows XP virtual machine using Firefox 3 or IE is smooth and free of hiccups.

Clearly if an emulated/virtual machine can play smoothly, then the problem MUST be in a configuration within the host Mac Pro!

I've uninstalled flip4mac and Perian. Any other suggestions?

System: MacPro, 5 G RAM, 2x2.66 Xenons, Leopard 10.5.3, highspeed cable connection (speedtest.net 5815 kb/s download, 984 kb/s upload).

MacPro, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Aug 16, 2008 12:27 AM

107 replies

vhines

Level 1

0 points

Oct 29, 2008 1:16 PM in response to SteveW25561

Hello,I have not experience hiccups everytime I watch videos on Youtube, neither thru Safari or Firefox 3.

Have you tried down loading Real Player 11( for Mac OS X) Version 11.0.0(884). And Flip4Mac WMV version 2.2.0.49 (www.Flip4Mac.com) is stll installed on my Mac Book Pro. If I'm not mistaken, their plug-ins help the video players. e.g Quick Time etc.

I am only using 3.5G 7.2mbps Modem Internet connection.

I hope this help you, Good luck.....

Dec 19, 2008 10:48 AM in response to SteveW25561

I have the same problem.
I just tried to uninstall the Flashplayer (took about 10 min or so, what the heck are you doing Adobe?) and reinstall the newest version - still same problem 😟

imehdi

Level 1

0 points

Dec 26, 2008 3:57 PM in response to SteveW25561

It's driving me crazy, my old Powerbook titanium and the old iBook of my girlfriend became completely unusable since october because of choppy playback of EVERY video on the web

So, I decided to buy a new Mac, a Macbook Air, Yeah! Let's rock

But will you believe me : videos are choppy too with my MBA

So I'm really really wandering what's going on with flash videos on Mac os x ?

I'm so upset

Dec 26, 2008 6:51 PM in response to SteveW25561

Yeah seriously, choppy video playback should not be considered acceptable. I hope this issue is still being looked into by developers. I certainly continue to experience choppiness when viewing video in a browser Quicktime plugin.

geeshh

Level 1

0 points

Jan 6, 2009 8:04 PM in response to SteveW25561

I've had the same issues on a Macbook C2D 2.16, a mini CD 1.83, and an Al Macbook 2.0. OS ranges from 10.4.x to 10.5.6.

I've come to accept that it's just the way OS X does flash...

Jan 13, 2009 12:59 PM in response to SteveW25561

I'm having the same choppy video problems. I don't think the problem was always there.. just recently. My Macbook Pro is only a year old. Only happens with flash videos like HD YouTube videos 😟

Apple, this is UNACCEPTABLE!

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,203 points

Jan 14, 2009 9:48 AM in response to codeoverride

If you fire up Process Viewer, do you see anything else using CPU?

I watch YouTube videos regularly and don't see any choppy video on either of my machines.

I'm using the Flash 10 plugins.

Jan 27, 2009 11:46 AM in response to Dogcow-Moof

I have the same problem, however Seamonkey does work for me. But I don't really wanna get rid of firefox for my main browsing. Any ideas how to fix the original problem rather than just use the workaround of using Seamonkey?

I have the Firefox 3, latest version of Flash (10).

Jan 27, 2009 10:15 PM in response to SteveW25561

Just wanted to chime in here and say I'm experiancing the exact same problems!

I've got a previous-gen MacBook Pro 2.4Ghz with 2BG RAM. I recently re-installed OSX, uninstalled and re-installed Flash player 10 and removed my Firefox profile - no change.

I believe this is an issue with Flash Player itself. I hate this.

Jan 30, 2009 12:47 PM in response to EjectMedia

Let me add to this .. just about all Flash Videos run choppy for me .. the only exception are those that have a large buffer delay built into the SWF (done on the webmaster/designer/etc end . there's no way to set this on the user end as one can with QuickTime) .. each time my CPU usage jumps to 100% (according to iStat) .. this is true no matter which browser I use.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled Flash 10 a number of times. Even tried setting up a new user and testing on a "clean" setup.

The only thing I can think of is maybe Flash 10 is optimized for Intel Processors .. and maybe us PPC relics are just left out ..

Can anyone corroborate ... or is this happening on Intel Macs as well?

Jan 30, 2009 7:49 PM in response to fireQuartz

+"The only thing I can think of is maybe Flash 10 is optimized for Intel Processors .. and maybe us PPC relics are just left out ..+

+Can anyone corroborate ... or is this happening on Intel Macs as well? "+

Many in this thread are reporting this issue on intel macs. I also am with you in having these difficulties on a G5 tiger machine. And the choppiness appears to be getting constantly worse.

This IS unacceptable, Apple.

Message was edited by: Scott Robinson3

Jan 30, 2009 9:15 PM in response to Scott Robinson3

Many in this thread are reporting this issue on intel macs. I also am with you in having these difficulties on a G5 tiger machine. And the choppiness appears to be getting constantly worse.

This IS unacceptable, Apple.

Well .. it's nice to know it's more a universal issue. Something may yet be done about it.

To be fair, I'm not sure this is entirely - if at all - an Apple issue. Could be Adobe is the real culprit here. The Flash 10 plug-in seems to be a tremendous resource pig. I tried the forums there .. most of the responses I saw there on this issue were either dismissive or flat rude.

I was just hoping someone here was able to pinpoint the issue - and perhaps offer a solution.

Feb 1, 2009 11:00 AM in response to EjectMedia

Probably is the flash player because quicktime and silverlight compatible videos work just fine. Netflix which uses Microsoft silverlight run at less than 50% CPU which is not great but lots better than Flash. Quicktime movies obvioulsy run better than both. Viewing with Flash 9 or 10 on a macbook ( 2 Ghz core 2 duo with 4GB RAM ) is pretty much unbearable with the fans sounding like airplanes taking off. 100% CPU load will definitely kill the CPUs in pretty short time. Maybe that's part of the business plan?
ANyway I saw this enlightening benchmark ( http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2008/10/benchmarking-flash-player-10.ars )that you guys might be interested in. Basically when viewing FLASH at Hulu on a MacbookAir they got 98 % CPU load / and 63 % CPU on a Mac Pro. On Vista it only takes a CPU load of 7% CPU. Either Adobe has to start investing some time in Flash player for mac or apple needs to make its own flash player because watching web videos at 100% CPU is unacceptable!

Feb 1, 2009 11:11 AM in response to Scott Robinson3

Flash 10 works fine on my PowerMac G5 with 10.5.6 and using Safari. It also works fine on my MacBook Pro 17" that also has 10.5.6 and is using Safari.

Try clearing the ~/Library/Caches/ folder, as well as the /Library/Caches/ folder. Additionally, try removing any adobe flash-related preferences files, as well as the safari preferences files (in the ~/Library/Preferences/) folder. Lastly try removing cookies (in the "Reset Safari" feature from the "Safari" menu).

Feb 1, 2009 2:39 PM in response to Topher Kessler

Interesting. Are you able to play all video without choppiness?

I reverted back to version 9 and everything is very different. While playing flash under v9 CPU usage averages around 50% whereas v10 was 100+%. Cleaning caches didn't help either. I am probably staying with v9 for awhile. I'll play with the preferences next.

Mind you I am still not satisfied with the overall flash performance. Hulu, for instance, on anything but the lowest res is choppy. Their HD video is still completely unplayable for me.

Message was edited by: Scott Robinson3

Choppy Youtube and flash video