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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

Feb 26, 2009 10:54 AM in response to fireQuartz

Did the uninstall/reinstall -- does seem better, though there still are a few delays here and there.

Feb 26, 2009 10:59 AM in response to Robert Daeley

That's exactly my experience - it's still not the way it should be, but definitely much better - which makes me believe even more now that the issue is more Adobe's fault than Apple's.

Robert Daeley wrote:
Did the uninstall/reinstall -- does seem better, though there still are a few delays here and there.

Mar 8, 2009 4:48 PM in response to padre999

Hy,
I discovered a little workaround for all using the Tascam us-122l interface. I hope it will work for you,too.

1.) Download and install soundflower (freeware).
2.) Go to the Systempreferences and set "Soundflower (2ch)" as your audio output.
3.) Start the software "soundflowerbed" it was installed with soundflower
4.) Click on the little flower symbol that appeared in your menue bar
5.) Now you can choose the output of the "Soundflower (2ch)"-device -> us-122l

After doing that i was able to watch youtube videos without any lagging!

RX7SINS

Level 1

5 points

Mar 8, 2009 6:15 PM in response to Robert Daeley

This did not help me. I even tried disabling all add ons with no change.

RX7SINS

Level 1

5 points

Mar 8, 2009 6:30 PM in response to fireQuartz

Alas, no real improvement for me.

Mar 21, 2009 9:19 PM in response to SteveW25561

Just an update .. I discovered that both the Camino and Opera Mac browsers allow me to view YouTube, Hulu, and other online Flash videos with no problem (for me, Camino works best) .. CPU usage is lower (about 75% vs 99+% for Safari 3/4 and Firefox 3) .. and the videos run smoothly.

Doesn't fix the problem, per se, but at least its a nice alternative while Apple and Adobe get their acts together.

Mar 27, 2009 8:22 AM in response to SteveW25561

I was having the exact same problem, with Flash 10 and 10.5.6, but then I realized that when I unplugged my Logitech USB speakers, everything worked fine. I think it's related to a sound issue, as some people using external sound cards were having the same problem.

Apr 1, 2009 4:37 PM in response to SteveW25561

Hello,

I've been following this issue as my sister has a MacBook Pro with Intel C2D 2.13Ghz which is more then enough to render full screen video, let alone a small flash video window... except when it's not...

The actual bug in Adobe's (Public) bug tracking system is here:
https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FP-890

Message was edited by: Moderator

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

Apr 1, 2009 5:03 PM in response to fireQuartz

FYI: Your profile indicates Tiger. This is a Leopard forum.

Apr 1, 2009 5:12 PM in response to nerowolfe

sorry to post in the incorrect forum however at the risk of sounding arrogant, let me ask you:

Is there a difference between the flash player code on Leopard or Tiger?
Are there separate bugs in Adobe's system for different versions of the player?

Sorry, just trying to bring attention to the fact that this issue is already in Adobe's system and a developer (John Chen) has posted on that system that "This issue was deferred in previous release, but is now back in review~ "

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,251 points

Apr 1, 2009 6:06 PM in response to gaspard.leon

Not necessarily Adobe's bug system, but different components have different performance characteristics, so people running Leopard may not see issues those running Tiger do, and vice versa.

Since Flash actually displays within a browser, for example it's conceivable that different versions of Safari could show different performance characteristics.

Apr 2, 2009 5:14 AM in response to Dogcow-Moof

hmm just tried safari 4 beta... and while the browser is excellent, the flash performance is the same... still jumps and hangs and stutters

also tried uninstalling the flash plugin, repairing permissions, deleting caches, installing versions 9 r151 and 9 r124 ... same choppy stuttery video... arrgh

edit: Have switched back to v10,0,22,87 since 9 was the same.

Guess we that have this problem just have to wait for adobe...

Message was edited by: gaspard.leon

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,251 points

Apr 2, 2009 8:13 AM in response to gaspard.leon

Note that I said the browser could conceivably have an effect on performance.

Still, yours was a good test and does put the ball squarely in Adobe's court.

msmgs0

Level 1

0 points

Apr 9, 2009 6:34 AM in response to SteveW25561

I have Real Player as the default player and don't seem to have this problem.
(VEOH,HULU,JOOST,YouTube)

Apr 14, 2009 2:43 AM in response to SteveW25561

I too have been plagued with this problem on my Macbook Air. What has solved it for me has been the CoolBook application. When I manually set the processor to remain at a fixed 80-100% of maximum speed, I am able to play full-screen Flash from sites like Hulu.com without dropping frames. So for my Air a setting of 1400 MHz allows great playback. To help keep the temp down I also undervolt to .9 volts.

Choppy Youtube and flash video