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Macbookjimbo Author

Level 1

0 points

Video Stutter/Sticking - Not Smooth

I bought a brand new 2011 Mac Mini (mid grade, 2.5 i5 with AMD Radeon graphics card) about a week and a half ago. The goal was to hook it up to my 42" plasma HDTV in the living room to watch TV shows, movies, and streaming video. The setup went fine and it loos good....for everything except video. Any video media I play back, mostly purchases from the iTunes store and using iTunes or QuickTime to play back, results in horrible stuttering or sticking of the video. For example, I bought the most recent Star Trek movie that Apple uses as an example on their computers. When I play it back it goes about 15 seconds, then briefly pauses, then goes another 15 seconds, then briefly pauses. This goes on and on, hence what I call "stuttering." Now if I attempt to play back HD video from the Flip Mino HD that I use, the playback is ten times worse! The sturrering occurs regularly instead of every 15 seconds. Now for the kicker....this does not happen on my 4 year old black plastic MacBook. Both are running Lion. So the Mini has tons more horsepower than the old MacBook yet the old MacBook plays video flawlessly while the Mini stutters along. This is very frustrating. I do not expect this from an Apple product and I'm so upset I'll likely return it.

Anyone else have this issue??

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 5, 2011 3:28 AM

128 replies

Macbookjimbo Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 15, 2011 3:25 AM in response to Macbookjimbo

More testing, more results. I have an Apple TV (newest model) in my bedroom. So I left my mini on downstairs and streamed a new HD TV show I bought from iTunes to the Apple TV. It played beautfully, and flawlessly. So then I played an HD movie from iTunes that I had purchased a while ago, the same HD movie I used in most of my tests so far. This again was streamed from the mini to the Apple TV. Just like the HD TV show, it played flawlessly and beautifully. So playing on the mini itself hooked to a big screen TV directly is definitely the issue.

shafeen

Level 1

8 points

Aug 15, 2011 5:44 AM in response to Macbookjimbo

Having the same issue. New Mac Mini i5 2.5GHz AMD Radeon HD. I get choppy video when I play iTunes HD content. Mini is connected to a 46" Sony LCD via HDMI (had to overscan a bit so I can see the whole screen). Very dissapointed!

Aug 15, 2011 2:18 PM in response to Macbookjimbo

I just want to say that I no longer have this issue. I can play all content including 1080p MKV filesvia plex.

I can't give you a silver bullet but in summery what helped me was at least one or a combination of the following:

Changing the HDMI port on my TV
Turning off an option called Anynet+ which controls devices connected via HDMI
Turning off all TV settings to do with enhancing the image.
Changing the picture option from "16:9" to "Just Scan"

I believe this is an issue related to TV settings, and it's going to be different for everyone. Monitors generally just display stuff. TVs seem to try to do so much more, which makes things unpredictable.

(The only issue I now have is to do with audio. It is a completely seperate issue regaurding audio dropping out after viewing a Dolby encoded video. But that's for another thread.)

I hope this helps some of you - feel free to ask me anything.

Macbookjimbo Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 15, 2011 5:05 PM in response to Macbookjimbo

I'm glad to hear that you've found a solution Douglas, hopefully that's it then and you can just enjoy now. Unfortunately for me none of those have worked and I've tried them all more than once.

Thank you for following up with your post - hopefully it helps others, if not me.

Cheers!

Macbookjimbo Author

Level 1

0 points

Aug 16, 2011 5:51 PM in response to Macbookjimbo

After installing the Lion update 10.7.1 I have seen no change whatsoever, I still have the exact same symptoms. Anyone notice an improvement? I'm starting to get PO'd that I even bought this thing.

Aug 19, 2011 6:18 AM in response to Macbookjimbo

No it has not changed for me, Im using a monitor with a hdmi input.

Aug 19, 2011 7:24 AM in response to Macbookjimbo

My Mac Mini video playback also stops and stutters now that I've upgraded to Lion 10.7.1 -- video playback on Lion is unusable. This is true for an HD 1920 x 1080 H.264 59.94 fps mpeg-4 recording using the applications:

Quicktime 10.1 -- doesn't work at all
EyeTV 3.5.3 -- stops and stutters every few seconds
VLC 1.1.11 -- almost watchable, but jumpy

This same setup worked perfectly with Snow Leopard 10.6.8.

Computer details are a 2010 Mac Mini with 10.7.1, 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8 GB RAM.

System profile on Graphics:

NVIDIA GeForce 320M:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 320M

Type: GPU

Bus: PCI

VRAM (Total): 256 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x08a4

Revision ID: 0x00a2

ROM Revision: 3546

Displays:

Display Connector:

wood930

Level 1

0 points

Aug 19, 2011 7:40 PM in response to Macbookjimbo

Purchased Mac Min, 2011 w/2.7 I5, this week and was having same HDMI issues as everyone else on this forum.

The soloution that worked for me is to connect HDMI to Thunderbolt port using Apples Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter. No more jerkiness on NFL Gamepass or MLB TV. Going to watch a HD movie later to see if that also works

shafeen

Level 1

8 points

Aug 19, 2011 8:56 PM in response to wood930

Can't seem to find the adapter link on Apple's site. Could you please send it along? Thanks!

wood930

Level 1

0 points

Aug 19, 2011 10:01 PM in response to shafeen

I just moved from Milwaukee to Singapore and bought the Apple Mini Display Port to HDM (model # E301195), which isn't listed on the Apple Store US. Weird thing is the model number on this cable is same as MDP to VGA in US store.

Anyway, the Apple Store US has following two products that will work with Thunderbolt port:

Griffin

http://store.apple.com/us/product/TY600VC/A?mco=MTY3ODQ5OTY

and Moshi

http://store.apple.com/us/product/H1824ZM/A/Moshi_Mini_DisplayPort_to_HDMI_Adapt er?fnode=MTY1NDA3Ng&mco=MjIzODg1MTg

Let me know how it works for you

Aug 20, 2011 4:37 AM in response to wood930

I have the same problem of video stuttering and I'm sure that it's not an issue related to the player, it's an OS issue.

I've always used Movist under Snow Leopard and I was able to play flawlessly any type of video.

Now on Lion (10.7.0 and 10.7.1), Movist stutters and stuttering is periodical and not random.

I encounter this issue with the same Mac Mini 2010 as S.T. Smith and with a 2009 MacBook5,1 with Core 2 Duo and GeForce 9400M.

Stuttering on the MacBook is encountered both with the onboard display and with an external monitor.

Aug 21, 2011 6:34 AM in response to Macbookjimbo

I have a very similar problem with my 2011 27" iMac. 3.1 Core i5! Every HD movie I rent from iTunes has some element of frame skipping or stuttering, it's very dissapointing on what is supposed to be a high end machine! The hardware should cope with any HD video files easily.

Has anyone else experienced this with an iMac??

I'm running Lion

Aug 21, 2011 6:58 AM in response to cameron1975me

I've just tried with an early 2009 iMac 24" with 3.0Ghz Core 2 Duo and I have the same issue.

I experience the same issue on all the 3 Mac that I've tested.

It seems to me that the stuttering is associated with sudden hd access or seeking which is not associated with other programs or processes.

Aug 21, 2011 7:37 AM in response to Macbookjimbo

As I posted on this thread earlier I have the same issue with my i7 iMac which also has the biggest video card (2 GB of RAM) Suddenly TV shows and Movies play at this reduced rate, no longer smooth. I bought the best Mac I could afford and am left with video that looks like I've got a 128 MB video card trying to play high end video and just not making it!

I took Lion off my Mini for the same reason, it's an early 2010 model, the first with HDMI, Snow leopard was an easy install, it took longer to reload all my movies back on it.

Also Front Row on my TV was the best program ever, but it was killed by Lion!

Aug 21, 2011 9:33 AM in response to markfrommississauga

So this is def an issue with Lion?? My mac is just over a week old, I upgraded to Lion as soon as I switched it on. If I reinstall Snow Leopard then this issue will be resolved???

Seems a shame to downgrade the operating system, but if it cures the problem so be it.

Thanks for the input :-))

Video Stutter/Sticking - Not Smooth