Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Every Mac I have ever been on Sucks at Flash Media... Why?

I

iBunny

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 15, 2004
1,254
0
Is there an explination for this? Am I just not updating something right? Right now I am on an iBook 1.33GHz G4 / 768MB Ram. I know, not the greatest computer... Flash sucks on it. However I used to have a iMac Core Duo 2GHz Rev A, and it also sucked at Flash Media, Myspace.com, and pages with intergrated Audio/Video.

Why is this? This is the only complaint I have and need to know If there is soemething I need to do to fix this? Do High End Mac Pros with 4 CPUs and 8GB of ram have this issue too?

Thanks ;) :D
 
Can you be more specific as to what problem you're having with flash drives?

If it's speed, I have found the default FAT16/32 can be slow if there are a large number of small files. If you don't need the cross-platform compatibility, try and re-init the flash drive as MacOS Extended.
 
what version of flash do you have? mb upgrading to 9 would help? personally i haven't found many sites that have done bad with flash, of course myspace on the hand is an awful site thats loaded with more then just flash to stall safari. You could also try firefox with your flash sites and see how that goes.
 
Sorry - TOTALLY misread original post. Obviously, I was thinking flash memory, as in USB flash drives.

As far as Flash, I've seen a wide variance of performance even on my PowerBook G4 1.67GHZ. Some things were fine, but even on that relatively fast machine, sometime would be a tad rough. Not sure what to say about the iMac Core Duo - I wouldn't think it would have a problem. Make sure you get the latest version of Flash.
 
Works fine for me and I have a 1.33gHz iBook. I think Firefox does it fine at least. What browser are you using?

And ya you gotta say what sucks about it.
 
I've noticed a bit of a stutter when using YouTube (or any other site w/ flash) in Safari and Safari isn't the frontmost app, but other than that I haven't had any problems.

I've heard an explanation of the stuttering problem somewhere before, but forget the specific details. I feel like that article also mentioned that "problem" would be fixed in Leopard.
 
The current version of Safari throttles Flash's CPU usage whenever it's not the foremost application. After all, who wants background or hidden Flash apps taking all one's CPU cycles? The issue is discussed on the official Safari weblog.

As for Flash itself being kind of slow, that's Adobe's fault.
 
On my 2.33GHz 2GB 15" MBP, any flash video stutters, no matter what site I'm on or what other things I'm doing. I've found it to be rather annoying but not a show-stopper.

I'm using the latest available Flash software and it happens in Safari or FireFox, BTW.
 
I have an 867MHz PowerBook and flash is always fine in Camino. It could be a Safari issue rather than an OSX one.
 
I also find flash rather slow on macs, my G5 iMac (and to a lesser extent dads C2D) a lot of very complex flash sites stutter a bit, the same site on my pbook is pretty dreadful, yet my windows laptop with the CPU at around 1Ghz runs it perfectly.

I can only assume flash for mac os (browser doesn't make much difference) was written by badly trained monkeys :cool:

CaptainHaddock said:
As for Flash itself being kind of slow, that's Adobe's fault.
Click to expand...
Like so
 
Yeah sorry for not specifying what "sucks"

Its just slow and stuttery... I am using Safari, Which I prefer to any other browser.
 
That's strange. All the Flash content on the web I view, on any of my Macs, works just fine, and isn't slow or stuttery. I have the latest Flash version. (Yes, even my old PowerMac G4 400 MHz, which is a dinosaur by today's standards, copes acceptably, to me at least, with most Flash content :D )
 
CaptainHaddock said:
After all, who wants background or hidden Flash apps taking all one's CPU cycles?
Click to expand...
I do when I want to only hear a video podcast done in flash (say a tech talk). It sucks when it just stops because I am also trying to look at another webpage at the same time.

beige matchbox said:
I can only assume it's like games, some people are happy with the game chugging along at 10 frames per second, and some wont settle for anything less than 30
Click to expand...
Um no. I've seen sites that are completely unusable because they are using a ton of flash. Flash on OS X is horrid compared to what it is on Windows.

The weird thing is, on some pages it's fine and others it's just plain pathetically slow (like 2-3 fps).
 
I have issues with flash as well on my 1.25ghz PB. its nearly unusable with framrates going to about 2/second when two things are playing at the same time, which at times is something I want happening. Even with one video playing, its hardly acceptable, let alone good.
 
dynamicv said:
I have an 867MHz PowerBook and flash is always fine in Camino. It could be a Safari issue rather than an OSX one.
Click to expand...


Flash has always been fine for me in Camino when it stutters in Webkit browsers like Safari and Shiira. For example, when I have a flash video playing in an unfocused Safari/Shiira window it skips a few frames but in Camino it plays as smoothly as it does when the window is focused.

So its not a Flash issue or Adobe's fault, its Apple's own Webkit. Try Camino for flash and you should be fine.
 
The nike+ website runs particularly slowly for me, which is frustrating because the old Dells we have at work make my computer look pitiful. Yes, it may be getting on a bit but it's far from long in the tooth. I use firefox and I'm pretty sure that everything is as up-to-date as possible - I tried using safari and it was just as bad.
 
It does seem to have something to do with Webkit because I've had no problems with slow down in Camino. It's just too bad I prefer Safari. Alright Apple, fix this slow Flash garbage in Leopard!
 
Every Mac I have ever been on Sucks at Flash Media... Why?
Click to expand...

Well you probably meet crappy Macs :p

Flash works great in every browser on my iMac.
And I even have Adobe Flash 8 and yes that works great too.
 
QuarterSwede said:
It does seem to have something to do with Webkit because I've had no problems with slow down in Camino. It's just too bad I prefer Safari. Alright Apple, fix this slow Flash garbage in Leopard!
Click to expand...

Hyatt has admitted as much... in a roundabout way.

(2) Plugins
Plugins are another area where work can occur while a Safari window is in the background. The Mac plugin framework is really archaic (in Safari and Firefox). Many plugins do animation and work based off being pumped “null events” in which they do processing. The faster you pump these events, the faster animations will occur, and the more CPU will be used. Safari 2 actually throttles these events aggressively to background windows and background tabs.
Click to expand...

Emphasis my own. This is one instance where the nightly builds are, in my opinion, better than the currently shipping product. I'd never run Firefox nightly builds (but then, I'd never run Firefox again after 1.5+), but WebKit nightly builds are actually rather stable and the improvements are substantial.

EDIT: Uhm, oops. Yeah, CaptainHaddock already mentioned what I've said. :)
 
Viremia said:
On my 2.33GHz 2GB 15" MBP, any flash video stutters, no matter what site I'm on or what other things I'm doing. I've found it to be rather annoying but not a show-stopper.

I'm using the latest available Flash software and it happens in Safari or FireFox, BTW.
Click to expand...

That's really weird. My G4 Mac Mini (the slowest version) works fine, and it has much less memory than you as well...

And I use Safari
 
CaptainHaddock said:
As for Flash itself being kind of slow, that's Adobe's fault.
Click to expand...

are you kidding me? flash files are minuscule. i regularly work on an hp PC 1GhZ/512MB and flash, no matter what version, works fine. and it works in whatever browser i use - FF, IE, Opera etc. so i think the flash problem is more Safari/mac related i believe.
 
For those saying it works "perfectly", you guys are ignorant. Sure it works fine on most sites, but Flash's performance on ANY Mac computer is garbage compared to ANY Windows PC. I used a P3 Windows machine last week that had faster scrolling speed than my CDuo 20" iMac w/ 2 gigs. I've tried everything to fix this, until I decided to drive over to the Mac store and see if their computers were the same way....guess what...they were. Try going to ESPN.com. If you notice the "slight" hiccups, that is ONLY present on OSX. Windows XP / Vista both have much faster page refreshes. How do I know? I'm running Bootcamp and ESPN.com is my startpage in both OS's. FYI: I've tried every Mac browser possible...it's not a browser problem.

I have a feeling this is Adobe's fault. I'm not sure why all Macs are like this, hopefully Leopard fixes this issue...but that's doubtful. Sure, the longer you're in OSX, the less you will notice this inconvenience....but for established Windows users, it is very apparent Flash is complete crap in OSX.
 
Yes, flash performs poorly on a Mac compared to PCs. It has audio synch problems and is considerably slower. It's not that noticeable on simple flash pages, but on anything more complex, an old PC will spank a new Mac in Flash.

Probably Adobe's fault, though they'd probably find a way to blame Apple.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back