Shockwave flash straight burns my air and kills battery

[Birone]

So I have to watch some tutorial videos online, and within chrome it shows during those videos that the shockwave flash renderer takes it up to a sustained 75% CPU hog or more, and if i'm on battery I can watch it go down. My air gets so hot near the top of the keyboard it would scald me if I touched it for too long. Is this normal? I'm sure this has been discussed to death, but I need some alternatives, such as, is it possible to load these videos in VLC? Or another alternative program that wouldn't blast the CPU so high?

I'm on lynda.com tutorials btw.

 

[charlieegan3]

You can use various flash video downloaders to save the .flv files and then view them in VLC, i think.

I think the 1st thing to do thought is check for updates.

 

[Birone]

You can use various flash video downloaders to save the .flv files and then view them in VLC, i think.

I think the 1st thing to do thought is check for updates.

Thanks, I think I'll take the route of downloading the video, then play in VLC. In that regard, is there something similar to Orbit downloader (windows) on the mac? Something that would easily grab the .flv files on a given page.

My issue could just be with the website and how its video is presented, (a separate window playing flash, with custom play buttons etc.)

 

[GGJstudios]

Flash is notorious for consuming system resources, raising temps and decreasing battery life. For Flash-related issues:

• Find your Flash version and make sure it's the latest version available. Never install or update Flash from a pop-up on a website. Always go to Adobe's site to get Flash or updates.
• Install ClickToFlash (Safari), Flashblock (Firefox) or FlashBlock (Chrome) to control which Flash content plays on websites.
• Try using the YouTube HTML5 Video Player to watch YouTube videos, when available. (May impact fullscreen viewing. See link for details.) Some have reported better performance with HTML5, while some have reported worse. Try it and find out what works best for you.

 

[Mrbobb]

Maybe Jobs was right after all he distain Flash so much that he refused to make it available on IOS.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Maybe Jobs was right after all he distain Flash so much that he refused to make it available on IOS.

Nahh, he was only right because he created a self-fulfilling prophacy. The relevent API's for flash to use the GPU (thus cutting down on heat and battery drain) weren't exposed until a month before Apple publically started critisizing Adobe. Adobe literally had a month to basically re-write flash.

And then you wonder why Adobe doesn't really give it top priority? To the company that single handedly tried to destory one of their flagship products?

Don't get me wrong Jobs was 100% correct in not allowing Flash on iOS, but not for the reasons you think. He was 100% correct because it forced developers to develop native iOS ports of their flash games, increasing the number of apps in the app store. Had iOS exposed the public API's for a GPU accelerated version of Flash, Apple and Adobe could have created a version of Flash that didn't suck.


/history rant

 

[Birone]

So whats the best avenue to download flash video?

The history of the flash wars is intriguing. It is a horrid little application, in that I can watch a full 1080p movie in VLC and retain normal conditions, yet I open a 5mb flash video and my fans are going ******* and CPU at 95.

 

[GGJstudios]

So whats the best avenue to download flash video?

For downloading videos from YouTube or other sites, if you're using Safari and have ClickToFlash installed, right-click on the video and select "Download Video".

You can also use ClipGrab or KeepVid or similar apps or sites such as file2hd.com (for downloading any file types from a site).

To download via Safari 5:

While viewing the video just click "Window > Activity" then identify the video in the list of elements (it will likely show something like "258K of 1.8MB" and will be the largest file on the list.

Hold the option key down and double-click the file to download.​

There have been mixed reports about the availability of this functionality in Safari 6, using the Develop menu.

 

[AlanShutko]

Had iOS exposed the public API's for a GPU accelerated version of Flash, Apple and Adobe could have created a version of Flash that didn't suck.

I think the history of Flash on Android shows that not to be the case.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I think the history of Flash on Android shows that not to be the case.

That's where the android is a fragmented mess comes into play. Some phones do do flash content well, while others just don't, and can't, depending on what hardware they have.

As an armchair flash developer though, I'd like to think that if someone came to Adobe and said "Here's 50% of the smartphone marketshare, all you have to do is create a plugin that isn't crap for a single device", they could.

They did it for Windows, there's no reason they couldn't do it for OS X/iOS if Apple would have let them.

 

[stchman]

I play Flash videos all the time on my MBA and it is not "burning" and killing my battery.

 

[Alameda]

I think the issue is that Apple wanted to sell applications through their app store, and they wanted to control security, quality and compatibility of iPhone apps. Flash would have created an end-run around all of that.

 

[Zetaprime]

Maybe Jobs was right after all he distain Flash so much that he refused to make it available on IOS.

Flash needs to die already. It's insecure and a power hog.

 

[Birone]

I play Flash videos all the time on my MBA and it is not "burning" and killing my battery.

Thanks for your wonderful insight. Since you we're intentionally vague, I'm calling you out. What browser do you watch flash with, what version of OSX are you on, how much ram, and how many hours of battery do you attain?

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks for your wonderful insight. Since you we're intentionally vague, I'm calling you out. What browser do you watch flash with, what version of OSX are you on, how much ram, and how many hours of battery do you attain?

Speaking of "vague", use iStat Pro (free) or iStat Menus ($16) to get accurate readings of your battery, temps, fan speeds and much more, instead of relying on your inaccurate sense of touch.

 

[stchman]

Thanks for your wonderful insight. Since you we're intentionally vague, I'm calling you out. What browser do you watch flash with, what version of OSX are you on, how much ram, and how many hours of battery do you attain?

I use Firefox, I am running Mountain Lion, I have 8GB RAM, I have a Core i7, I have a 256GB SSD. While using Flash the battery life is decreased a little bit, but it is not that noticeable. If I had to guess, I get about 4.5 to 5 hours of battery life while viewing Flash videos.

My MBA certainly is not "burning" (I assume you mean your MBA gets hot to the touch when watching Flash videos), as the fans don't even spin up when watching YouTube videos.

Now playing games like Nexuiz really cause the fans to spin up and the temps to warm up considerably.

 

[Birone]

I use Firefox, I am running Mountain Lion, I have 8GB RAM, I have a Core i7, I have a 256GB SSD. While using Flash the battery life is decreased a little bit, but it is not that noticeable. If I had to guess, I get about 4.5 to 5 hours of battery life while viewing Flash videos.

My MBA certainly is not "burning" (I assume you mean your MBA gets hot to the touch when watching Flash videos), as the fans don't even spin up when watching YouTube videos.

Now playing games like Nexuiz really cause the fans to spin up and the temps to warm up considerably.

Preciate your reply. I'm guessing the site im predominantly using (lynda.com) has a custom flash video applet. Its not burning in the literal sense of the word, but is ridiculously hot in the middle of the top keyboard area. I'm probably going to stay away from the videos on that site and try to DL them, and view in VLC.

 

[Ibamac]

Same thing happened to me once last week (only had this 11 i7/8gb/256 refurbished MBA for a week). Fans spun to max, front of keyboard got incredibly hot. Only had 4 safari windows open, and mail. istatpro showed fans at 6500 and CPU up near 200F. In activity monitor it was some sort of safari content that was the problem. Once I closed it out, everything returned to normal. We also use this MBA to watch educational content, much of which is flash-based.

 

[stchman]

Just watched some videos on lynda.com and the temperature was fine. I can't comment on why your MBA is going crazy.

 

[AlanShutko]

Preciate your reply. I'm guessing the site im predominantly using (lynda.com) has a custom flash video applet. Its not burning in the literal sense of the word, but is ridiculously hot in the middle of the top keyboard area. I'm probably going to stay away from the videos on that site and try to DL them, and view in VLC.

Lynda.com also supports Quicktime video. You can change your player preferences (either site-wide in your preferences or for the one course) to use Quicktime, which uses MUCH LESS cpu than Flash does. It makes a big difference for me.

 

[bit density]

I play Flash videos all the time on my MBA and it is not "burning" and killing my battery.

No Airplay on the other hand. Full on fans, and heat and even then it sometimes skips. Hopefully they will find better algorithms...

 

[Birone]

Lynda.com also supports Quicktime video. You can change your player preferences (either site-wide in your preferences or for the one course) to use Quicktime, which uses MUCH LESS cpu than Flash does. It makes a big difference for me.

Immense help thanks. Up and running now with quicktime standard, cpu hasn't gone over 45%.

 

[2IS]

I play Flash videos all the time on my MBA and it is not "burning" and killing my battery.

Agreed. Yeah, it'll run warmer, but who cares? Play the darn video's and stop worrying so much. Scalded you? Really? I doubt it, and if your skin is that sensative, (unlikely) don't touch that area.

 

[mertyz]

There is no need to install an extension to disable Flash on Chrome anymore. Just visit chrome://plugins and disable Flash there

 

[MacBH928]

To be honest I think this is a flaw in the macbook design.

Other than browsing webpages and word processing, macbook will turn its fans like crazy. I can easily reach 72C(161F) doing nothing.

Any of the following activities will turn my macbook into 75C(168F) to 90C(194F) with fans at 6000+rpm

-HD Flash video
-Long flash video(10 and longer)
-Live streaming flash
-Photoshop
-DVD ripping
-Video file converting(avi->mp4)
-Any modern games 3D even ones low to use resources
-Video Editing
-Parallels, virtualization

you get the idea...I am not going to buy laptop again for other than browsing, and if iPads get any more powerful, I guess I will quit laptops all together. They might as well burn in its own heat. You cant do any "real" thing on those $1600 machines...

i have macbook core2dou 6GB Ram , Nvidia 9400m and I am worried this heat might ruin my hardware.