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Stuttering issues while playing flash content on the MBA...

Z

zpilot

macrumors member
Original poster
So I tried playing a few 720p/1080p flash videos on Youtube and Hulu in fullscreen mode and the videos seem to stutter quite a bit. Is that normal?

I am using Firefox on my ultimate MBA 11". I thought the 320m gpu could at least handle HD videos... 😕
 
I know this sounds obvious, but are you using the latest version of flash which is 10.1.x? I ask because I looked at a MBA the other day at BB and it had issues with HD video as well. When I checked it was running 10.0.xx which does not have GPU acceleration. I couldn't update to the latest version so I was not able to verify if it was hardware and/or software.
 
I have the latest Flash version.... Is there an option to enable/disable gpu acceleration?
 
fuzzielitlpanda said:
I have the latest flash installed. The first video lags under 1080P, but relatively smooth under 720P. The second video was smooth under both 720P and 1080P. I was using Safari and have the 11" 1.4GHz/2GB
Click to expand...

Both ran fine using Youtube5 extension in safari. However, I changed to flash, and the first was jittery a touch.

11, 4gb, 128...
 
I've witnessed video smoothness differences playing Silverlight videos (Netflix) between Chrome and Safari. Its possible there's a difference running in Firefox vs. Safari. Try it again in Safari.
 
zpilot said:
So I tried playing a few 720p/1080p flash videos on Youtube and Hulu in fullscreen mode and the videos seem to stutter quite a bit. Is that normal?

I am using Firefox on my ultimate MBA 11". I thought the 320m gpu could at least handle HD videos... 😕
Click to expand...

There needs to be a sticky...

Before anyone starts posting new threads on this video stuttering matter please check the following off the list before complaining:

  • Have You installed adobe 10.1.
  • Have you tried chrome?
  • If chrome works flawlessly then you have not installed adobe 10.1 correctly in Firefox/Safari internet plug in folder
  • Try HTML5
  • Have you tried Plex
  • does plex still give you stuttering?
 
Last edited:
The Youtube5 Safari extension really ROCKS! (and it makes it easy to download the video's) 😀
Is use it for a while already, no way I'm going back to the "old" way. 😉

I just tried the video Beautiful Nature Scenery out with flash (10.1) and it didn't run smooth at all, plus the fans started "blazing", with Youtube5 the fan does not.
 
Last edited:
Dammit Cubs said:
There needs to be a sticky...

Before anyone starts posting new threads on this video stuttering matter please check the following off the list before complaining:


  • [*]You have installed adobe 10.1.
  • Have you tried chrome?
  • If chrome works flawlessly then you have not installed adobe 10.1 correctly in Firefox/Safari internet plug in folder
    [*]Try HTML5
  • Have you tried Plex
  • does plex still give you stuttering?
Click to expand...

these are the only two things that need to be done. everything else is unnecessary just for youtube and hulu.

Corax said:
The Youtube5 Safari extension really ROCKS! (and it makes it easy to download the video's) 😀
Is use it for a while already, no way I'm going back to the "old" way. 😉
Big Buck Bunny (funny vid) for example runs flawless on my Air in 1080p.
Click to expand...

i tried the big buck bunny as well. strange thing is that if you go to the youtube html5 website and play the video in 1080p, it still won't be smooth. however, with the youtube5 extension, it is.
 
fuzzielitlpanda said:
i tried the big buck bunny as well. strange thing is that if you go to the youtube html5 website and play the video in 1080p, it still won't be smooth. however, with the youtube5 extension, it is.
Click to expand...

I know, and the fans don't kick in with Youtube5 like they do with flash. 🙂 I've also tried the HTML5 from Youtube itself, but it's BAD.
Plus, no more the occasional commercials with Youtube5!
I have to say I also prefer the player's interface over the one from Youtube's.
 
Last edited:
Doesn't your broadband speed have an impact on how smoothly your videos run?

Being in a remote area, I only get 1.5mb broadband and quite often stutters if I play anything above 400 dpi. I too have a MBA 13''
 
zRedbullz said:
Doesn't your broadband speed have an impact on how smoothly your videos run?

Being in a remote area, I only get 1.5mb broadband and quite often stutters if I play anything above 400 dpi. I too have a MBA 13''
Click to expand...

Depends, when the movie is loaded faster than it's playing it doesn't matter.
When the video plays faster than the internet downloads, than you'll experience problems, but only when it's downloading, when the movie is fully loaded, it shouldn't matter anymore.
 
I have the new Macbook Air, 11.6" and this has been an issue for me, as well. It is frustrating since web browsing and flash content, i.e. Hulu and Youtube, are one of the main reasons I bought the computer. I didn't have any problems with a previous netbook using a 1.6Ghz Atom processor and onboard intel video. So, I agree this hardware should be more than enough. I have all the upgrades on this baby at 1.6Ghz Core Duo and 4GB of RAM with the 128GB SSD.

What I have noticed leads me to believe the Macbook Air is throttling back the CPU around 70 degrees C. Below that temperature, video seems to be smooth. I wish I could have known this before my purchase because I might have not bought this notebook.
 
I see more stuttering/issues with Flash on Hulu with Firefox than Safari. When I switched over to using Safari for Hulu, those went away entirely, FWIW.
 
Interesting point. I have been using Firefox. I will have to try that. This seems to be the only forum on the internet talking about this issue right now.
 
zpilot said:
So I tried playing a few 720p/1080p flash videos on Youtube and Hulu in fullscreen mode and the videos seem to stutter quite a bit. Is that normal?

I am using Firefox on my ultimate MBA 11". I thought the 320m gpu could at least handle HD videos... 😕
Click to expand...

use Safari
install latest Adobe FlashPlayer
install ClickToFlash
install YouTube5 extension for Safari

now you will have no problems - stutter free.
low battery usage.
safari rules. 😀

chica bomb!
 
There appears to be a difference in playback between Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. I've had little issues with Safari regarding video playback.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; nl-nl) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

fuzzielitlpanda said:
Appleind said:
I use click to flash and enable it on You Tube only when I wanna play videos. You can may be try that
Click to expand...

you're still stuck with flash video with click to flash, so the videos still stutter.
Click to expand...

Click2Flash also 'converts' YouTube. Just like the YouTube5 extension.
 
This is a Firefo issue, related to automated caching (for recovery after a crash); try lengthening the browser.sessionstore.interval to something like 250000 or 300000 milliseconds. Also consider changing browser.cache.memory.enable to false.

That solution's worked for many, didn't work for me however; a foolproof solution would be to run FF in safe mode, with all downloads disabled, and see if the video stutter returns; if not, then enable an add-on/theme/extention one by one until the stutter returns, so you know what's causing it.

I was too lazy to do that, so I just downloaded FF 4.0 beta. No stuttering since!
 
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