YouTube on an iBook G4

[feck111]

Hi,

I recently acquired an iBook G4 that seems to handle almost everything I throw at it very well. Web browsing and DVDs and even some older games zip by at a very nice speed.

There's one big deal though, YouTube is almost unwatchable on it. For a 5 year old computer this shouldn't happen - YouTube came out in '05 after all. Videos are very jerky and it's quite annoying! I am running Flash 9 and Safari 3 as well as Tiger. The machine clocks in at 1.33Ghz with 1GB of RAM.

Can anyone advise me on how to make them more watchable?

 

[AppleCode]

Hi,

I recently acquired an iBook G4 that seems to handle almost everything I throw at it very well. Web browsing and DVDs and even some older games zip by at a very nice speed.

There's one big deal though, YouTube is almost unwatchable on it. For a 5 year old computer this shouldn't happen - YouTube came out in '05 after all. Videos are very jerky and it's quite annoying! I am running Flash 9 and Safari 3 as well as Tiger. The machine clocks in at 1.33Ghz with 1GB of RAM.

Can anyone advise me on how to make them more watchable?

Try a different browser perhaps Camino or Firefox

 

[mrsir2009]

Try a different browser perhaps Camino or Firefox

Camino for older Macs, it runs much better than anything else

 

[FourCandles]

I have the same iBook that I keep for web browsing and email etc. and to be honest it runs youTube pretty well. I'm running 10.5 Leopard and Safari 5.

If you upgrade Safari to 4 (maximum for Tiger) You could try running YouTube with HTML5 rather than Flash and see if that's any better - http://www.youtube.com/html5

 

[kwood72]

A third rec for Camino.

It does a nice job on my 5-year-old iBook using Tiger.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

For a 5 year old computer this shouldn't happen - YouTube came out in '05 after all.

Think about this statement. YouTube isn't a static application, it's a dynamic webpage. It's been updated hundreds of times since it came out, and I doubt anything (software-wise) in it is still 5 years old.

That's like saying a MacBook Pro should be able to run System 7. System 7 came out for Mac after all.

Besides, YouTube wasn't smooth on Macs when it first came out. That being said, I'd use a combination of Safari 5 with HTML5 enabled for YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/html5) and also disabling hardware acceleration (ctrl-click on any loaded flash object, settings, disable hardware acceleration). Oddly enough, disabling hardware accel. is quite effective at speeding up Flash on PPC Macs.

EDIT: Just realized you've got Tiger and so Safari 5 isn't an option. HTML5 doesn't work very well in Safari 4, so I would follow the recommendations for Camino. I'd still disable hardware acceleration and see if it helps.

 

[Davy.Shalom]

Two options...use the youtube mobile site, it might run a bit faster.

Or use camino.

 

[mrsir2009]

I have the same iBook that I keep for web browsing and email etc. and to be honest it runs youTube pretty well. I'm running 10.5 Leopard and Safari 5.

If you upgrade Safari to 4 (maximum for Tiger) You could try running YouTube with HTML5 rather than Flash and see if that's any better - http://www.youtube.com/html5

Was about to suggest that But you should use Camino instead of Safari.

 

[FourCandles]

Was about to suggest that But you should use Camino instead of Safari.

Have you got YT HTML5 running on Camino?

 

[MacinDan]

This has been mentioned in earlier threads, but try MacTubes. Or, append "&fmt=5" (without quotes) at the end of the youtube video's url.

 

[mrsir2009]

Have you got YT HTML5 running on Camino?

I have on a semi modern Mac. So it would have a good chance at working on an iBook too

 

[ThunderSnake]

Oddly enough, disabling hardware accel. is quite effective at speeding up Flash on PPC Macs.

I have no doubt that this is true for a lot of people. I've seen many folks report it and I believe them. However on several G4 towers (ranging from a Radeon 7000 to a Radeon 9800 Pro), it appears that hardware acceleration works correctly. It greatly reduces the burden on my CPU (presumably shifting that burden to the GPU) while improving video quality. When I switch to fullscreen mode, it appears to shift that burden even further from the CPU (At least to the extent that system monitor is accurate at reporting such things).

I wonder why this is true for some but not for others even when hardware and software configurations are similar???

OP, it's worth trying and has worked for a lot of folks, but I sure would love to know why.

 

[feck111]

Camino for older Macs, it runs much better than anything else

Thanks for that, everyone, Camino with HTML 5 has greatly improved the viewing performance! Also disabled hardware acceleration.

And just for the sake of it, I'll give this MacTubes a shot as well.

Think about this statement. YouTube isn't a static application, it's a dynamic webpage. It's been updated hundreds of times since it came out, and I doubt anything (software-wise) in it is still 5 years old.

My mistake, guess I made the wrong sort of observation. Cut off once again...

That's like saying a MacBook Pro should be able to run System 7. System 7 came out for Mac after all.

Ah, but don't forget emulation, lol

 

[mrsir2009]

That's like saying a MacBook Pro should be able to run System 7. System 7 came out for Mac after all.

That would be SO cool if it could!