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Youtube Playback issues in safari

JamesGorman

JamesGorman

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Dec 31, 2008
1,123
1
Winnipeg
When I try to play any youtube videos in safari, weather on youtube or when embedded on other sites, it freezes my whole system for a few seconds, the video sometimes starts playing, but makes everything unusable. When I use firefox youtube works as normal. Anyone else experiencing this or have a solution? The Mac is a late 2011 2.2ghz i7 with 8GB RAM.
 
When I start a video, The 'video' freezes but the audio keeps going. (or vice versa I forget). Ive grown used too it, But I'd love to know if there's a fix.
 
Safari is dire with Flash. Click to Flash is an option as it allows you to determine video conversion properties and converts pretty much all online video to the HTML 5 equivalent.

Joining the YouTube HTML 5 programme didn't work for me for some reason.

If you haven't already, you can install the plugin from the safari preferences bar.
 
GGJstudios said:
Click to expand...

- Flash player is current.

- I don't want to use a flash blocker. Im not having problem with flash on any other site but youtube. Besides, the whole point of going to youtube is to watch flash videos.

-Ive tried, and it still does it.
-
 
I can't reproduce your problem. I'm using the latest Adobe flash in safari, no html5 trial, no other plugins (except for adblock).

Have you tried:
- using another browser (not chrome though, that one has it's own flash)
- fully deleting and reinstalling flash

Are you using gfxcardstatus or something else to control the integrated/dedicated GPU switching? You could try to force the mac to always use the dedicated GPU (system prefs -> energy saver -> uncheck "automatic graphics switching").

Did you check your flash settings? Do you allow sites to save information on your computer? Some videos don't work properly if you don't.



---
By the way, my video playback is fine... no excessive CPU usage, no abnormal heating, and it stays on the integrated GPU for all videos I tried. It performs much better than Chrome flash for some more demanding sites. Initially I bought into the flash bashing - now I think it's mostly an overreaction.
Html5 is a bit more battery friendly, and should be the future for most applications and sites, but flash is ok!
 
thundersteele said:
I can't reproduce your problem. I'm using the latest Adobe flash in safari, no html5 trial, no other plugins (except for adblock).

Have you tried:
- using another browser (not chrome though, that one has it's own flash)
- fully deleting and reinstalling flash

Are you using gfxcardstatus or something else to control the integrated/dedicated GPU switching? You could try to force the mac to always use the dedicated GPU (system prefs -> energy saver -> uncheck "automatic graphics switching").

Did you check your flash settings? Do you allow sites to save information on your computer? Some videos don't work properly if you don't.



---
By the way, my video playback is fine... no excessive CPU usage, no abnormal heating, and it stays on the integrated GPU for all videos I tried. It performs much better than Chrome flash for some more demanding sites. Initially I bought into the flash bashing - now I think it's mostly an overreaction.
Html5 is a bit more battery friendly, and should be the future for most applications and sites, but flash is ok!
Click to expand...



- It works flawlessly in firefox, But I shouldn't have to use a different browser. I prefer to use safari all of the time.

- I also do us GFX status, and it seems to do it on both cards the same amount.

- And yes, I have tried uninstalling completely and reinstalling.

----------
thundersteele said:
I can't reproduce your problem. I'm using the latest Adobe flash in safari, no html5 trial, no other plugins (except for adblock).

Have you tried:
- using another browser (not chrome though, that one has it's own flash)
- fully deleting and reinstalling flash

Are you using gfxcardstatus or something else to control the integrated/dedicated GPU switching? You could try to force the mac to always use the dedicated GPU (system prefs -> energy saver -> uncheck "automatic graphics switching").

Did you check your flash settings? Do you allow sites to save information on your computer? Some videos don't work properly if you don't.



---
By the way, my video playback is fine... no excessive CPU usage, no abnormal heating, and it stays on the integrated GPU for all videos I tried. It performs much better than Chrome flash for some more demanding sites. Initially I bought into the flash bashing - now I think it's mostly an overreaction.
Html5 is a bit more battery friendly, and should be the future for most applications and sites, but flash is ok!
Click to expand...

I think I'm going to uninstall safari, and reinstall it and see what happens.
 
This problem has been so bad that when i want to watch youtube, I either fire up Chrome or grab my phone.
 
I've recently had Youtube become next to useless in Safari.
Not really sure what's changed, but it's just been in the last couple of weeks that I've noticed it.
Have always used HTML5 as didn't have flash installed at all for a good while.

Was happy enough to just move to Chrome but wasn't really sure what caused it. Haven't been paying much attention to any recent software updates, has there been any?
 
Ive been thinking of taking it to the apple store. But I feel like I'm nitpicking lol. My last two macs have had no issues playing youtube (13" Alu MacBook, 15" Mid 2010) so I don't know why this new one has been having issues. I tried reinstalling safari but it didn't help either.
 
@EmlynDewar

try disabling the html5 trial. In some cases this caused problems.


@James

I would have it checked. An option might also be to reinstall the whole system... but that's also quite inconvenient.
 
Go to Youtube and disable the HTML5 trial as others have mentioned, then install this extension that forces Youtube to use HTML5 videos not just on the main Youtube site but also on embedded videos on other sites. For some reason this works better than the Youtube HTML5 trial.
 
I used to have this issue but when I installed iboostup (no.1 free app on the mac app store) and it cleaned my caches the problem was gone.
 
YOUTUBE VIDEO PROBLEM SOLVED!!



For some reason only a select number of people have this problem. Including me. SO I right clicked on the YouTUbe video, but found NO FLASH options. Instead, something different, including the problem.



Go ahead and right click on your youtube videos that wont play. If you see a menu with the bottom one saying ABOUT HTML5, click on it, and go down to the bottom, and OPT OUT Of HTML5.



Your you tube videos will now work., as did mine.



Obviously, Apple is trying to get everyone out of flash and into html5, but guess what Apple? Try to make your html5 WORK FIRST before you do it. instead we all got spinning you tube players that never started.
 
Fireplug said:
Go ahead and right click on your youtube videos that wont play. If you see a menu with the bottom one saying ABOUT HTML5, click on it, and go down to the bottom, and OPT OUT Of HTML5.
Click to expand...
I guess you missed the 4 other times this was recommended in this thread, including the 2nd post.
 
I'm by no means an expert, but from my experience every single haywire problem I've experienced with my mac while working online involved Safari + Youtube at the same time, especially since YT has been making so many changes as of recent. I know the OP said they prefer to use Safari most of the time, I used to be of the same mindset. But after experiencing enough frustrating hair-pulling problems, I switched to using Chrome most of the time and have yet to experience any of the problems I used to with Safari. So if none of the other above suggestions help, you might just want to try switching & getting used to another browser. Just my opinion.
 
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