Choppy video on youtube and other sites.(solved)

[john030655]

I'm having problems with viewing videos on youtube and other sites.
The video's on youtube are choppy or jerky. I have let them fully load, but no difference.
On youtube they are reasonable on 240 setting, but then the quality is poor, on 360 or 480 (I don't have HD) they are very choppy.
This is using Opera or Firefox4 browsers.

My system is Acer SA60 with Celeron 2.8ghz processor.
2gb ram
Nvidia fx5900turbo card with 256mb memory (clock speed 410mhz, memory 800mhz) (This card is by Alberton and the same as the nvidia fx5900ultra, but with bigger heatsink and 3 fans)
(Using coolbits I have clocked up to 450mhz and 875 mhz, but this has not helped with viewing online videos)
I am using nvidia cuda 173, nvdock plus the x11 nvidia 173.
Internet is dsl at 2mb's

If I download any of these videos and then play them with VLC they are perfect.
I can only add, that under windows xp I don't have this problem.
So, I don't know if I have a graphics card problem, or software or internet settings problem.

Can anyone help?

[rubentje1991]

What version of flash do you have.... (if you're completely up to date, you should have flash-10.3.181.something I think)?

[T6]

check on flash settings while watching a video the first tab, uncheck hardware acceleration

also, what video driver are you using with that nvidia?

btw, flash is horrible in linux, we want it to go away as soon as possible, it eats cpu alive just to play a simple low resolution 10 mbs video...

remember that you can download the video and play it locally and forget about flash, many options to do this

[exploder]

Try turning off hardware acceleration in Firefox itself and see if that fixes the problem. With your hardware specs you should not have this kind of problem.

[MtnMan]

I'm having problems with viewing videos on youtube and other sites.
The video's on youtube are choppy or jerky. I have let them fully load, but no difference.
On youtube they are reasonable on 240 setting, but then the quality is poor, on 360 or 480 (I don't have HD) they are very choppy.
This is using Opera or Firefox4 browsers.

My system is Acer SA60 with Celeron 2.8ghz processor.
2gb ram
Nvidia fx5900turbo card with 256mb memory (clock speed 410mhz, memory 800mhz) (This card is by Alberton and the same as the nvidia fx5900ultra, but with bigger heatsink and 3 fans)

If I download any of these videos and then play them with VLC they are perfect.
I can only add, that under windows xp I don't have this problem.
So, I don't know if I have a graphics card problem, or software or internet settings problem.

Can anyone help?

I have a computer with the same processor (and you don't want to hear this but) streaming flash is no good under Linux.  With a 8xxx series Nvidia card you can use stage video and the card can play the video but you may not want to spend money on a card for an obsolete processor.  Unless you have one laying around....  Like you I find XP will play it fine because there the video driver is actually being used.  VLC is really the best option for good quality.

>we want it to go away as soon as possible,

furshur

[john030655]

Thank you to everyone for the advise.
I am fully updated and this includes the latest flash plugin.
I have disabled hardware acceleration in Firefox and on the on screen players.
While it has improved slightly, it's still not as good as downloading and playing in VLC.

[T6]

true

the funny part is that flash 10.3 is better than anything else i had used on linux before...

[OMSkates]

Have you tested in other browsers?  I've had similar problems recently in Firefox but it does not duplicate when viewing flash in the Chromium browser.  Chromium flash video is smooth for me even full-screened but not so when played on FF4.

[john030655]

Yes I have just tried Chrome.
That is absolutely rubbish.
Music plays okay, but the frame rate is like one per minute!!
I have also tried Konqueror and that totally freezes.
By the way, I am viewing one particular video in all tests, for comparison.

[menotu]

Have you been into the Flash control panel? which you should fine located in:

Configure Your Desktop  (mine is just above the Common Appearance & Behaviour entry

Mebbe have a look at the Playback tab.

Is it only video, or do the web sites load slowly as well? as you could try disabling ipv6 within Firefox

[T6]

if the video is youtube in different resolutions he server loads different videos

flv and mp4 h.264 aac in multiple resolutions

the browser has to convert the file so it can be draw on the web browser but in linux flash basically uses only the cpu in a very poor way, the video card when hardware acceleration is on should help but as you saw it just makes things worse

[john030655]

@menotu

I cannot find anything to do with the flash control panel.
Does this mean I'm missing some software / drivers?

[menotu]

@menotu

I cannot find anything to do with the flash control panel.
Does this mean I'm missing some software / drivers?

Okay dokey - try installing kde4-flash-player-plugin-config using Synaptic, restart your desktop and have another looksee.......

Mine looks like (may need to click to view)

[john030655]

Okay, I have searched Synaptic for kde4-flash-player-plugin-config and it isn't there.
I have tried reloading with different repros (one at a time) but no luck.
So I guess it is no longer available?

[menotu]

Okay, I have searched Synaptic for kde4-flash-player-plugin-config and it isn't there.
I have tried reloading with different repros (one at a time) but no luck.
So I guess it is no longer available?

Aaah - mebbe it's still in the testing section (just checked and it is)

To see it will mean adding it so your section(s) line looks like

main updates nonfree kde4 games testing

Note - if you are uncomfortable installing apps which are still being tested I would think carefully before installing as no support is offered via the forum.

It may not even cure your speed problem - it was more to whittle out a possible reason why you are having the choppy playback.

If you wanted to try Konqueror again switch it over from khtml to webkit    (done from the Settings > Configure Konqueror > General - Default Web Browser Engine and select the Drop-down option)

Another thing to try in Firefox would be start without any Add-ons enabled (Firefox > Help > Restart With Add-ons Disabled) and add your add-ons back one at a time etc