Video lag

[EvilCabal]

Hi all,

first of all sorry if this is not the best forum, I searched a while and could not find a better match.

I experience periodic video lag in streamed internet video using flash media player (even when the video is fully downloaded). During those lag I see about 1 frame every 2 seconds and both firefox and IE CPU usage peak to 50% (i.e. they use one full core). I am not out of ram during the lags and no other applications are running. Pausing the video has no effect on the CPU spikes (they end after the same amount of time, video paused or not)

This problem appeared for no reason a while ago. Since then I tried everything I could think of: driver update, flash player update, various codec packs (even though I am pretty sure this has no impact of flash video), different browsers and I even formatted the computer without any improvements... At this point I assume the problem comes from the newer versions of the flash player (it started somewhere along version 9 but is still present in version 10).

My computer is an Acer Aspire 5100 (AMD turion 64 X2 Mobile, 1.6Ghz, ATI Radeon XPress 1100, 1g shared memory)
OS is windows XP SP3 (problem was present is SP2)

This is really annoying and I am out of ideas, any help much appreciated.

 

[kjv1611]

Have you tried shutting off any firewall/antivirus/antispyware apps when viewing the same video(s) just in case?

Also, what sort of videos (not content, but quality)? Are they standard definition, high definition, "web definition" - the really crumby ones?

I know that hi-def playback does cause some issues with some CPUs. And if the newer versions of Adobe Flash are using more resources (and I don't doubt they are), then it might just be that it's finally maxing out your system with that particular type of video..

But if not, try the idea above of shutting down any security apps, one at a time, testing to see if somehow they are restricting the files. I know I've seen this with AVG before.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[EvilCabal]

Thanks for the answer,

I just clean formatted the computer so no firewall, anti-virus/spyware is running (windows firewall is disabled). I did some progress yesterday though. I disabled the EQ of my sound driver and it helped (the lag was less frequent). Also it seemed that disabling flash media player hardware acceleration helped (or maybe solved) the problem, I managed to have 5 minutes of ok video (before the lag appeared after 2 minutes max). Maybe the new player uses some hardware video features that my video card does not support, resulting in software emulation and in lag ? I will see tonight if it's really solved by watching a longer video...

As for the content, it was, from low-def, crappy youtube ones to the most hi-def you can think of, same behavior (maybe the lag is more frequent on hi-def ones, I did not verify this)

Thanks. I'll let you know if it's fixed

 

[wahnula]

I'm thinking one of two things: Graphics driver or codec issues. You should be able to check w/ Gateway for graphics drivers but codecs are a little trickier. I'm not a fan of "codec packs", never had one solve a problem, maybe set a restore point and try the K-lite codec pack.

Also Start=>Run=>msconfig=>Startup and see what's running all the time. Un-checking useless stuff like "Adobe updater" and the like will free up some CPU cycles.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[EvilCabal]

Hey wanula, I already tried the K-lite codec pack and it didn't change a thing, but I thought the flash player had it's own codec, am I wrong ?

 

[wahnula]

True. Try uninstalling it and installing the latest version:

http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[BadBigBen]

Since you downloaded the K-Lite Codec pack, I am assuming that you have MediaPlayer Classic installed aswell... try playing the Flash Video through it...

alternatively you could try either VLC (VideoLan Client) or IrfanView, both will play Flash clips as well...

if you experience any problems with those, then you have an issue elsewhere in the system, other software that interferes or hardware problem...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[EvilCabal]

BigBadBen: I'll try a fifteen minutes video tonight with firefox and then try it with vlc. As for the K-Lite pack I uninstalled it after trying it to keep as little noise as possible while I figure out what the problem is.

wahnula: I aready did try that without success.

Thanks for the help.

 

[EvilCabal]

Sorry BadBigBen I screwed up your name in the last post...

The issue is still present in streamed internet content. The one try I did with VNC worked 7 minutes and the image froze but the sound kept playing... When I tried to move the video forward I lost the image completely.

So, would that be a codec or hardware problem ? Any potential solutions ?

 

[BadBigBen]

EvilCabal - don't fret over the misspelling...

uninstall the current version of Flash player, and install an older version, e.g. version 8 as a test...

PS: can be found here

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14266&sliceId=1

there are multiple releases within those packs!!!

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[cmeagan656]

It could be an issue with not allowing third party cookies. See

http://windowssecrets.com/comp/081120/.

Scroll to the section titled "Flash cookies foil Comcast video playback". While the article relates to Comcast it might also be your issue?

Cheers.

 

[EvilCabal]

Alright, I was offline for the last 24 four hours, I'll try those two new solutions tonight or tomorrow and, once again, I'll let you know.