More video weirdness

[scott]

Now that I have my iBook G4 (coal-fired), I can watch all these Youtube videos online, but they're very jumpy. I figured the computer just couldn't play them smoothly.  But I just now got the new RealPlayer with the Downloader, and if I download and view the videos, they run smoothly. Anybody know if I can coax the online versions into being that smooth so I don't have to download everything?

[scott]

Also--it seems like the videos play smoother in VLC than in RealPlayer.

[CaptOblivious]

My first guess is that it's a bandwidth issue. Does the jumpiness change depending on what network you're on? Do you have a good network at work that you could borrow for testing?

 

Let me also add that I've found Safari to be a total bear about certain sites. Are you using Safari? Have you tried Chrome or Firefox?

[ToniBabelony]

I'm also using an old G4 and I have the same problems. It's just the processor that's kinda slow. On this mac I use the latest Firefox and I have a 20MBit internet connection, so that shouldn't be a problem. It's just a slow processor. That's why I'm getting a triple- or quadcore PC after I go to Japan.

[scott]

My first guess is that it's a bandwidth issue. Does the jumpiness change depending on what network you're on? Do you have a good network at work that you could borrow for testing?

 

I could try taking the iBook to work; that would be a much faster connection.

 

Let me also add that I've found Safari to be a total bear about certain sites. Are you using Safari? Have you tried Chrome or Firefox?

 

I've been using Firefox all along. I tried to stick with Safari, but that didn't last long.

 

It's just really striking how much smoother the downloaded versions are than the on-the-web versions.

[Martijn Meerts]

The online versions are Flash video files. Adobe sucks at coding good Mac software these days (Lightroom excluded, but that's still more Macromedia than Adobe), so the Mac Flash player is really crappy. Even on modern machines it uses up too many resources for what it does.

 

Realplayer is also not the best, VLC on the other hand is a great player.

 

On a side not, it doesn't matter which browser you use, the Mac Flash player sucks equally much on all of them =)

[scott]

FWIW, I just copied over an application called MPEG Streamclip from our other computer, and it handles higher-resolution videos that VLC hard a hard time with (jumpy playback, hanging up, etc.).

[cteno4]

scott,

 

what os are you running on the ibook?

 

what format is the realplayer downloader saving the video files in?

 

g4 unfortunately is a bit underpowered for heavier video work, but my 17" g4 powerbook does youtube fine and also mpegs of many flavors fine with 10.5

 

cheers

 

jeff

[scott]

It's running 10.4.11, and the files are flash videos (.flv).

 

Youtube online is pretty bad, but things run much better downloaded. Just means I have to be a bit more picky.