Do Hulu videos play 100% smooth for you guys? (full screen)

Clair de Lune

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Sep 24, 2008
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On my two computers- P4 2.6ghz, GS7600 & Dualcore 2.8ghz, GT8600, the video doesn't play all that smooth and is bit choppy.

I'm in the middle of watching House on my crappy Pentium M 1.6ghz, 512ram and it plays absolutely smooth like watching TV.

What the hell? Is it because the laptop is on 1024 resolution instead of much higher like others?
 

aceO07

Diamond Member
Nov 6, 2000
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Check to see how much cpu it's using when maximized. Flash likes to use a lot.
 

Crusty

Lifer
Sep 30, 2001
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If your CPU can't render frames fast enough then it's not going to be a smooth playback....
 

Duddy

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2002
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I have a 5mbps connection and a very powerful PC, yet even under those optimal conditions, I have NEVER watched a video on Hulu without it stopping to buffer every 15 seconds.

In fact, that only things that play perfectly on that site for me are the commercials.
 

Clair de Lune

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Sep 24, 2008
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Originally posted by: Crusty
If your CPU can't render frames fast enough then it's not going to be a smooth playback....

wtf.. u guys reading my op fully? On my powerful PC it plays choppy. Yet I just noticed hulu plays near-PERFECT, TV-like on my crappy 5 yr old laptop.

I'm wondering wtf is going on. Same OS.
 

Clair de Lune

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Sep 24, 2008
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Originally posted by: Duddy
I have a 5mbps connection and a very powerful PC, yet even under those optimal conditions, I have NEVER watched a video on Hulu without it stopping to buffer every 15 seconds.

In fact, that only things that play perfectly on that site for me are the commercials.

im not talking about bandwidth lag. I'm talking about actual framerate.
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
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P4 2.6 GHz is not powerful.

In fact, a Pentium M 1.6 GHz is likely comparable or better performance for some things...
 

Clair de Lune

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Sep 24, 2008
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Originally posted by: n7
P4 2.6 GHz is not powerful.

In fact, a Pentium M 1.6 GHz is likely comparable or better performance for some things...

Explain my dualcore being choppy as well then? This is strange.
 

Crusty

Lifer
Sep 30, 2001
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Originally posted by: Clair de Lune
Originally posted by: Crusty
If your CPU can't render frames fast enough then it's not going to be a smooth playback....

wtf.. u guys reading my op fully? On my powerful PC it plays choppy. Yet I just noticed hulu plays near-PERFECT, TV-like on my crappy 5 yr old laptop.

I'm wondering wtf is going on. Same OS.

Of course I read your OP. You stated that you can't watch a Hulu video in full screen without it skipping frames. We gave you a reason WHY your computer might be skipping frames. Don't be defensive when someone brings something up you might not understand or didn't think about, it's childish.

Just because your CPU is faster doesn't mean it's going to be better at rendering a flash video. What if your other computers are offloading some of the rendering to a GFX chip? Or perhaps you're running other video applications off screen?

Have you updated your drivers?
 

postmortemIA

Diamond Member
Jul 11, 2006
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doesn't work well in full screen on my 3 dual core computers:
E6700 (2.67 Core 2 Duo)
E2200
T2400 (1.83 Core Duo)

frame rate drops bellow 20fps, bandwidth is not an issue (8mbps) and it works good on non-full screen mode that uses exact same bandwidth.
in fact doesn't work well on NBC full episodes either.

CPU usage? steady 50%, or exactly one core. So much about adobe's hw acceleration and state-of-the-art codecs that use single core.
 

Canai

Diamond Member
Oct 4, 2006
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mine's choppy when fullscreen'd. Pretty much made me stop using hulu actually. Bandwidth and PC power are non-issues, latest drivers / flash. Seems to skip every third frame or something like that. Audio comes though fine.
 

Clair de Lune

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Sep 24, 2008
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Originally posted by: Canai
mine's choppy when fullscreen'd. Pretty much made me stop using hulu actually. Bandwidth and PC power are non-issues, latest drivers / flash. Seems to skip every third frame or something like that. Audio comes though fine.

Yup, for me too.

This makes it typical of hulu, which is fine. However, it plays FLAWLESSLY on my crappy laptop.

The only reason why I can think of is because this laptop is running 1024 x 768 resolution (really old), thus it can be rendered much better. It runs like a TV! 100% smooth....

Obviously other faster PCs are running at 1650 resolution and HDTV resolution...
 

Megatomic

Lifer
Nov 9, 2000
20,127
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Hulu plays smooth as silk on my macbook in windowed mode as well as full screen mode. Nothing special about this system.
 

TehMac

Diamond Member
Aug 18, 2006
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I have noticed hulu going choppy and having to buffer every once and while, but I figured it was my shitty internet connection.
 

flashbacck

Golden Member
Aug 3, 2001
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I've noticed tearing in full screen. I've just been blaming flash. I mean, it's not like the resolution of the video or video quality changes from going windowed to full screen.
 

rodrigu3

Member
May 14, 2007
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Hey everyone, so I've been having the same problems and noticed a solution that was a bit counterintuitive - disable hardware acceleration and it will play as smooth as a baby's butt in full screen.

I noticed that when the window was expanded to maximum it would play fine, but in full screen (just remove the window) it would chop up. Disable hardware acceleration --> fixed. Hope this helps.

On a side note, Adobe has been crap lately with their programs. I wish someone would come up with a flash alternative similar to PDF-Xchange and force Adobe to compete a little more.
 

LS8

Golden Member
Jul 24, 2008
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Everything plays fine for me (Opteron 185 @ 3.0GHz + X1950XTX 512MB + 10 mbps. broadband).

I have a second monitor which is pretty much exclusively for Hulu or other video media.
 

Fox5

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2005
5,957
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I find that the resolution of your monitor makes a big difference with full screen flash video performance. Shouldn't matter for non-full-screen, but flash's video scaling is very video intensive (for still rather poor quality) for some reason.

I find even slower core 2 duo's can't handle hulu at higher resolutions.