Problem with Flash hardware acceleration

[Skinjob]

I just got a Zotac ZBOX AD02 (AMD E-350 APU w/ Radeon HD6310) and in general it's working great. However, I have a problem with Flash video on HBO GO. For the first minute or so of steaming video, everything seems perfect. Video is high quality and smooth, CPU is around 50%. Then after a minute or two there will always be some visible video glitch and CPU utilization will jump up to 90-100% and playback becomes extremely choppy. So I'm guessing Flash hardware acceleration is working initially, then something happens that kills the hardware acceleration, and of course the CPU is not up the task by itself.

The really strange thing is that it seems to be specific to HBO GO. I can stream HD all day long from Youtube (at least when Youtube is able to dish it out fast enough). And it's definitely not a bandwidth problem. I have Comcast cable, and a bigger computer I have hooked up to another TV has no problem with HBO GO.

I've got the latest drivers from AMD and the latest Flash player (even tried the 11 beta) and have tried all the main browsers, but it's always the same: 1-2 minutes of perfect playback and moderate CPU utilization, then jacked up CPU and choppy playback.

Is anyone else out there having this problem with HBO GO or any other Flash video sites? Any thoughts what else I could do to track down the root cause?

 

[Chiefcrowe]

I don't have hbogo but have you tried on another computer outside of your home network? that could help figure it out...

also, have not been having any issues with flash sites myself recently.

 

[Slugbait]

I have a similar issue with Hulu in full-screen mode...I'm using an X2 4200+ on the living room machine, and have to disable Flash hardware acceleration.

On the other hand, my HT machine is rocking a C2D/EE, and that proc handles full-screen hardware acceleration with room to spare.

I think your E-350 is doing its best.

 

[Skinjob]

I don't have hbogo but have you tried on another computer outside of your home network? that could help figure it out...

also, have not been having any issues with flash sites myself recently.

Yeah, it works fine both on other computers in my network and on a friend's computer at their house.

I have a similar issue with Hulu in full-screen mode...I'm using an X2 4200+ on the living room machine, and have to disable Flash hardware acceleration.

On the other hand, my HT machine is rocking a C2D/EE, and that proc handles full-screen hardware acceleration with room to spare.

I think your E-350 is doing its best.

Well, we know the E-350's best isn't good enough without HW acceleration. It's just so weird that it will work perfectly for a couple minutes. You would think if the Zotac just wasn't capable of Flash HW acceleration or if HBO GO just didn't support it, then the video playback should be choppy from the first frame.

Very frustrating that the little ZBOX can handle pretty much any other HD playback just fine. I assume it's something to do with either how HBO's media is encoded or how they use the Flash APIs, but can't figure out any way to narrow it down.

Does anyone know if there are any Flash tools to help debug HW acceleration problems? The player just doesn't give you any info to work with.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've noticed with 1080P YouTube, that if I go to the page, click full-screen, and THEN click 1080P, it plays fine on my E-350 rig. But if I click 1080P, and THEN click full-screen, sometimes it's choppy and the CPU is maxed out.

So something about flash video doesn't always get the hardware acceleration going, when starting and stopping and re-starting the stream.

Something tells me that this is related to your issue with HBO's streaming, the stream stops, and re-starts, and then you lose the hardware acceleration.

I've noticed that sometimes I lose hardware acceleration, when clicking back and forth between full-screen and embedded/windowed on YouTube too.

 

[Skinjob]

I've noticed with 1080P YouTube, that if I go to the page, click full-screen, and THEN click 1080P, it plays fine on my E-350 rig. But if I click 1080P, and THEN click full-screen, sometimes it's choppy and the CPU is maxed out.

So something about flash video doesn't always get the hardware acceleration going, when starting and stopping and re-starting the stream.

Something tells me that this is related to your issue with HBO's streaming, the stream stops, and re-starts, and then you lose the hardware acceleration.

I've noticed that sometimes I lose hardware acceleration, when clicking back and forth between full-screen and embedded/windowed on YouTube too.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought. I'm guessing there's really nothing I can do about it. Hopefully HBO or Adobe will eventually fix it. Unfortunately, with so many vendors involved (Comcast, HBO, Adobe, AMD) it's pretty much impossible to reach someone who could actually do something about it.

 

[DirkGently1]

Have you tried different versions of your display driver to see if that changes anything?

 

[Skinjob]

Have you tried different versions of your display driver to see if that changes anything?

I've tried the two most recent versions. I haven't tried to find prior versions.

Also, as mentioned, I've tried the latest Flash 10 and the new 11 beta.