why does Flash video drop so many frames ?

[davexnet]

I've seen it on many occasions, but in Youtube you can right click the video
and select "show info" and you can see a count of dropped frames
(not that you really need the count; it's obvious by the stuttering the frames are dropped)

Some observations - Just moving the mouse around increases the count, but system resources in use seem low.
For example, opening the task manager shows CPU usage at less than 15%.
IT occurs even when the video is fully cached so you can't blame the network speed.

Is Firefox to blame? Is it some how allocating extremely low priority to the Flash thread?

[jagabo]

I'm using Firefox 8. I always see 0 frames dropped. Be sure you have hardware acceleration enabled on the Advanced tab of the Options dialog.

[davexnet]

Perhaps it's related to my older video card (Nvidia 8600GT) .
Here's the typical thing I see. Whether HW acceleration is on or off doesn't affect the dropped frames.
The "show info" display verifies that the particular mode is in effect (video decoding).

I've got a dual boot Vista/XP and it occurs in both systems. I took a look at the CPU power savings
to see if it was involved.

It's an AMD64 x2 CPU and with the AMD driver loaded and "minimal power management" set in the XP
power options (the recommended setting), the CPU throttles down it's speed
(2.2GHZ under load to 1.0 GHZ at rest or light load). I switched it to "always on", so the CPU is at a
constant 2.2GHz, but the problem still occurred.

[jagabo]

One of my comptuers is an AMD Athlon 2 x2 255 system with a Nvidia 8600 GT. I get 0 frames dropped there too.Even with 720p videos. That system is running Firefox 7.0.1, 32bit XP SP3. The system I spoke of earlier was an i5 2500K with the built in Intel graphics, 64 bit Windows 7.

I Occasionally get a few dropped frames when I switch to full screen or back, or if I start up some other program. But that's expected.



When the player is windowed I get software rendering. When it's full screen I get accelerated rendering.

[davexnet]

Thanks for the info jagabo. Likewise, I also get the accelerated rendering when going to full screen,
but by the time that short video played, I had over 100 dropped frames.

If I download the video from youtube and play it in mpc-hc it's faultless. Something about the browser environment...
same thing happens in IE8.

[jagabo]

I just tried IE. I get dropped frames when I right click on the video. The video stops playing for half a second or so, dropping about 20 frames. After selecting Show Video Info I see the dropped frames but don't get any more unless I right click on the video again. Each time I right click there's a pause and another ~20 dropped frames.

[Cauptain]

I'm using Firefox 8. I always see 0 frames dropped. Be sure you have hardware acceleration enabled on the Advanced tab of the Options dialog.

Firefox 8 here too...No dropped frame at 720p.

[davexnet]

I'm willing to accept I may have a problem somewhere - question is, where . When I find out "where",
at least I should be able to find out why.

[jagabo]

Kill everything you can in Task Manager. See if that help. It doesn't matter that CPU usage isn't high. What matters is that the CPU usage is available when it's needed. A high priority task could be stealing a few CPU cycles at critical moments.

[davexnet]

OK - I'll investigate into doing a clean boot in XP. I'll update this post after.

[TSJNachos]

I've had massive laggins from the moment I opened on Youtube for the first time. Actually, I've had lag on so many computers even before Youtube. I believe that it's a flash player problem. Honestly, Adobe doesn't seem to care much about how much their software lags, they're just following a trend of creating software with a simple purpose, and then bloating the hell out of it, causing it to demand far more resources than it ever should.

Nero does the same thing. I remember five or six years ago, I tried burning a simple data cd with Nero, and barely had enough cpu availible to burn the disk and run the task manager at the same time. So, I inevitably got a buffer underrun, at which point I removed it and went back to Sonic Record Now! 7, which used less than 1% of my CPU. Seriously, what have comanies like Nero and Adobe been thinking all these years? That laptop users *like* draining their battery performing simple tasks? There CPU requirements have only continued to rise.

The same thing has been plaguing IE since version 7, even though there are other IE-based programs (such as Avant) that use the same engine as IE 7 or 8 (depending on the version you have installed, and your own personal settings) without nearly as much consumption. And that's why I love open-sourced technologies, such as Firefox, as they seem to care far more than big companies, who assume that we all have $600 or so laying around that we don't really need, and an undying desire to spend it on the perfect computer, just to spend that same amount again at their conveneince.

Anyways (sorry about the rant), I strongly believe it's a flash player issue, since I never get that much lag anywhere else, not even with MadVR with the most demanding settings present. Even with DXVA(2), I don't have nearly as much lag. My advice: avoid flash player as much as possible, or get used to the lag, as it's clearly not getting fixed anytime soon.

[davexnet]

The clean boot didn't affect the problem... I suspect it's HW related since it happens across the multiple OS's
I have installed. Perhaps the onboard Nvidia NIC.

[El Heggunte]

Over here, Flash Player version == 10.3.183.10

The damned plugin reports "dropped frames" even while watching low-res videos,

which of course don't require a blazing-fast CPU nor a power-hungry video card

[davexnet]

I've seen many instances of the problem perusing the 'net, but I haven't found the vital clue that will explain it.
If I let the video fully cache, and play back from the beginning, frames are still dropped just moving the mouse around.
I thought the NIC was to blame, but now it sounds as if it's the browser.

[jagabo]

Flash version 11.0.1.152 here. But I haven't seen streaming problems with Flash videos in years.

[davexnet]

Well I get those dropped frames, even for the low res videos in Youtube. Up to 720 pretty much the same, 1080 a little worse.
Perhaps it comes down to the HW in use within the PC being a factor. For example, I've the onboard Nvidia NIC,
PS/2 mouse & keyboard, etc, etc.

[davexnet]

I uninstalled the AMD cpu driver and the system reverted to the XP default. With this driver the cpu runs @ it's full clock speed the whole
time, no power management. I played the youtube video @ 720 Bruno Mars "it will rain" official video in full screen with only 3
dropped frames. It's better than before. I'll investigate further.

[El Heggunte]

Let's keep in mind that the ACTUAL problem probably is in the stupid Flash Player itself.
And to make things as clear as possible --- when I said

The damned plugin reports "dropped frames"

I forgot to stress that, IN FACT, *no frames were dropped*,

regardless of what the plugin reported.

[davexnet]

It's hard to say - not what I see. I notice a stutter in the playback as the reported dropped frames increase.
It's one piece of software (the Flash Plugin) running inside another (Firefox, the host) . Both sides blame each other.
Who knows where the problem actually is?

[Logaholic]

I just fixed this issue, as i was having it trying to watch video's in 1080p

rather SIMPLE fix.....

clear your browser cache.