Flash player stutters for 1 second then continues normally

Report · Dec 08, 2013

Hi all,

Problem is very weird. I have Mozilla Firefox, IE, latest flash (11.9), Win 8.1 All latest updates. Online video playback with flash player stutters in a very weird way - even if video is fully downloaded it stutters for a second irregulary and then continues normally as if nothing happen. This stutter is similar like someone just opened something on a slow hdd and thus makes the flash playback stutter for just a second (even though i have an ssd that is very fast; rest of computers is i7, r9 280x, so a fast and modern computer). This happens in irregular intervals on both browsers. Video is watchable but this is very annoying. I tried reinstalling just about everything except the OS itself. I disabled hardware acceleration and set cash to unlimited in flash settings, still nothing. This happens with youtube as well as all other flash video in both browsers. Ofcourse other video playback is fine (.avi, .mp4 etc). It can happen 5 times in 5 minutes, and than nothing for half an hour and then starts again.

Anyone else had a similar problem?

Report · Mar 27, 2014

Yep, it's painful. I forgot myself the other day and was watching some football on the BBC site and was almost euphoric when I was watching great, fluid video action. I thought there was a breakthrough. Until I then realised I was in Internet Explorer which I forgot that I installed 11.5 on due to my frustrations.

Moved over to Firefox where I have the latest version installed to watch the same action and it was choppy and pretty uncomfortable to watch.

I don't understand Adobe's silence and lack of action. We have raised a bugbase with plenty of comments and posts. This thread is large. I have referenced other threads in this same thread with similar complaints. Plenty of evidence pointing to version 11.6 and beyond creating the issues. Yet we hear nothing and see no action. I realise updates happen but I am pretty averse to them due to the amount of times they break things and create new bugs. Flash is a perfect example of this.

Report · Mar 31, 2014

Adobe, what on earth is wrong with you guys? This is extremely poor. Regress the code. If by chance you get it right, don't then diddle with it by doing pointless updates.

The sooner the majority of web video gets onto HTML5 so we can get away from Flash the better.

Report · Aug 15, 2014

The latest updated flash 14.0.0.176 for IE9 appeared to have fixed the stutter problem. I just updated and tried it - running smooth as silk. Thanks Adobe for finally fixing it.

Report · Aug 15, 2014

You mean the flash player version 14.0.0.179?

I hope it will works for Firefox.

I'm gonna try tomorrow!

Report · Aug 15, 2014

Don't know about FF. IE9 works great now though - had stuttering issues for many months before this update. Yes do the update (I wasn't expecting much after the update but got a pleasant surprise tho) so Adobe must have working on it. If FF doesn't work on this update then give them time as apparently their programmers are working on it.

Report · Aug 16, 2014

hi,

I tried the new version of flash player and I got stuttering problems with this video for example : Battlefield 4 - Sniper Barret.50 Gameplay Multijoueurs - Petit Carnage [FR] - YouTube

Adobe please fix that for firefox. It would be great.

Report · Jan 10, 2014

Well I did try but it seems your bug reporting data base is out for coffee. Received "We're sorry but we weren't able to process this request due to an unforeseen error." , so I guess my vote, and/or feedback for fixing the playback problem is not wanted.

Report · Mar 31, 2014

I can verify that there's something wrong with the multithreading in Flash Player with certain CPU's. It's even happening on my PC with an i5-4440 watching Youtube in Firefox. If Flash is using all four cores, and I'm watching a Youtube video, at some point it will freeze for a second and drop around 30 frames. When I set the affinity for Flash to use only one core, the video plays smoothly with no hiccups in framerate.

Report · Apr 08, 2014

Version 13 out today - And it's still doing it!!! Very frustrating

Report · Apr 13, 2014

Version 13 causes the freeze frame bug several times a minute in Waterfox, the worst it has been thus far. It has also started happening on my Core i5 machine. Although less frequent, it didn't use to happen at all, so each version is making it a step worse.

Also, I haven't been able to view the bugbase article since last week. I'm still getting emails saying there are updates, but when I click to view I get "The information requested is not found." and if I search for the bug (3692645), I popup after popup internal server errors like this:

"Error invoking URL index.cfm?event=qStatuses&statecd=null : Internal Server Error [Enable debugging by adding 'cfdebug' to your URL parameters to see more information]"

" Error invoking URL index.cfm?event=qFrequency : Internal Server Error [Enable debugging by adding 'cfdebug' to your URL parameters to see more information]"

etc.

I've pretty much given up on Flash Player and I've had to fall back to using Google Chrome for all sites that use Flash. At this point, it seems more likely that Flash will become onsolete and replaced by something else inistead of being fixed.

Report · Apr 13, 2014

The Flash's stuttering has continued in Windows 8.1 (Flash version 13.0.0.182). I've become a full-time user of the Chrome browser as a result of the Flash stuttering with IE11 and Firefox.

Report · Apr 14, 2014

It's pretty dismal that Adobe is showing no interest in this. The bugbase and this thread are sizeable (I know I do alot of posts) and I have seen the problem on many machines. I am sure there is a far, far greater number of users affected but many people are not bothered or unaware of how to complain. The average user doesn't really frequent forums. Plus many people now use Netflix, youtube or whatever on their smartphones or smart TVs so the browser issue we are battling with doesn't become as apparent on a wider scope.

I truly hope Flash becomes obsolete if this is what is going to happen. Many, many versions since 11.5 have been released and all to varying degrees of stuttering but the problem persists all the time. It's like playing russian roulette as to whether to install a new version these days!

Report · Apr 14, 2014

I am now getting the same error as Funky Brewster trying to access the Bugbase code. Sheesh, can you guys at Adobe get nothing right? They have update the bug asking for more dxdiags to be posted but when I tried to upload I got that same error and haven't been able to get into the bugbase since!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe a mod can actually step in and here and help out - I am sure you have seen this thread and have read it, just choosing to stay out quiet tho!

Report · Apr 14, 2014

Thanks your reporting on this bug.

We keep eyes on this bug, and tried to reproduce this issue on below devices with latest Flash Player 13.0.0.182, but it still cannot be reproduced:

Win8.1, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4750, IE and Firefox

Win7, Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4440, IE and Firefox

We are trying to gather more devices information, and isolate the root cause for this issue.

So anyone who encounter this issue, could I ask your help to upload your DxDiag information to this bug (https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3692645)? Now 5 devices information has been uploaded. If more devices information could be provided, that would be very helpful.

How to get DxDiag information: Start-> in Search dialog, please input DxDiag and click "Enter", and then upload DxDiag.txt to this bug.

Thanks your support on Adobe Flash Player.

Report · Apr 15, 2014

Hi Ting

The bugbase is proving quite unreliable. Many times a few of us click the link and it comes up 'information not requested'. On rare occasions it works but this obviously hampers peoples abilities to add to it

Thanks

Wayne

Report · Apr 16, 2014

Hi Wayne,

I filed this bug https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3743780 for the bugbase issue.

Thanks,

Ting

Report · Apr 16, 2014

Thanks Ting

Sent from my iPhone

Report · Apr 15, 2014

"

We keep eyes on this bug, and tried to reproduce this issue on below devices with latest Flash Player 13.0.0.182, but it still cannot be reproduced:

Win8.1, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4750, IE and Firefox

Win7, Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4440, IE and Firefox

"

Well, the periodic freeze frame bug happens quite regularly on my system with an i5-4440 CPU and Intel integrated graphics using Windows 8.1.

The user in this thread describes the same issue: http://forums.adobe.com/message/6259265#6259265

It is temporarily fixed by setting Flash's affinity to one core, so it must have something to do with multithreading. It also seems to be the result of a change after version 11.5.

It's weird that Adobe can't reproduce the issue when so many other people have it.

Report · Apr 16, 2014

If i'm not wrong, most users reporting this issue are using Intel integrated graphic cards along with an Nvidia or AMD dedicated card.

If you can not reproduce the issue, can you give us a link to the flash video/animation you are using so we can actually test ourselves if the test you are running triggers the issue or not ? I think that starting with a common flash source to track that bug would be a start to nail that bug once and for all, This bug has been there since Windows 8.1 on my side, wasn't there before, but Windows 8.1 has been there for a while now, and still no improvement whatsoever. Is there any way for us to help you Adobe by generating a developer log on flash so you can actually see what happens on our faulty config ?

Report · Apr 16, 2014

As per these replies in this thread, we usually randomly picked up some videos on Youtube.

“Difficult to specify a URL as it seems to occur on virtually all flash videos. Especially noticeable watching sports.”

“As for a URL, this problem occurs with all Flash video I've tried, including Youtube and Hulu any Flash video on either of thsoe sites would qualify.”

I tried the following one on Windows 7 + Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3427U (4 CPUs).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLWsK1ZFunA

I am asking other coworkers and see if they remember the video links that they tried play with.

Report · Apr 16, 2014

I have to admit that i switched to Chrome and to an older (proven working) version of flash to avoid that bug.
I reinstalled latest version of flash and launched firefox, tested your youtube link, tested another longer video link, and i didn't have any stutter of any kind.

I did test in 720p resolution since my laptop screen don't go further anyway.

Firefox 27.0.1

Latest Flash

Windows 8.1 update 1

The issue "seems" gone at least on youtube, i need further testing to check other sources.

For those who want to try youtube on a relatively long video,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i1v7HV-ZQc
It's 2014 trailers, around 44 minutes of trailers, with that lenght, if it doesn't stutter on it, i guess we can say youtube is ok.

I did another test on Candy Crush Saga which was also "lagging" on firefox, game is smooth again, issue seems solved, is Windows 8.1 update 1 responsible for it ? No idea, one thing though, CPU gets hot with Candy Crush Saga, flash over consumption ?

Report · Apr 16, 2014

Yeah youtube is much better but everything else I try (primarily bbc iplayer) is still susceptible. The affinity fix never worked for me but then I do run windows 7 - also probably doing it wrong

Report · Apr 16, 2014

Windows 8.1: Live Fox News stutters up a storm with the latest version of Flash while using IE11 (or Firefox). I connect to Fox with the DirecTV account and it stutters badly although it works fine with the Chrome browser. Live CNN stutters occasionally as well with IE11 and Firefox. I just so badly want this Flash issue resolved. I uploaded "Mark_DXDiag.txt" at the bug report's webpage.