Flash player stutters for 1 second then continues normally

[marbik]

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?

[Guest]

According to the bugbase, it affects AMD processors too:

•   jordan_160 

  12:18:27 PM GMT+00:00 Mar 22, 2014

  I'm using an AMD FX-6350 CPU and I've been a victim of this bug for months. It's not just Intel or i7s.

If you look through the bugbase entry, almost all of the people afflicted are using 8 core/threaded processors.  3770's, 4770's, etc.  That AMD processor happens to have 8 cores. 

[Guest]

Hello?  Adobe?

[Pappy_]

I posted this very similar problem June 17 with over 80 views but no replies. Here is the link to the my post Video freezes for a few seconds multiple times but audio continues ok

I added my DxDiag text over there so not to clutter up this thread any more than it is. Would appreciate an Adobe person could at least a reply over there that they have seen my DxDiag etc or where I can go. As I mentioned there it only happens in IE9. I can use Chrome but there are some things my wife and use on IE9. Thanks.

[RG3]

Well from May till June 10, 2014 I was able to not get this fixed, but at least it appeared better using the one core work around.  This problem is now several months old with no fix by adobe, on 6/10/2014 I updated and now even the one core work around does not work using Firefox nice job adobe you fix it all right stopped the only work around to your bug from working.  When will you FIX this?  I mean really this is getting old, right now if I could find software to replace ALL adobe products I toss them in the trash bin today that includes adobe reader and any others I use...Oh and your reader and a couple of others I pay for.

[Guest]

I agree.  This bug has been around for about a year now and only gets worse.  It makes Flash video unusable on affected systems unless you use Chrome which does not use Flash Player plugin.  The fact that Adobe can't or won't fix such an obvious and big problem definitely undermines my confidence in the company's software in general.

[Chandler007]

Hey folks,

I've had this issue ever since the install of Windows 8 64bit which has been a very snappy OS in all other respects except for this Flash video stutter issue with my browser of choice, Firefox. The stuttering has been more than an annoying on my top tier system (i7 3.8Ghz system, GTX 780 GPU, Soundblaster X-Fi Platinum, etc.). To be clear, the stutter is a video stutter where the audio is always fine, but the video will pause leaving the audio to continue as normal then either skip to a future frame or quickly "catch up" all the missing frames in rapid succession. It will happen many times during a video. Of course, it does not happen using video players to play all kinds of video, nor with HTML5 browser videos, nor with Silverlight.

Like the rest of you, I've been banging my head against this for months in spurts whenever it frustrated me the most in any given day with no results. I approached this by figuring out what kind of settings I could modify that mitigates Flash. Of course, I covered the usual suspects of Flash hardware acceleration, browser acceleration, cache clearing, etc). None of it worked- changing any of these settings had no effect on the stuttering.

Here's the interesting part and I sincerely hope this helps at least one other person having this issue.

It just about fixed the problem for my system. Since the change, I've tested a number of videos. Video has gone from long freezes/stuttering multiple times every 30 seconds to, perhaps, a very small short stutter (a microstutter that could very well be within the video itself) or no stutter over at all. I cross my fingers for y'all.

For Windows 32-bit find this folder:

C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash

For Windows 64-bit find this folder:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash

Open up the mms.cfg file using Notepad or any plain text editor.

Add this line to the bottom of it:

ProtectedMode=0

or if there is a line that says, "ProtectedMode=1" change the '1' to a '0'

Save the file. If you get an "access denied" message (part of the problem) save the file to your desktop, then copy it manually into the above folder replacing the old one.

Try playing some video

If you wish to revert the setting, simply change it to ProtectedMode=1 or remove the setting entirely.

'ProtectedMode=0' fixed it for me. Additionally I re-enabled all accelerations that I turned off and videos were still fine. Be sure to let the thread know what your experience is with this proposed fix.

Moving forward, if this fix is, in fact, a fix for everyone, Adobe should work with us since the idea behind Protected Mode is to reduce the exploits that are possible in any given Flash version and the above changes reduces that protection. I see this fix as temporary- we're going to want a more permanent solution that maintains the security that Protected Mode provides.

-Chan

[Pappy_]

Didn't work for me. At first it seemed better (not fixed) but as I played more Youtube videos it was still stuttering about the same (never stutters the same twice except always starts about 2 secs in). I have Vista64. Thanks for trying tho and I hope others post what they think may fix this (until Adobe maybe fixes it:)

[Chandler007]

Pappy,

Which web browser are you using?

[Pappy_]

The one with Flash problems is IE9. Using Chrome now for videos etc and works fine.

[socos2]

This started happening to me on the latest update (14.0.0.145).  The mms.cfg 'fix' seems to have resolved.  Will continue to monitor.

The issue manifests itself not just with YouTube videos but also Flash games (e.g. Candy Crush -- For the sake of troubleshooting I will admit it!

Firefox 30.0

Adblock Plus

Windows 8.1 Pro

[Guest]

The Protected Mode and one-core fixes have been documented since soon after the big appeared, when Flash was still in version 11.x.  None of those work for me. They do apparently work for a minority of people, but even in the cases where they do, the next time a new version comes out there's no telling whether the fix will continue working or fail.  This is just based on others' reports.

[S3ndG]

The protectedmode trick does not work for me (windows 8.1 64 bits - intel i5 - firefox 30). It was stuttering yet.

But the affinity trick (which is very annoying to set) works for now, I've tried 1080p videos for 15-20min without any problem.

Maybe Adobe should add on option to change the number of cores used (temporarily).

[mmbarto]

Chan...

Your suggestion worked beautifully...!!  I can now open videos using Firefox 32.0 in Facebook and YouTube...!!

My Hero...!

Thanks....

[S3ndG]

Hello,

I have windows 8.1 64 bits and exactly the same problem with flash videos.

It stutters randomly and that'as very annoying.

I have an Intel i5-4200m processor with intel graphics HD 4600.

Adobe, i you read this, please fix that issue quickly.

[Chandler007]

An individual with the name, Lanarchy, just sent me a private message telling me the fix worked for him. I had removed my original message to do more testing- during that time he/she PM'd me.

"Why did you remove it ? Your fix worked for me !! It doesn't stutter anymore. Thank you SO ******* MUCH."

Be sure to post success, failures, or new information in this thread.

Keep us apprised.

[S3ndG]

Remember to keep voting for the filed bug here : Bug#3692645 - Video playback stutters/judders

[Guest]

Actually me too. But do u also have video becoming pixelated problems? And it also only happens on Win8.1.

[socos2]

Well the pausing came back.  I will try the CPU affinity thing next.

[Guest]

Were anyone able to find out, whats the common hardware causing this issue, doesn't look like everyone has this problem.. i had this exact same issue and opened a new thread before reading this one.. cpu affinity seems to be the temp fix ... Video freeze every few minutes for 2 or 3 seconds .. if we could find out that common hardware maybe it will be helpful for the adobe team.

[Guest]

ya but do u experience video becoming pixelated problems?

Btw i think the common system having problems would be Win8.1 64bit OS

[Guest]

@depakjan  We've been posting dxdiag's and hardware peofiles for over a year in the bug report thread so please feel free to add yours there but I wouldn't hold your breath.

@giewrg  I've had the pixelation problem too but it's a different bug/problem.  Right now I wish Adobe would fix the 1sec freeze bug and worry about the other problems after that.

Unfortunately it appears that they don't give a flaming pile of rat excrement about end users' experience as their customers are not us but content distribution services who have no incentive to worry about the people affected by this bug since whatever the hardware/software combination that triggers it, we're in enough of a minority that their business model dictates it's OK to ignore. Never mind that everyone reporting the problem is using industry-standard Windows 8 and top of the line Core I7 processors.

[Guest]

Agreed. Actually i thought this freeze was something wrong with my PC  did not know tat it is a bug that continued for a year until i came to this threadwhile asking about the pixelation problems.Btw Thanks for the information

[Guest]

But i dont think it could be just Windows 8.1 and I7(mine is 4800 MQ) because i have posted it in the MSI forum(i have MSI GT60 870M), no one replied!!!!, since it occurs in laptops as well, there are hundreds of users using the same exact hardware with mostly similar drivers , it does not seem to be happening for every one with the same laptop right, which is weird, or is it that our eyes are more prone to these freezes (my wife watches videos with me, untill i specifically showed her, she did not realize its happening )  , but for me it is very evident...

Could it be some minor faulty hardware(most probably our I7 processor) or something which is common for us? ... maybe one of our cores are not working as it supposed to be and only adobe flash player uses all cores or something like that ...

I was going to RMA my laptop, but i wanted to troubleshoot all the way and i installed Win 7 which fixed this issue, so i kind of assumed its not a hardware issue but still i am doubtfull..

[S3ndG]

When using only one core to avoid stuttering issue, I've noticed that the video playback is a bit disjointed.

Adobe, I'll never buy one of your product. You're too useless with this flash player bug.

[S3ndG]

Is there someone who has tested beta version of flash player with Firefox (flash player 15)?

Does it fix the issue?