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J
Jagiel
Participating Frequently
March 29, 2011
Question

Hardware acceleration doesn't work anymore since version 10.2.153.1

  • March 29, 2011
  • 6 replies
  • 20175 views

Hi all,

Today I updated my flash player to the newest version and its hardware acceleration stopped working. Everything was ok with previous version (10.2.152.32 I guess). I tested it on YouTube - now I get "undefined video rendering" instead of accelerated. Sometimes, when I go to fullscreen before playing the video acceleration turns on but when I go back to the normal mode it shows as undefined or software video rendering. On the other sites (vimeo, dailymotion) I can't open "show video info" dialog so I can't check it but I see more CPU usage in my task manager. Anybody with the same problem?

OS: Windows XP SP3

Browser: Firefox 4 and IE 8 (tested on both)

Graphic card: GF 8600GT

Drivers: Nvidia 266.58

Flash version: 10.2.153.1

EDIT: I downgraded the flash player to previous version (after uninstalling the newest) and hardware acceleration still doesn't work. So what may be the problem? I didn't install any windows or drivers updates lately. I also checked my GPU load (with GPU-Z program) and it's 0% on every video site.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    6 replies

    T
    thecapsaicinkid
    Participating Frequently
    April 3, 2011

    Ubuntu 64bit

    Chromium

    Flash 10.2 r152

    Nvidia VDPAU working as expected

    I have not once seen YouTube report anything other than Undefined/Software video rendering. The Big Buck Bunny test video on the Adobe site reports Stage Video as yes with cpu around 60%. VERY frustrating.

    chris.campbell
    Community Manager
    chris.campbellCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    April 4, 2011

    @thecapsaicinkid: I asked around and found out that hardware decode is disabled on Linux for 10.2 due to stability issues.  You can override this by setting OverrideGPUValidation to 1 in your mms.cfg file, though it's very possible it will cause stability issues.  For more details on doing this, please see:

    Secrets of the mms.cfg File

    Chris

    T
    thecapsaicinkid
    Participating Frequently
    April 4, 2011

    Hi Chris,

    I have this option in the /etc/adobe/mms.cfg, still no joy.

    chris.campbell
    Community Manager
    chris.campbellCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    March 31, 2011

    Hi,

    I suspect what's happening here is that YouTube recently made changes on their side that disabled StageVideo under certain conditions.  This change has been most prominent on Windows, but as you noted it sometimes works during full screen playback.  We've been actively investigating the issues reported in the forum (both here and on youtube's.)  We're trying to find reproducable cases where the video playback is black/white yet the audio still works, corrupted video, or other issues with hardware acceleration enabled.  If you'd like, we'd love to get your feedback on a few tests:

    Testing Steps:

    1. Verify that the Flash setting "Enable hardware acceleration" is checked.  For instructions on finding this setting, please see step 1 of our Troubleshoot video playback issues document. Ignore the instructions to uncheck this setting, we want hardware acceleration to be enabled for the first pass (make sure “Enable hardware acceleration” is selected/checked.”)

    2. Navigate to: http://www.youtube.com/embed/tgbNymZ7vqY?wmode=direct

    Does the video playback correctly with…

    Hardware Acceleration Enabled (Yes/No):

    Hardware Acceleration Disabled* (Yes/No):

    3. Navigate to: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/live-player/

    Note: I have seen buffering/bandwidth issues with this video, what we're looking for here are display issues (black screen, corrupted video, etc.)

    Does the video playback correctly with…

    Hardware Acceleration Enabled (Yes/No):

    Hardware Acceleration Disabled* (Yes/No):

    *If you encounter problems with either of these two videos, please disable hardware acceleration from step 1 (uncheck “Enable hardware acceleration”) and try again.

    Thanks,

    Chris

    J
    JagielAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    March 31, 2011

    @chris.campbell: Thanks for the info, so this is on-site player's fault, not Adobe's? I tested all the situations and videos plays fine everytime - with HW acceleration turned on and off. My GPU takes part in rendering on this YouTube video ("accelerated video rendering" in "show video info") and with Stage Video turned on. Why acceleration can't be forced in every situation and we can see "undefined video acceleration" in non-fullscreen mode?

    chris.campbell
    Community Manager
    chris.campbellCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    March 31, 2011

    Jagiel wrote:

    @chris.campbell: Thanks for the info, so this is on-site player's fault, not Adobe's?

    I wouldn't charactarize it as fault.  With the release of Flash Player 10.2 some customers reported issues with Stage Video.  YouTube and Adobe are just working together to reduce, isolate, and fix the problem using all means necessary.  I don't anticipate that this will be the final resolution, things are still changing.  Please don't hesitate to bring these issues up, we'll do our best to investigate and help clarify.

    Thanks,

    Chris

    A
    Anonymous
    March 30, 2011

    Hi, Here is the link for the Security bulletin for Flash Player of 3/21/11, followed by the one for Adobe Reader/Acrobat, etc.

    http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb11-05.html

    http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb11-06.html

    Just for the record, IE9 is available for Vista & Win7. Not XP as Xircal said MS better make a sweet deal for the many businesses that use XP. MS knows XP still has the Market share

    On MS ending support for Win7 at the end of next year. I doubt that since it hasn't been MS's pattern. When they do end support for Win7, you can be sure Win8 will be released, which they no doubt already are working on:-)

    I know you had no problem with FP vs 10.2.152.32, and you could roll back to that. However, I would wait until Chris Campbell receives your info if you sent it.

    Patch Tuesday was on 3/8/11 but I can't remember without checking if there were any updates to IE. Just from memory I think there were. Sometimes various updates cause a glitch too. I wish they would space them out, so if there is a problem you can know which update may have caused it.

    Thanks,

    eidnolb

    J
    JagielAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    March 29, 2011

    @Xircal: Thanks, HTML5 feature on YouTube is very promising and works like a charm but HD videos consume even more of my CPU power than not HW accelerated flash.

    @eidnolb: I used the uninstall procedure with Adobe uninstaller and I cleaned my system deleting both Firefox and IE plugins. I have hardware acceleration turned on in the settings.

    I don't know what to think anymore. I tested the Stage Video (this is the HW acceleration, isn't it?) on Adobe site - http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/stagevideo.html and it works fine. With Stage Video turned on my CPU usage is ~10-20% and ~40-50% otherwise. I found people with similar problem but it looks like this problem is with YouTube's player only - http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=3809a51e02813930&hl=en .

    How can I check if hardware acceleration is used when I watch a video on website? YouTube allows to "show video info" where I can see "undefined video rendering" now but on the other sites there is no such option and I can only watch my CPU usage which is not the best way to tell. GPU-Z shows GPU usage on Stage Video site. On YouTube, Vimeo and other it's only few % or zero. Maybe it's a problem with the onsite players, not with flash player itself?

    A
    Anonymous
    March 30, 2011

    Jagiel, you talk a lot about your CPU, but where h/w acceleration is concerned, it's the graphics processor which does all the hard work.

    What kind of graphics card do you have in your system and what driver version do you have installed?

    If you've enabled h/w acceleration in any video you've played, then it remains valid for every other video you play no matter where it's located.

    I'm just guessing now, but I would imagine that the last Flash update took into account the fact that HTML5 is going to become the forerunner in the graphics world because of its abilities. That said, Adobe won't want to lose business to its competitors. So I would imagine that the last upgrade will have been quite a significant one. That being the case, then it will also require a high end graphics processor to run Flash videos from now on.

    I figure also that Microsoft's decision not to make IE9 available to Windows XP users is going to mean that many of them will switch to Firefox 4 because the latter supports HTML5 whereas IE8 doesn't. Firefox is free whereas IE9 requires the user to install Windows 7. Yet Win 7 will only be supported until the end of next year while Windows XP support continues until 2014. So there's no incentive to switch to Win 7 just to get hold of IE9.

    But like I say, I'm only guessing....

    J
    JagielAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    April 1, 2011

    In trying to solve my own problem, I posted my system specs here: http://forums.adobe.com/message/3587710#3587710

    Why did you choose a 64-bit OS? It's good for notebooks because it offers better security, but a 32-bit system is still more than adequate for PCs in my opinion.

    Message was edited by: Xircal


    Why do you assume that I use 64-bit OS? Maybe because I wrote "4GB RAM". I have 32-bit XP so it sees only 3,5GB. I'm going to change to Win7 x64 but not yet, maybe after upgrading my machine.

    A
    Anonymous
    March 29, 2011

    Hi, From what I have read the latest Flash Player update was Security related, so that shouldn't have had any effect on H.A.

    What could have happened is that maybe the Uninstall wasn't "clean" and left an older file in your System32 Flash folder.

    In IE>Tools>Internet Options>Security Tab, it's set to Medium right?

    Also IE>Tools>Manage addons, under "Show" (light text) look in All addons or Run without Permission for Shockwave Flash Object. Make sure it's enabled, but also the vs is 10.2.153.1.

    Have you tried going to the test site and Right clicking on the Flash Player logo, then Settings>Display Settings and turning H.A. on there? http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

    Just a few things to check.

    eidnolb

    A
    Anonymous
    March 29, 2011

    Hi there,

    I'm having a different problem to you, but I have a similar configuration and am also using Firefox 4. Since the latter now supports HTML5, try joining the Youtube HTML5 trial which you can do @ http://www.youtube.com/html5 The player will automatically switch if to HTML5 available (Google is in the process of converting its db to work with the new standard).

    If that doesn't bring you any joy, use the uninstaller: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html reboot and then run the installation again.

    For IE8, the uninstaller you run for FF4 will also uninstall it from there too when you run it, so launch IE8, go to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ and reinstall it from there.

    My own problem (just in case you know the answer) is that I can play flash videos everywhere except http://www.liveleak.com/ When I click a link to a video in FF4, the player is invisible even though I get audio.

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