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]

Hi Mark KF8RV,

Can you add to the bugbase your comment too? Despite this discussion I think the bugbase may have more influence with Adobe.

https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3692645

Unfortunately Adobe still claim they cannot reproduce the bug which sounds frustrating and they logged it internally to see if management will allow for purchase of a new device. I still think they should just revert back to 11.5 code, call it version 12 or whatever then everyone will be happy again.

[Guest]

I don't want to jinx myself, but the last update (12.0.0.44) seems to have practically eliminated the problem on my system.  The update before that (11.something) reduced the stuttering, but introduced a new problem - poor video quality with a lot of pixelization on certain objects like the video wasn't decoding correctly. Interestingly, this problem occurred in Chrome as well as in Waterfox.

With 12.0.0.44, I can watch videos in Waterfox with (fingers crossed) no noticable issues so far.  I haven't made any other changes to the system.

[Guest]

Is it only waterfox you see an improvement? Are the other browsers better too. On my machine I haven't tried waterfox but all the other browsers Firefox and IE are hopeless still with the new version

[Guest]

I just checked waterfox. Although my system is windows 7 I kind of agree with fubkybrewster. Whilst it is not perfect it does appear to be so much better. I think this is a 64 bit browser. Adobe must fix for 32 bit browsers though seeing as they are much more widely used and add on compatible.

[Mark_KF8RV]

I tried the latest Firefox Beta version along with Adobe Flash Beta and the stuttering continued to annoy me.  I've been putting up with the Flash video stuttering for many months every since changing from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1.

Frustrated,

Mark KF8RV.

[Guest]

Try a 64 bit browser like water fox. It might be a bit better. Still no excuse though from Adobe, they need to sort this out. They have messed and fiddled with the code so much it creates problems . But they are all at it, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe. Too much change, so called upgrades and security fixes which create new bugs and frustrations. Go back to 11.5 code and make everyone happy.

[Mark_KF8RV]

I just wish Waterfox was Mozilla software.  Is Waterfox legit?

[Guest]

Apparently it's based on the Mozilla Firefox source code. I don't think it is Mozilla as such. It just seems a bit better though, not perfect but quite an improvement in fluidity. http://www.waterfoxproject.org/

Still need Adobe to pull their finger out and sort the performance out for 32 bit browsers. I guess they still don't think there is a problem but enough people are having grief. I run the latest version on Firefox and obviously Chrome is auto updated with the pepper flash. Both run inconsistently but with an overall lack of fluidity really noticeable in sports with fast movement. I rolled back to 11.5 on IE9 as Flash runs well on this version and refuse to update flash until I see an improvement in Firefox and Chrome with the latest versions. Trouble is I am sure at some point a website will whinge that I haven't got the latest flash player and refuse to play the video. So staying on Flash 11.5 is not really an option.

[Mark_KF8RV]

I wish there was something I could do in order to expedite a solution to the Adobe Flash problem.  Putting up with the stuttering for a few days is one thing but now I've been tolerating it for many months without a solid fix.  IE11 and Firefox stutter.  My preference is to avoid the use of Chrome.  Firefox is my main browser. 

[Mark_KF8RV]

Tonight I turned off Flash's hardware acceleration and it still stutters. 

[Guest]

Same for me. Disabling gpu acceleration makes no difference. I even have switchable gpu in my laptop and using each gpu shows no improvements. Basically adobe have ruined it, they need to listen and revert back to 11.5 code and then stop messing with it

[Mark_KF8RV]

Because of the Flash stuttering on IE11 and Firefox, I'm now using Chrome which Chrome works fine with Adobe Flash. 

[Guest]

The recent improvement is in Waterfox and IE (32bit).  The stuttering is almost entirely gone.  However, in IE playing fullscreen Flash video causes CPU usage to spike to 67% (on a quad core i7 with 8 GB of RAM) which is ridiculous, and in Waterfox some sites, notably YouTube, have very blocky, low-res video even in 720p playback mode so I have to use IE for YouTube.  The YouTube video interface itself is also blocky and low-res like it isn't understanding the monitor resolution properly.  However, Hulu and Funimation are pretty good on Waterfox except for occaisional freezes that require re-loading the page.  The pixelization issue in Chrome is different, like the video isn't decoding properly and this only started with the last update.  So depending on what site I'm watching I use a different browser. The stuttering issue is by far the most annoying problem, though so I'm glad that's pretty much gone.

[Guest]

It's still a joke that one has to use different browsers for different sites. Whilst waterfox seems much better for me chrome and Firefox are still lousy. Sometimes going full screen to embedded window and back and forth can improve but generally still poor. I wouldn't know if IE 32 bit is better as I have left that on 11.5 until I see improvements across the other browsers. I tend to use htnl5 now for youtube as it's far superior but things like itv player and bbc iplayer are still using flash and trying to watch football on these is terrible sometimes. I think adobe are really letting themselves down. Whatever they did to flash beyond approx 11.5 has pretty much ruined things. I still don't understand why they have to fiddle and mess with it all the time.

[Mark_KF8RV]

The Flash's stuttering with IE11 and Firefox continues in Windows 8.1.  Adobe must soon release a quality Flash (no stuttering) before I loose my mind using the Chrome browser. 

[Guest]

Chrome stutters for me. Only immune browser seems to be waterfox though I am on windows 7. Adobe need to stop dragging their heels. This has gone on a long time now. The issue is single handedly making my computing a misery

[Guest]

The misery continues. Last night tried watching Man City-Barcelona match on ITV player which was a horrendous experience with the persistent stuttering. Gave me a headache. This has gone on too long now. Some people are reporting greater success with Chrome although I haven't noticed that. All browsers seem as bad as eachother (apart from Waterfox). I have kept Internet Explorer on 11.5 and this performs just fine.

I remember being on 11.2 for a long time and it performed fantastic. 11.5 pretty much fine, maybe the occasional extremely rare stutter but versions after that all bets are off. Each version since has suffered with varying degrees of stuttering. Switching gpu from dedicated to intergrated and vice versa doesn't help. Nor does disabling gpu acceleration when right clicking the video and restarting (if anything it gets a little bit worse). So that shows gpu drivers are not an issue as both are blighted. Sometimes switching back and forth between embedded window and full screen a few times or letting the video run a while may yield an improvement but overall it's very, very dissapointing. I think Adobe needs to ensure whatever fixes they may implement that Windows 7 doesn't get forgotten. Most posters are on 8.1 but many of us also run Windows 7 (8.1 just not to my taste with metro and loss of start menu etc.)

I do wonder though if they will ever fix it. Staying on 11.5 or whatever is all well and good but at some point websites will start complaining that the version of flash needs to be updated to a later version. When that happens that will be a huge problem.

When everything else runs fantastically, silverlight, HTML5, gaming, dvds, local video in windows media player, itunes, quicktime etc then clearly the problem is done to one thing and one thing only - Flash player.

[Guest]

Apparently version 12.0.0.70 got released today. I won't be able to test it until tomorrow but just wondered if anyone else updated. Is it still garbage?

[Mark_KF8RV]

12.0.0.70 had been stuttering for me with Firefox.

[Guest]

Thanks Mark

Well that's as expected. Extremely dissapointed that a very real issue continues to fall under their radar!

[Guest]

Just had a chance to have a snoop at the new version myself. Can only re iterate mark's findings. It's still hopeless!!!

[Guest]

Come on Adobe, this is diabolical. This needs to be sorted out. Bugs have been raised. You have been told the problem injects itself at 11.6 yet still nothing is getting done

[Guest]

Adobe.

The bug report is getting updated by various users but you are still doing nothing. You have quite a lot of info and even some dxdiag info on the bug id and on this discussion yet you are still either neglecting or unable to solve. Fact is everyone was happy upto 11.5. Then from 11.6 onwards it all started coming apart. Every version since then has stuttered with varying degrees of severity for many, many users. Regress the code, nobody will vilify you for taking a step backwards in order to go forwards. Don't become aloof and arrogant like the giants of Microsoft and apple.

https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3692645

Thanks

Wayne

[Guest]

New version today and it's still lousy. At least it is on bbc iplayer trying to watch match of the day.

[Mark_KF8RV]

Flash still stutters.  Wish that Adobe would fix it.