Unsolvable Hulu stuttering

[macadmiral]

Maybe someone with the resources can do a little investigation? If someone has Windows installed on the Mac and is having this issue, try booting into Windows and see if the problem persists. Then maybe try some other different options. Are other computers on the same network having the problem?

Ive booted into windows and tried with no luck, same results. Someone over at macnn forums said he tried it on all of his different machines.

I think mine is my ISP as well as I tried setting up my ethernet with a different location and it worked for about an hour before starting to stutter again

 

[brgale]

To clarify, I'm not having problems where it plays fine for a minute and then stops for a minute. I'm having more of a constant stutter, where the audio is fine, but the video drops maybe 10 frames or so every 3ish seconds. It creates a noticeable stutter and is very annoying, but a different problem than deckswap's.

The exact same youtube video in firefox in windows xp in vmware runs fine. In VMWARE!! If anything, there should be a lag there.

So this must be an issue in Leopard, somewhere, right? Flash 10,0,12,36 installed.

 

[decksnap]

To clarify, I'm not having problems where it plays fine for a minute and then stops for a minute. I'm having more of a constant stutter, where the audio is fine, but the video drops maybe 10 frames or so every 3ish seconds. It creates a noticeable stutter and is very annoying, but a different problem than deckswap's.

The exact same youtube video in firefox in windows xp in vmware runs fine. In VMWARE!! If anything, there should be a lag there.

So this must be an issue in Leopard, somewhere, right? Flash 10,0,12,36 installed.

If this is happening on Youtube, it is definitely not the same issue (I'm on Tiger anyway) In my research I have learned Youtube does not use the flash streaming protocol through port 1935 like sites like Hulu and CBS. So, it shouldn't be that issue either.

 

[bchurl]

I found this thread through a search, and think the problem I am having may be related to what at least some of the correspondents are talking about. Streaming videos STOP after 4 seconds. I can click the progress bar ahead of where it stopped and get another 4 seconds.

At first I thought this was a Firefox issue, but no it is in Safari at the same time. Then I was ready to blame it on my new ISP, but that can not be the whole story as I find that my G4 running Tiger (on the same router) plays video while my G5 running Leopard does not.

Restarts do not help. But, it will sometimes work at random times without a restart.

very annoying.

 

[maccompaq]

I just tried Mama's Boys on Hulu with my PC running Windows XP, and it works great with no stuttering.

Tomorrow I will try it with my Mac and Leopard and report back.

 

[bchurl]

In the case of my version of the problem (see two posts up), I followed up on some of the posts regarding Flash and installed the latest version of the Flashplayer plugin. (from Adobe). That seems to have made the problem go away. (for the moment, anyway.)

 

[maccompaq]

I have played Mama's Boy on my Mac, Leopard with Firefox at 480p Full Screen, and it played perfectly with no delays or stuttering.

 

[lego8]

I have played Mama's Boy on my Mac, Leopard with Firefox at 480p Full Screen, and it played perfectly with no delays or stuttering.

Same here. I don't know what your problem is, OP.

 

[Keleko]

Some people have this problem and others don't. I definitely have the stutter problem as well, and I haven't been able to solve it.

 

[Amdahl]

Fascinating

For those experiencing the clearly ISP-related stutters only(ie, your WIndows also doesn't work):

Are any of these people using VPNs, PPPoE, or Jumbo frame Gigabit Ethernet to your desktop(at University) ? Because this sounds like it could be an MTU problem, caused by some router in the path blocking ICMP. What is the IP address of the problem Mac? If it is 172.16, 10.0.0.0, or 192.168, or similar, there could be a problem with NAT not doing the ICMP right.

Furthermore, if any of the routers in the path have an IP like that, they could be doing the right thing (generating ICMP), but Hulu (or ISP) might be filtering the ICMP packets out, because they are 'not supposed' to be on the Internet with those IPs.

 

[bfryman79]

I am also having the same problem on my MacBook Pro. But with the tests I have done, it is really making me believe it has something to do with the computer's hardware running Leopard and Flash. This is what I have done so far:

- 1st Generation Intel MacBook Pro running Leopard 10.5.6, Safari 3.2.1 (5525.27.1), Firefox 3.0.6, and Flash 10.0.12.36 gives me the stuttering and hanging issue with Hulu on both browsers.

- I went into Boot Camp with the next test on the same MacBook Pro and tested Hulu on both the latest versions of IE and Firefox. Boot Camp is running Windows Vista SP1 with all the latest updates as of 2/11/09. The latest version of Flash (10.0.12.36) is installed and Hulu works absolutely perfect on both browsers - no stuttering whatsoever.

- Then I tested Hulu on my iMac, which was purchased in Jan. '08. It also is running the same versions of Leopard, Safari, Firefox, & Flash that the MacBook Pro is running and Hulu works perfectly on it with no stuttering at all.

- Both computers were running on the same wireless network for the tests, and have, as noted, completely different results.

Very, very strange.

 

[Amdahl]

- Both computers were running on the same wireless network for the tests, and have, as noted, completely different results.

Can you try the MBP via Ethernet cable and turn off Airport?

 

[bfryman79]

Can you try the MBP via Ethernet cable and turn off Airport?

Yeah, I tried that with no luck. I even took my MacBook Pro into my office at work and connected via ethernet and through wireless network but it still gives me the same issues.

I have an update - I downloaded the beta version of Safari 4 today on the MacBook Pro and so far, Hulu seems to be working perfectly. I'll cross my fingers, but if any stuttering occurs in the next few days, I will post it.

So it's back to stuttering all the time - same issues, even with Safari 4.

 

[Dimwhit]

So it's back to stuttering all the time - same issues, even with Safari 4.

It's a long shot, and it might have been mentioned before, but have you cleared out your cache in Safari? Maybe too much cache messes with the buffering or something.

 

[bfryman79]

Yeah, I've definitely tried that, but just did it again to make sure, with no luck. Here are some more symptoms in addition to the "stutter":

Sometimes, the selected video won't play at all, but rather just cycle through the ad announcement by hulu of who is sponsoring the video. It just keeps repeating that over and over again. Or it will start the video for a minute or so and then just suddenly start the ad announcement again as if I started the video over.

Other times the video won't play at all and you sit and wait for a couple of minutes until hulu comes back and says the video has trouble playing, please try again later - or something like that.

And then, the stutter thing if the video ever happens to actually start playing.

 

[Zonyc]

Found this thread in a mroogle search. I'm having this problem as well. Everything that uses flash stutters - youtube etc. I've downgraded to flash 9 from 10 and have noticed no difference! Im running last previous gen Imac 3.06 ghz intel. My macbook does not have the same issue and it's running the same software for the most part. Anybody find a solution to this yet?

 

[Eric-PTEK]

Me too, its driving me nuts.

I believe this is a Mac 09 HW problem or OS problem.

Hulu and everything else plays perfect on my wife's crappy 2.2ghz Celeron laptop, my Core Duo 1.8 laptop, QC 3.2ghz Desktop, her QC desktop. Hell even on my 2008 R2 server running in a Hyper V session.

My 08 mini had no problems, but this 09 no matter what will not work.

Windows or OSx...

Anyone every find a cure?

 

[bfryman79]

I found a solution! Well, a work-around anyway. Hulu has just come out with a beta version of their own desktop software so we can now bypass the whole browser problem. You can get it here:

http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop

It works for Mac and Windows and is actually a pretty cool interface. I've been using it all week with no problems at all. You can even use your Apple Remote with it.

 

[jasonhedrick]

Pretty Sure this is a graphics problem

I know it sounds weird, but I dealt with this for some time, and all my problems went away when I upgraded the video card in my MacPro. I know that's a tough solution for anything other than a MacPro, but I definitely think this is graphics handling related. Maybe try some updated drivers for your graphics card?

Jason

 

[Eric-PTEK]

Hulu Desktop fixes 95 percent of the problem.

Watched Better Off Ted and it gave me a jump every few minutes.

Warehouse 13 so far has played fine.

Good enough to watch.

 

[Dimwhit]

Hulu Desktop fixes 95 percent of the problem.

Watched Better Off Ted and it gave me a jump every few minutes.

Warehouse 13 so far has played fine.

Good enough to watch.

Have they changed Hulu Desktop to allow you to watch a show in a small window that can be moved around? Last time I tried, it had to be watched full screen (that I was able to figure out, anyway). Still the case?

 

[macorpcrepair]

Same Problem. Hulu Lagging

Ok. I have multiple computers both PC and MAC in the house.

I'm with Time warner Cable 10MBPS.

I'm using a wireless router N.

1. Powermac G5 Dual 2.7Ghz with 256MB Video card. Hulu plays just fine.
2. Macbook Pro 2.16Ghz core duo 4GB ram 256MB Video card - Plays just fine
3. Macbook White - Intel core 2 Duo 1.83Ghz - Plays just fine
4. Powerbook G4 1.5Ghz 12" - sluggish and lagging.
5. Imac g5 17" 1.8Ghz - Sluggish and lagging
7. HP Pavilion Centrino 1.5Ghz 1.5GB RAM 32MB Video Card - No problems playing. I got this laptop in 2002.
8. Emachines M6811 AMD Athlon 64 bit working on windows xp home 32 bit, 64MB RAM - No problems.

This tells me something. The only 2 unites that I am having problems with are both using the old processor before intel with low video cards. My powermac G5 has also the old processor but with a higher video card.

Could it be the old G5 processors if you don't have 256MB Video RAM is not enough to run hulu stuff online? I can play DVD's just fine on my 2 computers that are lagging.

Hope they can come up with a patch or solution soon.

Thanks for all your threads. I also see some people with Intel core processors having problems. What I would try to do in that matter is to try and see if you can hook up directly to the modem and see if it's going to make a difference or not.

Update:

I downloaded Hulu Desktop and i set the resolution for the video to "LOW". now it's running better than before. i'm watching saturday night live right now. But I can still see that it's lagging.

Here's a screen shot of hulu while browsing it on firefox on my imac g5 17" 1.8Ghz. Also good to note that i formatted this desktop and wipe it clean. So there is no special programs installed. I am using 10.4.11 Tiger. I had 10.5.8 on this computer also last time but no help.

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/4899/huluonimacg5.png

Please notice the CPU activity is on full when I play a video. In this case, dawn of the dead.

Thank you all.

 

[NC MacGuy]

PPC and Hulu, Youtube or any flash doesn't work well at all. If I remember correctly, you used to be able to install Flash 8 for better performance but now Hulu won't even play with it and Youtube keeps hounding you to upgrade your flash plug-in.

If you look at the Hulu desktop link it even says minimum requirements are an Intel processor. You're still using Flash 9 and Adobe hates our PPC's and Apple's OS for reasons that go back a decade or more. Basically us PPC users are screwed.

 

[macorpcrepair]

update to my post from last night

PPC and Hulu, Youtube or any flash doesn't work well at all. If I remember correctly, you used to be able to install Flash 8 for better performance but now Hulu won't even play with it and Youtube keeps hounding you to upgrade your flash plug-in.

If you look at the Hulu desktop link it even says minimum requirements are an Intel processor. You're still using Flash 9 and Adobe hates our PPC's and Apple's OS for reasons that go back a decade or more. Basically us PPC users are screwed.

I just downgraded my adobe flash back to 9. It's working much better than flash 10. Activity monitor is not that high.

Link for Adobe flash 9 http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/406/kb406791.html.

Good luck everyone.

 

[MacUser1995]

that's weird cuz having same problem on my Imac, with its newly installed 120 GB hard

drive and 10.4.11 OS system.

My old hard drive had only 40 GB with 10.2.8 and it could run Hulu and other free TV programs just fine!

What is the deal with this? The old system AND PCs work OK with Hulu but newer MAC OS systems do NOT??

what would cause this? Is there ANY free TV sites out there that run fine with the newer Mac OS systems like Tiger, Snow Leopard etc?