Choppy Streaming Video on Mac Mini G4 1.5 GHz with 64 VRAM

[pokeydonut]

I just set up an old G4 Mac Mini as an HTPC with the intent to use it to watch Hulu and ABC.com and other sites where you can stream TV shows online. However, Hulu is very very choppy. The audio's fine but the video is pretty disappointing. I know Flash on the mini is supposed to not be that great, but is there anything I can do?

According to the Activity Monitor, Safari's using 72% of the CPU to play from Hulu. According to Hulu's support page, the Mac Mini meets the system requirements. I'm just trying to watch the SD videos, not the HD.

Is there any way to change the video settings of the g4 or of the TV to improve the streaming video playback? I'm playing it on a 40" Samsung LCD connected via DVI--> HDMI. I tried to change the resolution to make it easier for the mac mini but it didn't help.

I have Flash 10 and Safari 4. I'm booting off an external firewire drive, but that shouldn't make a difference.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions - this is going to really put a crimp in my plan to cancel cable and rely on streaming video.

[pokeydonut]

scratch that - Safari 3.1.2 not Safari 4.

[jolea]

I have the same problem and am looking for help!!

[Smithcraft]

I tried looking for the required specs for the playback computer but I only found specs for the internet connection and not the computer.

I'm not sure why they don't list a base line CPU speed, but there you go.

I don't think that there is anything you can do to improve the playback.

SC
_________________
[Desktop] G4 mini - 1.5Ghz 1GB 80GB HDD - Newer miniStack v2 500GB Seagate - 10.4.11

[Media System] Intel CD mini - 2.16Ghz 2GB 60GB HDD - 3 x WD 1TB MyBook - 10.5.x

Make sure it has pins!

[azdunerat]

is there any way to increase the internet cache?? Could that increase the available buffer, similar to using plex and watching the HD trailers.

[betty]

Your problem is Flash 10 and powerpc.

I had a G4 1.42ghz mac mini. Once I 'upgraded' to adobe flash 10, I had serious choppiness on Hulu. I tried to downgrade... I was part successful (it's very hard to find a download of flash 9 online that you can actually install). So I ended up doing a reformat of the system and reinstalling leopard. I was never able to watch stuff in HD though even with flash 9.

Just don't upgrade to flash 10. Google it... you'll see others have had problems. Flash 10 doesn't play well with powerpc. It's silly.

Because I wanted to watch stuff in HD I sold my g4 mac mini 1.42ghz for a great price of $320 on ebay (just yesterday!), and I had bought it used a year ago for $300! I just bought a new mac mini today - now I"ll have HD with no problem.

I suggest you sell your g4 while you can get a great price for it. YOu should be able to get even more than I did because you have a 1.5ghz model.

[gts116]

Betty, you're my hero!!! I couldn't figure out why my 1GHz iBook G4 wasn't able to play videos correctly, but my 700MHz windows machine was able to do it fine.

After uninstalling Flash 10 and installing Flash 9 R159 PPC, HULU, youtube, google video, and all other flash programs on addictinggames.com worked perfectly!

[Edit]: P.S. Here is the adobe page with 'archived' copies of flash and the uninstall program. The entire download of version 9 of flash totals about 166MB. Just make sure you use the R159 copy for PPC (not the SA or UB versions) and copy it into your /Library/Internet Plug-ins/ folder (after the Ver. 10 uninstall).

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14266&sliceId=2
_________________
-2.66GHz C2D Macbook Pro 15" - 4G Ram - 7200RPM 500G HD
-2.16GHz C2D Mac Mini - 2G Ram - 7200RPM 320G WD Scorpio Black (HTPC)
-500G Seagate FreeAgent Pro External HD
-1.07GHz G4 iBook 12" - 1.25G Ram (Retired)
-1st Gen iPod Touch 8G

[htpc_challenged]

I'm having a similar problem using plex and boxee. videos will almost always stutter (that is, stop mid-video to load). any way to increase the buffer or other thoughts on how to get a smoother playback? thanks

[betty]

Glad you got it working. I suppose there is no more incentive to code well for powerpc. Even though I got rid of my g4 mini, I still use a power mac g5 as my primary computer, and so I have stuck with Flash 9 on that one. The new mini gets flash 10 is the HTPC.

Cheers,
betty

[Bandit Bill]

[betty]

Heh.. well, I'm a bargain hunter. The g4 mac mini was a great computer for the year I had it. I got that on Craig's list... usually stuff gets sold at a lower price on Craig's list than on ebay.