New 2011 Mac Mini Video Playback Stutter

[Macbookjimbo]

I had originally posted this note in the Mac Mini forum, but I'm thinking this troubleshooting forum is the better place for it - sorry for dual posts.

I picked up a new Mac Mini a little over a week ago. I bought the mid line (2.5 i5 with AMD Radeon discrete graphics). I have it hooked up to my HDTV via HDMI....sweet! Everything works great except one item. When I play back video (movie or TV show purchased/played in iTunes) the video will play about 20 seconds or so then have this very brief pause. Then play again for another 20 seconds or so, then have the very brief pause again. This goes on and on. It doesn't happen when playing back the same media via my 4 year old plastic MacBook hooked up to the same TV.

Any ideas?? Thx

[ez061111]

Are you using iTunes or Quicktime to playback? Are they SD or HiDef? Have you tried or does it vary depending of full-screen or partial screen? Sounds like some intensive process is utilizing resources or perhaps the HD is slow and it's refilling the buffer. The HD thought, even with the slower 5400 that Apple installs in the Minis doesn't really fit for me as iTunes stuff is pretty low bit-rate in even the HiDef.

While watching in non full screen mode, have Activity Monitor (in Utilities folder) active and see if there is a process that pops up at the time of your brief pause; click the %CPU column and have it sort for highest use. Console (also in Utilities) may also give an indication of what is going on and yield a time stamped printout of sorts. Take a look at the "All Messages" and or "Diagnostic and Usage Messages" area, Console can be a bit challenging at times to interpret but with the time stamping you could actually see if it is a process cycling.

What is your RAM configuration? If it is the minimum, you may want to consider upping. 4GB should really be the minimum for most uses now, if you can afford 8, I would highly suggest it.
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2.0 GHz i7 Mini 8 GB RAM, OWC Merc Extreme SSD & Samsung Spinpoint
2.6 GHz i7 Mini 16 GB RAM, Samsung 830 & Hitachi
15" 2.3 GHz i7 MBP 16 GB RAM, OWC Extreme Pro 6G SSD & WD Black

[Macbookjimbo]

Thank you for your quick reply, I like the idea of having Activity Monitor running - I will try this.

The new Mac Mini's configuration is: 2.5 i5 with 4Gig of RAM and the AMD discrete graphics card. I run the movies/TV shows in iTunes (not QuickTime) at full screen and HD. Although I think iTunes HD is really only 720p. What concerns me however, is that my 4 year old black plastic MacBook does not have this issue - it runs all videos smoothly and flawlessly. Yet it's configuration is much, much less than the Mini. Here it is: Core Duo 2 at 2.2, also 4Gig of RAM (but much slower clock speed), and an integrated Intel graphics board that shares memory.

So I'm bummed that the Mini with it's much higher horse power is performing less than my old MacBook. I tend to agree with you that there must be some other process running that's interfering. Although this is a fresh Lion install.

[ez061111]

Your 4GB should not be an issue for this.

What programs have you installed?

iTunes is currently 720p for HD, but it is pretty low bitrate so I really don't see an issue there.

Do you have an external drive? Even USB2 won't be fully saturated with the files, so it really doesn't matter what interface it has. I would be curious to see if you have the same response if you copy a file to the external and view it off of that via double click.

Another option to try, is see if you get the same response by opening the file(s) in Quicktime. There shouldn't be a difference as they share the same resources but worth looking at.
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2.0 GHz i7 Mini 8 GB RAM, OWC Merc Extreme SSD & Samsung Spinpoint
2.6 GHz i7 Mini 16 GB RAM, Samsung 830 & Hitachi
15" 2.3 GHz i7 MBP 16 GB RAM, OWC Extreme Pro 6G SSD & WD Black

[Macbookjimbo]

More excellent suggestions.....thank you! I will try copying a video file to an external drive and see how it plays back. Maybe I'll try a USB stick as well. I'll try QuickTime as the player too, maybe VLC as well. I'll also try a SD DVD movie by sharing he optical drive in my MacBook and see if that works on the Mini.

I have to admit to being quite perplexed about this. Usually Apple products work flawlessly right out of the box. That's what made me switch from Windows (plus the better user experience).

[Macbookjimbo]

Well, I tried QuickTime, I tried playing via external drive, then iTunes again and I still get the video stuttering. I started reading some of the Apple support forums and saw a post from a guy who's experiencing the same symptoms as me, although he refers to it as video "sticking."

I eagerly await any update Apple has planned (hopefully) but I must say I'm very disappointed in them right now. They charge us a premium for their products and usually deliver an excellent user experience.......not this time.

[ez061111]

Sorry for the difficulty. Does the Apple Support forum indicate if it only appears to be happening to stuff purchased from iTunes or with other media as well? Have you tried media other than purchased stuff?
_________________
2.0 GHz i7 Mini 8 GB RAM, OWC Merc Extreme SSD & Samsung Spinpoint
2.6 GHz i7 Mini 16 GB RAM, Samsung 830 & Hitachi
15" 2.3 GHz i7 MBP 16 GB RAM, OWC Extreme Pro 6G SSD & WD Black

[Macbookjimbo]

It seems to be all video types. Although in my own non-scientific tests it seems like streamed video (like YouTube) works fine. I have a Flip Mino HD that I use a lot. I can play the videos back smoothly on the old MacBook but they stutter even worse on the new Mini. To be honest, they play terribly like I was using a PC from 10 years ago.

I may bring the Mini to a Genius bar and see what they say. Or maybe even return it. I bought it to use as a media player in the living room and at the moment that's the one thing it can't do. Yet I read here of folks with old 1.6 Mini's doing it just fine. Ugh.

In any event, I do appreciate your feedback and advice. Thank you for helping to troubleshoot.

[Am Yisrael Chai!]

Interesting. I have not had any problems like that with my 2011 discrete graphics mini. Indeed, if I were you I would take it to a genius bar and see if there is any diagnoses they can come to, but I would not be surprised if you received a defective unit.
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Proud Cube owner. Oh, I also own a 2011 2.7ghz i7 Mac Mini.

[Macbookjimbo]

May I ask what type and size monitor you have your Mini hooked up to? And are you running videos full screen or just in the app's window? Tonight I plan to move my Mini from the 42" plasma and hook it up to a 22" LCD just as a test to see if it makes any difference.

Btw, I posted this same issue of mine in the Apple support forums. I received two replies today from users experiencing the same video playback issue as me. Interestingly, one of them has the 2.3 Mini with the onboard Intel graphics chip, not the discrete AMD board. Which leads me to believe this is either a hard drive issue or Lion.

[Am Yisrael Chai!]

I have my Mac Mini hooked up to a 23" HP monitor via a display port cable. I am able to view videos full screen without any stutter. Furthermore, I am able to do this while performing many other tasks simultaneously.
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Proud Cube owner. Oh, I also own a 2011 2.7ghz i7 Mac Mini.

[Macbookjimbo]

Thank you for that info, it was helpful. I just did some informal testing. I moved my Mini from the 42" plasma to a 22" LCD. Hooked it up via HDMI, just as before. But now on this smaller screen all videos played back pretty close to excellent. Not perfect, but barely perceptible. The big stutters are gone and it's almost as smooth as silk (too close to call). So apparently the Mini likes smaller screens as opposed to bigger ones. Hopefully this is an issue that Apple can address via software update.

On a side note, it's very cool how portal the Mini is.

[macmanmacman]

There are some issues i have noticed with video playback with the new iTunes question???

Did you install plex and have it access the iTunes media folder and your videos to have it play it it might work faster also make sure your not having put the hard drive to sleep option turned on in power saving in system preferences lion has issues with it..

[ez061111]

[macmanmacman]

it play's mine just fine i have drm videos and they play fine in plex