# Tell me why my netbook struggles to play youtube videos.



## Trespass (Apr 24, 2010)

I'm currently typing at a Coffee Culture (yeah, that's right, I'm being one of _those_ guys) to complain about my Acer AspireOne's inability to properly play a 360p youtube video without audio crackles and pops and freezeframe picture.

I've read before that this is particular to most -if not all- netbooks, which majorly diminishes the value of the product in my humble opinion. 

I find this kind of pathetic, especially in light of rumours swirling around the "suppression of the platform's development" so as to not impede on the notebook/desktop replacement market. 

Cell phones and smart phones can access and display youtube (obviously due to some portal or program optimization) so what can I do with this netbook?

(Note: This is on all 360p youtube videos)


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## jymellis (Apr 24, 2010)

for some reason when i use firefox youtube is worhtless. i mean its like watching a picture slide show. now with internet explorer i can watch any youtube video in any "p" without problem? i dont understand computer shit anyways


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## thesimo (Apr 24, 2010)

well flash video doesent perform very well. on my dual core 2.4ghz w/ 4GB ram, watching youtube has the CPU at nearly 100%.

if you want you can use flashblock for safari, which skips the flash and makes your computer play the h.264 video directly which is far more efficient. It will probably play without any crackling then


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## djpharoah (Apr 24, 2010)

I had this problem a while back on my MSI Wind U100 under Windows 7 Ultimate. I basically removed all the Adobe Flash stuff, firefox etc off my netbook, then reinstalled all of it and it works perfectly now.

Netbooks are really decent but once you get into a lot of powerful stuff (like Flash) the Atom cpu pretty much becomes like the Celeron of yesteryear.


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## jymellis (Apr 24, 2010)

djpharoah said:


> I(like Flash) the Atom cpu pretty much becomes like the Celeron of yesteryear.


 
thats whats in my pc lol. (celeron)


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## JBroll (Apr 24, 2010)

This is because Flash is abysmal. Grab Google Chrome and use the HTML5 beta for everything possible:

youtube.com/html5

Jeff


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## Origin (Apr 24, 2010)

Well, your first mistake was an Acer  seriously though, I'd mostly peg it on the processor...just not very powerful


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## JBroll (Apr 24, 2010)

They can handle a *lot* of other video without stuttering at all... the first mistake is USING FLASH AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!

Jeff


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## sentagoda (Apr 25, 2010)

I have the same exact problem with my Samsung N310


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## djpharoah (Apr 25, 2010)

Stuff like this made me realize two things

1) Flash is totally shit - cannot wait till HTML5 takes over
2) Intel Atom processors are just smaller and more efficient Intel Celerons. They are the suck for anything other than light computing. If you're a power user avoid them.



Since my Thinkpad T41p died a month back my MSI Wind U100 has become my desktop replacement if you will... so many times I want to shoot myself in the face with this thing. Cannot wait till this summer when I pick up a new MBP 15.


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## sentagoda (Apr 25, 2010)

JBroll said:


> They can handle a *lot* of other video without stuttering at all... the first mistake is USING FLASH AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!
> 
> Jeff



Do have to change anything in the settings? I use chrome but its lagging like a mad cow


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## djpharoah (Apr 25, 2010)

For these little laptops you gotta make sure a few things are on there to make life simpler. Sure flash sucks but it works perfectly on my netbook. Here are the few things I did to get the most out of my netbook.

1) Reinstall Windows XP or Windows 7. I did a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit (prolyl a waste on this netbook )
2) Make sure you have the latest Intel GMA drivers from the Intel site. They are usually better than the stock ones that came with your netbook.
3) Update chipset drivers from Intel.
4) Get GMABooster - your Intel GMA900/950 GPU is severely underclocked in order to save batteries. But if you're plugged in GMA booster can take your GPU from 166MHz to its stock speed of 400MHz. This makes a sizable difference.
5) Turn down all graphic options in Windows - ie: run it too look like Windows 2000 to save on graphics performance.
6) Make sure you have 2GB of ram. 1GB is too little for stuff we do today and it'll definitely help your little netbook.
7) If you've got some more $$ invest in a 7200rpm drive or if you've got even more $$$ get an SSD drive.


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## Trespass (Apr 25, 2010)

djpharoah said:


> For these little laptops you gotta make sure a few things are on there to make life simpler. Sure flash sucks but it works perfectly on my netbook. Here are the few things I did to get the most out of my netbook.
> 
> 1) Reinstall Windows XP or Windows 7. I did a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit (prolyl a waste on this netbook )
> 2) Make sure you have the latest Intel GMA drivers from the Intel site. They are usually better than the stock ones that came with your netbook.
> ...



I went into admin tools and disabled tons of services, including garbage like networking and cd burning. The wireless chipset also has a powersaving feature which is known to cause problems streaming video over wifi.

There was a performance increase doing this, but it wasn't massive. Half the problem is the fact that the netbook isn't mine; it's my sisters. I'd normally do a clean wipe and install with any new computer, but it's not something I'm "allowed" to do. 2, 3, and 4 are the only numbers on that list I could get away with. I'll it later.


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## Groff (Apr 25, 2010)

The old GMA chipsets were kinda weak, GMA booster helps a ton. I find I don't need it for flash video on my AspireOne, as long as i'm in windows. If I use Ubuntu, only youtube works, and only up to 480p. The newer netbooks that are out have some pretty awesome chipsets in them, and some can even handle HD video with no issues. nVidia ION ftw!


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## JBroll (Apr 25, 2010)

A lightweight Linux distribution would probably work even better. There may even be one set up for your distribution, allowing things like CPU 'deunderclocking' (like the Eee PCs tend to have) and such. Grab Chrome and go to the aforementioned /html5 page.

Jeff


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