Choppy video

My Granddaughter sends me videos on MySpace and YouTube and they appear
broken up and choppy, both the video and audio.

Since I have a broadband (4-5 meg) cable connection, I'm sure the problem
is not limited by my ISP. I think it might be my computer. Should I be
able to get smooth video performance on my old dog or is it incapable
because of its limitations. Here are its specs:

P11 300 MHz processor
324 megs of ram
32 meg video card
Windows 98SE

Some videos play reasonably smoothly, while others, like above, do not.

Is there something that I could do to improve my video performance or should
I just give in and buy a new XP or Vista computer?

bobster wrote:

My Granddaughter sends me videos on MySpace and YouTube and they appear
broken up and choppy, both the video and audio.

Since I have a broadband (4-5 meg) cable connection, I'm sure the problem
is not limited by my ISP. I think it might be my computer. Should I be
able to get smooth video performance on my old dog or is it incapable
because of its limitations. Here are its specs:

P11 300 MHz processor
324 megs of ram
32 meg video card
Windows 98SE

Some videos play reasonably smoothly, while others, like above, do not.

Is there something that I could do to improve my video performance or should
I just give in and buy a new XP or Vista computer?


Forget Vista.
Period.
Increasing RAM (if possible) might help some; maybe the difference is
from buffer size requirements may be different.
Not letting any other program run (even in the background) might help
some (like anti-virus or firewall software).
If these tricks make zero improvement, thena faster CPU would be the
next step.

"Robert Baer" wrote in message
...
bobster wrote:

My Granddaughter sends me videos on MySpace and YouTube and they appear
broken up and choppy, both the video and audio.

Since I have a broadband (4-5 meg) cable connection, I'm sure the
problem
is not limited by my ISP. I think it might be my computer. Should I be
able to get smooth video performance on my old dog or is it incapable
because of its limitations. Here are its specs:

P11 300 MHz processor
324 megs of ram
32 meg video card
Windows 98SE

Some videos play reasonably smoothly, while others, like above, do not.

Is there something that I could do to improve my video performance or
should
I just give in and buy a new XP or Vista computer?


Forget Vista.
Period.
Increasing RAM (if possible) might help some; maybe the difference is
from buffer size requirements may be different.
Not letting any other program run (even in the background) might help
some (like anti-virus or firewall software).
If these tricks make zero improvement, thena faster CPU would be the
next step.


I agree...all I can add would be that a video card with more memory might
also help...
but even on my own machine with greater spec...some videos are still choppy

philo wrote:


"Robert Baer" wrote in message
...
bobster wrote:

My Granddaughter sends me videos on MySpace and YouTube and they
appear broken up and choppy, both the video and audio.

Since I have a broadband (4-5 meg) cable connection, I'm sure the
problem
is not limited by my ISP. I think it might be my computer. Should
I be able to get smooth video performance on my old dog or is it
incapable because of its limitations. Here are its specs:

P11 300 MHz processor
324 megs of ram
32 meg video card
Windows 98SE

Some videos play reasonably smoothly, while others, like above, do
not.

Is there something that I could do to improve my video performance
or
should
I just give in and buy a new XP or Vista computer?


Forget Vista.
Period.
Increasing RAM (if possible) might help some; maybe the difference
is
from buffer size requirements may be different.
Not letting any other program run (even in the background) might
help
some (like anti-virus or firewall software).
If these tricks make zero improvement, thena faster CPU would be
the
next step.


I agree...all I can add would be that a video card with more memory
might also help...
but even on my own machine with greater spec...some videos are still
choppy


I don't agree. 324 MB memory should be enough to play YouTube video's on
W98. Most video's are (much) smaller than 64 MB, so it could be buffered
completely. Adding video memory is only reasonable when playing games
which use lots of memory for textures. For video the extra memory is not
used.

In your case the processor is the bottleneck, I'm afraid. The only thing
you can do (without upgrading to a new PC) is downloading the video and
converting it to a less demanding format (mpeg for instance) before
playing it. This conversion will cost more time than the video lasts.

Thanks, Robert Baer, Philo and Ingeborg

I tried your suggestions - short of adding more memory - and it looks like
you are all right, that my 300 MHz processor is the bottleneck. Maybe I'll
go for a new PC AFTER Vista SP-1 comes out or perhaps find a good used 3 GHz
XP machine.



"Ingeborg" wrote in message
...
philo wrote:


"Robert Baer" wrote in message
...
bobster wrote:

My Granddaughter sends me videos on MySpace and YouTube and they
appear broken up and choppy, both the video and audio.

Since I have a broadband (4-5 meg) cable connection, I'm sure the
problem
is not limited by my ISP. I think it might be my computer. Should
I be able to get smooth video performance on my old dog or is it
incapable because of its limitations. Here are its specs:

P11 300 MHz processor
324 megs of ram
32 meg video card
Windows 98SE

Some videos play reasonably smoothly, while others, like above, do
not.

Is there something that I could do to improve my video performance
or
should
I just give in and buy a new XP or Vista computer?


Forget Vista.
Period.
Increasing RAM (if possible) might help some; maybe the difference
is
from buffer size requirements may be different.
Not letting any other program run (even in the background) might
help
some (like anti-virus or firewall software).
If these tricks make zero improvement, thena faster CPU would be
the
next step.


I agree...all I can add would be that a video card with more memory
might also help...
but even on my own machine with greater spec...some videos are still
choppy


I don't agree. 324 MB memory should be enough to play YouTube video's on
W98. Most video's are (much) smaller than 64 MB, so it could be buffered
completely. Adding video memory is only reasonable when playing games
which use lots of memory for textures. For video the extra memory is not
used.

In your case the processor is the bottleneck, I'm afraid. The only thing
you can do (without upgrading to a new PC) is downloading the video and
converting it to a less demanding format (mpeg for instance) before
playing it. This conversion will cost more time than the video lasts.

"bobster" wrote in message
...


Thanks, Robert Baer, Philo and Ingeborg

I tried your suggestions - short of adding more memory - and it looks
like
you are all right, that my 300 MHz processor is the bottleneck. Maybe
I'll
go for a new PC AFTER Vista SP-1 comes out or perhaps find a good used 3
GHz
XP machine.




OK

I'm sure a newer machine will do the trick...

Faster cpu will be nice

I am using the slowest comp in the house a p2 200MHz
it plays utube video like sh__ if I try to play the streaming file
if i Hit the pause button on the player and let the file continue to
download while I do something else then play the file after it has finished
loading, there is no choppiness
HTH
--
-- -- -- -- --
Adaware http://www.lavasoft.de
spybot http://www.safer-networking.org
AVG free antivirus http://free.grisoft.com/
Etrust/Vet/CA.online Antivirus scan
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
Super Antispyware http://www.superantispyware.com/
Panda online AntiVirus scan http://www.activescan.com
Panda online AntiSpyware Scan
http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/spyware/test/
Catalog of removal tools (1)
http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities/
Catalog of removal tools (2)
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/n...aspx?CID=40387
Trouble Shooting guide to Windows http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts file
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
links provided as a courtesy, read all instructions on the pages before
use
Grateful thanks to the authors/webmasters
_
"philo" wrote in message
...

"bobster" wrote in message
...


Thanks, Robert Baer, Philo and Ingeborg

I tried your suggestions - short of adding more memory - and it looks
like
you are all right, that my 300 MHz processor is the bottleneck. Maybe
I'll
go for a new PC AFTER Vista SP-1 comes out or perhaps find a good used 3
GHz
XP machine.




OK

I'm sure a newer machine will do the trick...

Faster cpu will be nice

Bingo! It works.

Thanks for the tip. You're not an "almost Bob", you're the real deal

Bobster


"AlmostBob" wrote in message
...
I am using the slowest comp in the house a p2 200MHz
it plays utube video like sh__ if I try to play the streaming file
if i Hit the pause button on the player and let the file continue to
download while I do something else then play the file after it has finished
loading, there is no choppiness
HTH
--
-- -- -- -- --
Adaware http://www.lavasoft.de
spybot http://www.safer-networking.org
AVG free antivirus http://free.grisoft.com/
Etrust/Vet/CA.online Antivirus scan
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
Super Antispyware http://www.superantispyware.com/
Panda online AntiVirus scan http://www.activescan.com
Panda online AntiSpyware Scan
http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/spyware/test/
Catalog of removal tools (1)
http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities/
Catalog of removal tools (2)
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/n...aspx?CID=40387
Trouble Shooting guide to Windows http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts file
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
links provided as a courtesy, read all instructions on the pages before
use
Grateful thanks to the authors/webmasters
_
"philo" wrote in message
...

"bobster" wrote in message
...


Thanks, Robert Baer, Philo and Ingeborg

I tried your suggestions - short of adding more memory - and it looks
like
you are all right, that my 300 MHz processor is the bottleneck. Maybe
I'll
go for a new PC AFTER Vista SP-1 comes out or perhaps find a good used 3
GHz
XP machine.




OK

I'm sure a newer machine will do the trick...

Faster cpu will be nice

"bobster" wrote in message
...
Bingo! It works.

Thanks for the tip. You're not an "almost Bob", you're the real deal

Bobster




Wow. Almost Bob is a genius!!!!

Hi, I just joined in and would like to add a tiny bit of advice. What seemed
to work with my P11 300mhz machine was (as already mentioned) let the file
download completely first AND right click on the flash player movie and
choose low quality. The video and audio are almost not affected a single
bit, and it plays a lot smoother!

"philo" wrote:


"bobster" wrote in message
...
Bingo! It works.

Thanks for the tip. You're not an "almost Bob", you're the real deal

Bobster




Wow. Almost Bob is a genius!!!!