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video freezing, hickups

  • 7 replies
  • 12 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by Glytch

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Firefox will not load video correctly. Audio plays fine for the most part, however, video will freeze for a few seconds, catch up and freeze again. It locks up Firefox where I cannot cycle through tabs or click any menu's while it's "thinking" or whatever the hell is going on.

It's also ONLY with firefox. Doesn't happen on Chrome or Explorer. Video streams correctly, quickly, and smoothly on any other browser. It's almost as if somethings stopping Firefox, like a firewall or something, checking it's every move before OKing it. I've uninstalled and reinstalled it twice and still the same crap. Flash is up to date...

I cannot figure this out

Firefox will not load video correctly. Audio plays fine for the most part, however, video will freeze for a few seconds, catch up and freeze again. It locks up Firefox where I cannot cycle through tabs or click any menu's while it's "thinking" or whatever the hell is going on. It's also ONLY with firefox. Doesn't happen on Chrome or Explorer. Video streams correctly, quickly, and smoothly on any other browser. It's almost as if somethings stopping Firefox, like a firewall or something, checking it's every move before OKing it. I've uninstalled and reinstalled it twice and still the same crap. Flash is up to date... I cannot figure this out

All Replies (7)

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by the way, this happens on ANY video, from youtube to hulu to any video ran with Firefox....

Oddly enough though, on youtube, the advertisement that loads before the main video seems to play correctly after a few seconds pause (a pause I don't get in chrome).

Also theres an odd slanted "F" in the center of all videos. if I rest the mouse over it it turns into a play button to start the video.

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Do you have any Flash blocking extensions instaled?

Start Firefox in Safe Mode to check if one of the extensions (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions) or if hardware acceleration is causing the problem (switch to the DEFAULT theme: Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Appearance).

  • Do not click the Reset button on the Safe mode start window or otherwise make changes.
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I did try to start it in safe mode earlier and "restart with add-ons disabled" Also reset default appearance for the browser.

Same thing. It still locks up/does a 3 second freeze roughly ever 10 seconds, and locks up firefox comlpetely during that time.

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You can check for problems caused by recent Flash updates and try these:

  • disable a possible RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin extension for Firefox and update the RealPlayer if installed
  • disable protected mode in Flash 11.3 and later
  • disable hardware acceleration in the Flash plugin

A possible cause is security software (firewall,anti-virus) that blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.

Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.

See:

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checked/tested firewall, it's not coming from that.

I uninstalled/reinstalled the flashplayer and tested it as you said to try above.

Still not working =/

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I've been looking around a bit today and I found this link.

http://just-thinkin.net/2008/04/lousy-streaming-video-in-firefox-dont-blame-the-browser/

I'm using a quad core, and when Firefox freezes up on video play/streaming, it jumps from 25% to nearly 50% for the time of the freeze. I noticed that when I used the link in the above link to watch a video and test it, I was able to play the StarTrek video with nearly no issue whatsoever.

However, when I went back to youtube I had the same issues as before. Audio starts, before video,. Video just sits there for a few seconds then rushes to catch up only to stop again.