Hulu playback terrible.

[Guest]

After the latest update the other day, Hulu plays horribly on my pc (1-2fps if at all, audio seems near normal). I am running IE7 and Windows 7 x64. I tried to install Firefox, same results. I also updated my nvidia drivers to latest beta on thier site, uninstalled flash using the uninstaller, reinstalled flash. Uninstalled an old program I have called Rivatuner which caused this problem for me one other time due to some protected memory i/o ports. I fix computers for a living and cannot fix the playback on Hulu.com. The video plays so terribly, its unwatchable. Task Manager says IE7 is using  1.2gb ram and 25% of my quad core Phenom 2.2ghz, so probable 1 core. The videos take 30+ seconds to load and the ads are even choppy. Turning off hardware acceleration doesn't help. I uninstalled firefox. I have not installed anything on the pc this week to make it change from Monday when I was watching ABC shows on Hulu. Please help me or tell me how I can downgrade Flash to last version that was fine.

[gangwulf]

I had the same problem with Hulu. I downloaded the Hulu desktop player, and I am having no more problems. The things I tried first:

Uninstall and reinstall flash (with the correct installers).

Uninstall and reinstall firefox.

System restore to before the update that caused the problem.

None of these things worked.

The hulu player is fairly intuitive and easy to use. It doesn't take long to download. I hope this solves your problem. If you are like me, you have no cable, and Hulu has been great for you. I did e-mail Hulu about the issue.

[Guest]

Hi, I don't know if I would have updated the nvidia driver to a beta, considering all of the problems that are going on with 10.1. But having said that, it is also recommended to update both the graphic and video drivers to the latest versions.

Then in addition, turning off the hardware acceleration. It is always those 3 things to do.

Since you have Uninstalled and Installed it may be a good idea to see what Flash Player files are actually Installed now.

Go to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash  Open Flash and post back all files listed. Any NPSWF files will need a right click and then click on properties to obtain the version numbers.

Then using IE, find in All add ons the Shockwave Flash Object and make sure it is Enabled and is 10.1.53.64 version or says Flash10h.ocx.

If you still have Firefox installed, find the plug-in SWF vs 10.1.53.64 and make sure it is Enabled.

This way we have a correct Flash Player installation from which to proceed.

Thanks,

eidnolb

[Morac]

I couldn't get Hulu to play at all.   Firefox 3.6.4 for Windows kept saying the plugin crashed.  I tried Apple Safari for Windows and Hulu loaded (took about 30 seconds), but loading Hulu made Safari.exe memory usage jump to 1 GB, (yes GB).  That's rediculous.  The same thing happened with Internet Explorer 8.0.  This wasn't even a HD video.  It was SD.

There's no way it should require 1 GB of memory to play a Hulu video.  It didn't used to with Flash 9.

[Guest]

Hi, Morac, did you read my first post on this thread? That should be done. If I had time I could link to the bug report and other info on that, but don't. Also several users are reporting that the latest Firefox  update is conflicting with the Flash Player 10.1 and they went back to an earlier version and are not having problems.

Just food for thot.

eidnolb

[Morac]

I've been running the beta version of Firefox 3.6.4 for over a month and never had issues until upgrading to Flash 10.1.  I reverted back to Flash 10r45, but Hulu still causes Firefox 3.6.4 to kill the plugin.  According to the Mozilla people, the Flash plugin isn't responding to Firefox so Firefox thinks it has hung and kills it.

It's not just Firefox though, other browsers like Internet Explorer 8 or Safari 5 are having issues with Flash 10.1.   Trying to play a Hulu video in those browsers causes the browsers to use over 1 GB of memory and slow to a crawl.   When I reverted back to Flash 10r45, it only used 260 MB to play Hulu videos.  So Flash 10.1 is using over 4 times as much memory when playing Hulu videos.

YouTube and other video sites are fine.  So I don't know if this is a Hulu problem or a Flash problem.  I'd say the later though.

[Guest]

Hi Morac, thanks for the details. Oh, I know the 10.1 is causing problems and what is difficult is it is not just one or two. They are so varied between browsers and different system configurations. Worse than a puzzle, no rhyme nor reason:-)

The only one constant is the hardware acceleration and updating the graphic and video drivers (turning the hardware acceleration Off). After that, then i varies greatly. My opinion is that Flash Player updated, Microsoft two days before had Patch Tuesday and then Firefox updates the browser. Keep in mind FP works thru the browser, the IE update, then FF.

All browser updates! I think Safari 5 the week before had many browser updates. So what is happening really doesn't surprise me. I think it is a combination. Just have to start with what we know (drivers & the H.A.) and go from there.

Oh, the Firefox version the person was using was 3.6.3, the version she was using prior to the latest update.

Thanks,

eidnolb

[Morac]

Firefox 3.6.3 doesn't have the plugin crash protection that was added in Firefox 3.6.4.  That's why it is hanging instead of crashing.

Firefox 3.6.4 has changes to prevent the Flash plugin from hanging or crashing Firefox.  Basically Firefox protects itself from problems caused by the Flash plugin.  That's why it's killing the plugin.

From what I've been reading.  It doesn't matter what browser you use though.  There are reports on the Hulu discussion boards, that none of them work with Hulu and Flash 10.1.  Whether that means it's a Hulu bug or a Flash bug, I don't know, but the later would seem more likely.

http://www.hulu.com/discussions/9

[Guest]

Hi Morac, Hate to tell you but the latest FF she was using was crashing so went back to the 3.6.3. Too many variables, it could be something else too.

Read a few discussions on Hulu. I did notice a big spike in comments on 6/10(10.1 came out). What I thot was curious is when I checked sys. requirements, they said Flash Player vs 10.0.22, does that mean or newer? 10.0.22 is an old vs. It seems if they support that version, then they are supporting 5 versions!

I think I'll wait until the dust settles.

eidnolb

[coloradoarny]

Have same problem with Hulu

[tntuof]

This helped for me: https://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?locale=en-US&comments_parentId=714080&forumId=1

"Make sure that you allow the plugin-container process access to  internet.

You can set the prefs dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.* to false on the  about:config page to disable the plugin-container process to see if that  helps.
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npctrl.dll (Silverlight)
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npqtplugin.dll (QuickTime)
dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npswf32.dll (Flash)

To open the about:config page, type about:config in the  location (address) bar and press the Enter key, just like  you type the url of a website to open a website.
If you see a warning then you can confirm that you want to access  that page."

[Guest]

Hi, This is just my opinion but I think gangwulf up thread has the best solution for Hulu. This is what I was reading on the Hulu discussion board the other day. The Firefox update to 3.6.6 was to extend the timeout before Flash Player "crashed". The vs 3.6.4 was designed by Mozilla Firefox to crash Flash Player and not the entire Firefox browser by shutting it down instead of the browser. But they had so many complaints, they increased the timeout before this would happen, in order to allow the slower videos/games more time to load.

If you use the about:config to extend the timeout, you may as well update to the 3.6.6, which Mozilla Firefox already designed it to do.

Anyway, I'd use the Hulu Desktop Player as gangwulf said.

eidnolb