New Apple iMacs plagued by choppy Flash video playback?

(Credit: CNET)

After reading Engadget's report citing recent complaints about Flash video playback mucking up system resources on the latest 27-inch Apple iMacs, we decided to test out the claims using our own system. Users on the Apple Discussion threads noticed a bug in the Flash Player that bogs down CPU processes, resulting in choppy audio and video playback.

We visited several sites with heavy streaming video content like Hulu, YouTube, and the Break Media Network, and experienced similar issues: popping sounds and jerky video rendering the content unwatchable on several accounts. Like many of the users in the Apple thread, we called up the Activity Monitor and saw that the Flash Player demanded a surprising 114.4 percent of the iMac's CPU processes.

We were able to temporarily fix the problem by putting the computer to sleep and waking it up, but some people are speculating that a hardware malfunction could be to blame. We've also tried to contact Apple for official word, but our messages have been as yet unreturned.

If you're experiencing similar problems, we'd like to hear about it--leave a comment and let us know the issue and what you did to fix it.

[timber2005]

I seem to see and hear that Flash 10 does that on every OS it seems. Linux (seen in comics), OS X (read here), Windows (my experiences).

[hafenbrack]

I haven't experienced this on my machine, which happens to be Win 7, which I regularly watch hulu content on.

[dhavleak]

+1 Win7 with no problems here.

[dhavleak]

Having said that, I do think this is an Adobe issue.

Flash doesn't appear to use graphics hardware acceleration for video on any platform -- and that really sucks.

[Dalmatian28]

When all the hype is gone....you end up with just another average company that makes just another average product with above average price! The funny part is...they like to pretend that they are above everyone else in bossiness! The funniest part is that there are idi**s out there that believe that garbage!!!!

[bananaphonerules]

No problems on Windows 7 here.
But I agree: Flash is dodgy on all platforms.

[smithwahl2]

I too have had no problem on Win7. However my Ubuntu machine does the same thing that is described here. That?s frustrating to me because that is my main computer.

[MPB]

yeah i've had the same problem. Adobe whats going on?

[ProDigit]

No probs on Xubuntu and WinXP here!
But I'm not using an apple computer

[cnetguard]

I also have no problems and I am using a Mac: MacBook Pro (mid 2009), Mac OS X 10.5.8, Safari 4.0.3, Flash 10.0.32. So the issue *may* be Flash, but it is only happening on the new iMacs, not on all platforms with Flash 10.

[mavalos88]

I've had this problem on Vista, pretty often.
Now that I moved to 7 it's not happening as much but I've seen the problem once or twice.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Poor Apple...data loss on Sno-Cone , and now this.
And then Google gives Apple the middle finger yesterday...Ouch !

[scott2400]

Yeah, poooor Apple. Probably put the buildings up for sale now...

[MPB]

I was contemplating whether or not your worth me actually commenting. Because reading your comment sure wasn't worth it.

[pquade]

Why are you blaming Apple for an Adobe issue? Adobe's last Flash "upgrade" is messed up.

This is a known issue and has been for several weeks.

[lazycat202]

my $600 laptop works great with Flash :P
i got Flash Pro, Acrobat, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver installed. No issue!

[baconstang]

That's what he's paid to do...... in his mind.

[harmonyGT]

When something goes wrong on a computer people tend to blame the company most visible, not the one that actually caused the problem. For example, only 1 out of every 10 crashes/bugs that occur on a PC are actually a problem with MS code, yet they get the majority of the blame. That's just how these things tend to work.

[bananaphonerules]

To be fair.
If this was Windows 7 there would a string of posts claiming its Windows 7 fault.

I personally think Adobe's quality isn't often the best. But its nice that MAC users get a dose of reality. Lets see if they remember next time its on Windows 7.

[berobert]

Yep, it's all OS's. I have a Mac Pro 2 x 3 ghz with 12 gigs of ram and a video card with 1 gig of memory and I've been getting stuttery flash playback lately on Hulu and Youtube - it makes things barely watchable. I've tried it both in Firefox and Safari with the same results. By the way I'm on 10.5.8. It's quite frustrating - glad to see it's not just me, I thought my almost 3 year old edit bay computer was starting to have internal issues but it sounds like it's just the flash version. Can't wait for them to fix it, it's getting hard to watch The Daily Show during my lunch breaks on Hulu...

[AppleSuxLeo]

AAPL drooped 4% today...AAPL FAIL !
No rational person ever thought the Apple proprietary , secretive , overpriced walled garden would keep it`s monopoly . Just as Windows killed off Mac market share in the early 90`s.

[scott2400]

Only you could interpret a 4% stock drop as "failure". Given Apple's latest sales/revenue numbers - that kind of "failure" would be just fine with me...

But - you probably had a little extra time before your dishwashing shift started back - and couldn't bear not to spew something...poor, sad Leo..

[Vegaman_Dan]

Stocks go up and down daily. Today's drop doesn't have anything to do with this news.

[AppleSuxLeo]

It has dropped several days now , which coincided with the Droid launch. It`s not a fluke.

[Perry_Clease]

Motorola dropped, Google dropped, Palm dropped (good thing you sold that stock you never had), MicroSoft dropped.

[scott2400]

Hmmm, where have we heard THAT before....?

[Seaspray0]

Too may people look at crystal balls smudged with fingerprints.

[ckh1272]

@Leo--Also, Google dropped almost 3%. They must be failing too. Your insight would be better if you took those blinders off.
http://quotes.nasdaq.com/asp/SummaryQuote.asp?symbol=GOOG&selected=GOOG

[afterhours]

Your investment acumen is about as accurate as your technical prowess here. Go back to your apron -- they wanted fries with that and you're off break.

[viper396]

Everyone's stock has dropped. You fail to acknowledge that.

[RupertAvery]

114%? Wow, that's apparently more than the CPU can handle. Add that to Safari's 38% and it's a wonder that the CPU hasn't melted.

[man_w_balls]

100% equals max of one CPU core in Activity Monitor. That's why it also says 17% idle - it's using 100% of one core plus 14% of another. Other things are running, and all total there's 17% cpu resources available (idle).

[iBuzz]

We all know Macs go to 11.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Cupertino ! WE HAVE A PROBLEM !!!

[lesbihonest17]

you seriously have nothin better to do then go on cnet and talk **** about apple? i pity you greatly.

[protagonistic]

Have you ever thought about putting your brain in gear before commenting? As for flash, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if it would just go away.

[cbscowards]

ASL, yu're slipping into gobshite mode again. I'm still working on the Gobshite Buster app for Android.

[AppleSuxLeo]

Where is Justin (everything is wonderful in Apple-land) Long when you need him ?
Isn`t he the Apple genius ?

[AppleSuxLeo]

Flash playback being choppy , is Stevo`s way of saying "I hate you"

[scott2400]

Hurry! Your shift boss is looking for you...

[baconstang]

Those BigMacs won't flip themselves!

[ca5ter]

Can I get fries with that?

[Vegaman_Dan]

114% is a pretty impressive number- Might even use it for advertising-

"We give you more than 100%."

This also shows a fault in the way the percentages are calculated, but that's a minor OS bug.

[londor--2008]

On that iMac they give you 200% because it has 2 CPUs.

[Seaspray0]

Vegaman, you forgot to add in the 30% income tax, 6% sales tax, 4% property tax....

[protagonistic]

I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt and figure you already knew that 100% figure was just for one processor and that iMacs have more than one core. Otherwise I would have to figure you are one ignorant person.

[VernIverson]

Another problem is QuickTime player 10.0. It does not stream video from certain sites,i.e. NASA live launch video or ISS live video. The work around was to install QuickTime 7.0 from the disk and open the sties with 7.0.

[Perry_Clease]

I haven't noticed this, but to be fair I have clicktoflash installed and rarely watch Flash.

[Apple_S]

This is what happened an my 1-month old MacBook Pro. This is from a high quality YouTube video! Apple and Adobe need to come together to make an Mac -optimized version of Flash. Pronto! (http://twitgoo.com/4m0si)

[cs2cdfan]

My Win7 HP Mini 311 does flash flawlessly and not a simple issue in sight.

It's 2009, why can't Macs get Flash right?

[GadgetDon]

It's 2009, why can't Adobe get Mac software right?

[AppleSuxLeo]

Just pre-ordered the Droid , Picked up the new Archos 5 Android tablet , Got the latest ASUS gaming laptop.
On my way home from Newport Beach.

[stickfu]

Hurray! tell us all about it!

I just had some great wings, and I`m going to be guzzling back a few Molson Ex....

and Moosehead too :P

[cbscowards]

I'll send you a copy of the Gobshite Buster app when its finished. You can be a beta tester and make sure it filters all of your posts out.

[scrubbingbubbles]

Well that kinda sucks....why would you spring for all that sub-par hardware? You have our sympathy my friend!

[AppleSuxLeo]

Get a WinTel machine...they even play BD perfectly !

[AppleSuxLeo]

You know...Stevo`s "bag of hurt"

[cbscowards]

I guess the dinner rush is over early tonight? Two posts in two minutes?

[the_mrwhite]

As it is a 3rd party plug-in, the blame should be shifted to the 3rd party, wouldn't common sense come in to play here? It is obviously happening across most if not all OS's. So why blame Apple?

The blame needs to be redirected to the vendor of the plug-in. Again, common sense. But most lack this.

[iamacat]

Hardware malfunction that only affects Flash and not Quicktime or anything else? I think not. It's just another bug in Flash, which already is not known for stellar performance or stability. They must have some non-deterministic timing bug that gets worse on faster processors. While they are fixing it, they should look into making the plugin 64 bit like everything else on Mac.

[fear-teagaisg]

The choppy Flash video has been a problem on MacBook Airs since they came out. Things start OK, then get choppy. After a while, the CPU runs away with near 200% used by the system even after quitting Safari. Everything slows down to a crawl, usually requiring a restart or a sleep cycle--although sometimes the CPU spontaneously returns to normal.

The solution for MacBook Air owners has been to use "Coolbook Controller" to keep the CPU temperature down by reducing the voltage. It now appears that the new Macs have the same basic problem as the Airs. Obviously there is a problem with processor control. However, there is also something insidious about Flash. Get a temperature monitor and watch what happens when Flash videos run. Compare the temperature rise to what happens when a comparable Quicktime videos plays.

[carneasadafry]

fear-teagaisg

yes! exactly. the new iMac owners are now experiencing the same thing many Macbook Air owners have been complaining about all this time. (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1387729&start=0&tstart=0) Apple's bold "revolutionary thin" designs on both the Macbook Air and now the new iMacs is proof that not everything Apple produces is that ahead of the game.

[Jamie_Foster]

I have to say that Flash performs really badly on Safari both on a PC and a Mac. The only way I can use flash to run ABP on Firefox and maybe even noscript. Flash video which is .flv seems to tie up the CPU like crazy. I don't experience this with other plug-ins like WMP or even Quicktime. The sooner Flash is killed off by HTML 5 with MPEG-4 or Theodora the better. To be honest I even prefer Silverlight to Flash. And Adobe need to sort out their PDF Reader. Why is it so huge, bloated and slow. Why can't they make it lean and mean like Foxit. And why do they bundle AIR and Acrobat.com with it. To be honest it would have been better if Macromedia had stayed independent.

[ckh1272]

I think that sums it up perfect. I have watched several sights with Silverlight and get no playback stutter. Flash seems to vary day to day, whether I'm on Windows Vista or OS 10.5.8. I have other Adobe products and I like them, but Flash has become a joke in clown shoes. Every Flash update is a crap shoot these days.

[lazycat202]

Jamie
you're comparing Acrobat with Foxit? Acrobat Pro beats Fixit in many areas.

[Understarsidream]

I have flash problems on windows... I better sell my MS stock. Why is every software bug reported for apple considered big news? I just don't get it.

[bohnman]

Had that issue, right click the flash player and de-select enable hardware acceleration. Restart the browser and you should see a performance increase. For some reason it is enabled by default but affects playback dramatically.