Flash on the Mac

pembrokepembroke
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I'm on a MacBook pro running Windows within Bootcamp. Using Safari in Windows (VISTA) and watching the developments in Egypt using live streams on Al Jazeera and the BBC, the quality of the video is pretty good and quite solid. However, my experience running Safari/Chrome/FireFox under OSX is quite the opposite. The flash video plug-in either doesn't work at all, or soon fails. Sometimes I can hear audio for awhile before the plug-in fails again. It's really a non-starter.



Why is Flash on OSX so poor? Is it the frailty of OSX, or is it Adobe's lack of QA for the Mac version of Flash?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Do you have the latest 32-bit version of Flash installed? I find that the 64-bit version does not work with all sites.
  • Reply 2 of 11
    pembrokepembroke Posts: 230member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr. Me View Post


    Do you have the latest 32-bit version of Flash installed? I find that the 64-bit version does not work with all sites.



    I have installed the 32bit with no luck I'm afraid. I have even tried the 10.2 beta and that didn't work either. When I switch to bootcamp and VISTA the video is fine. How ironic that I have to run VISTA on my Mac in order to get an acceptable video feed from the internet



    Thank you for the suggestion though!
  • Reply 3 of 11
    tontontonton Posts: 14,067
    Works fine on my stock 13" MacBook Pro. If it doesn't work on your recent Mac, you've either got a problem with your hardware or your network settings, or being a Windows user, you tried to "fix" something that didn't need fixing and made it worse.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pembroke View Post


    I have installed the 32bit with no luck I'm afraid. I have even tried the 10.2 beta and that didn't work either. When I switch to bootcamp and VISTA the video is fine. How ironic that I have to run VISTA on my Mac in order to get an acceptable video feed from the internet



    Thank you for the suggestion though!



    I apologize. It completely went over my head that you were asking for help with a Windows problem. This is a Mac forum. I answered it in the mistaken belief that you were having a Mac problem.
  • Reply 5 of 11
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr. Me View Post


    I apologize. It completely went over my head that you were asking for help with a Windows problem. This is a Mac forum. I answered it in the mistaken belief that you were having a Mac problem.



    No, you were right, Mr. Me. The problem exists for him in OS X; he's saying that it works in Windows making the point that it does work, just not with his other setup.
  • Reply 6 of 11
    tontontonton Posts: 14,067
    Of course, the Flash plug-in for Mac does suck. But neither Apple wrote it... nor did anyone who cares about putting in enough resources to maximize performance of Flash on OS X, so we have what we are stuck with, like it or not. Until Adobe starts to care.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


    Of course, the Flash plug-in for Mac does suck. But neither Apple wrote it... nor did anyone who cares about putting in enough resources to maximize performance of Flash on OS X, so we have what we are stuck with, like it or not. Until Adobe starts to care.



    Or Flash is made irrelevant from a web usability standpoint, whichever comes first.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    pembrokepembroke Posts: 230member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Or Flash is made irrelevant from a web usability standpoint, whichever comes first.





    I run 'LiveStation' under OSX and am able to watch the video stream from Aljazeera with no problem - it works great. So the problem MUST be with the Web Browsers - all three of them, Safari, Chrome and Firefox. Strange!!??



    Hmmm...But perhaps the LiveStation video doesn't use Flash? I'm not sure how to determine whether it does? I suppose I could uninstall Flash from OSX and see what happens!



    EDIT: OK, from the following website it looks as though the Al Jazeera feed on LiveStation does use Flash.

    http://blog.livestation.com/index.php/tag/flash/

    The mystery remains, why is the Flash video so poor in the Browsers?
  • Reply 9 of 11
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pembroke View Post


    ... So the problem MUST be with the Web Browsers - all three of them, Safari, Chrome and Firefox. Strange!!??



    ....



    Correction. The problem MUST be with your system. Al Jazeera live streaming video works just fine on my system in both Safari 4.1.3 and in Firefox 3.6.13. I have the Flash 10.1 r102 plugin installed.
  • Reply 10 of 11
    tontontonton Posts: 14,067
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr. Me View Post


    Correction. The problem MUST be with your system. Al Jazeera live streaming video works just fine on my system in both Safari 4.1.3 and in Firefox 3.6.13. I have the Flash 10.1 r102 plugin installed.



    This is my experience as well. Obviously the guy either got a lemon, or he has installed something that's interfering with his bandwidth or hogging the processor. Can I guess he's running a BT client?
  • Reply 11 of 11
    pembrokepembroke Posts: 230member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


    This is my experience as well. Obviously the guy either got a lemon, or he has installed something that's interfering with his bandwidth or hogging the processor. Can I guess he's running a BT client?



    I've just upgraded Flash to the latest 10.2 and now I'm a happy chappie - streaming video works great now - clear and steady. Perhaps there was something out of order under the hood somewhere else, who knows; OSs are unfathomably complex for the likes of my cognitive abilities.



    Thank you very much for all the replies!
Sign In or Register to comment.