Sluggish/jerky video...

tnmiketnmike
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
I have a G4 laptop (500megahertz/ 768 megs RAM) and a G5 dual 2.7 (2.5 gigs RAM.) I have bought 3 TV shows and 1 movie through itunes and the playback on both of these computers is too sluggish and jerky to watch them. Podcasts run great. I view tv shows, movie, and podcasts using itunes. I am running 10.3.9 on the laptop and 10.4.x on the G5 dual. I have the most recent version of itunes on both computers.

I have run Onyx on both computers but the problem still exists. Any suggestions?

Thanks...

TnMike

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,440moderator
    Don't watch videos in itunes, it's pretty bad for playback. You can open them in Quicktime. Do you still have problems watching in Quicktime?
  • Reply 2 of 10
    tnmiketnmike Posts: 21member
    Same problem in quicktime...wonder what it could be?
  • Reply 3 of 10
    tnmiketnmike Posts: 21member
    Should I do a clean install?
  • Reply 4 of 10
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,440moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TnMike View Post


    Same problem in quicktime...wonder what it could be?



    Ah in that case I would do the usual maintainence first. I'm not sure what Onyx does again but I think the normal tasks are for the usual script running. If it has a cache cleaning tool, you can use it but I use cocktail ( http://www.maintain.se/cocktail/index.php ). In the files section in that program, choose to clean your kernel and user caches and include all the option inside those. Reboot after you do this (the new version asks you to anyway). The reboot will take longer as it's rebuilding.



    Do a permissions repair too using Disk Utility.



    Check to see if you have any odd quicktime components installed in /Library/Quicktime or the users equivalent.



    You can also check your audio settings in the /Applications/Utilities/Audio Midi Setup. It's a bit of an obscure place to put it but I've heard of the settings in there messing up quicktime playback because the audio rate is too high.



    I presume that you have tried just restarting your machine? That actually sorts out some Quicktime glitches on its own. It's a system-level component so just restarting quicktime itself doesn't sort it out.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,182member
    that G4 might sstruggle with h.264 (especially if there is ANYthing alse wanting the cpu.) ... but it should still be watcheable... and the G5 should play flawlessly ... even within iTunes.



    I have no idea what your problem might be, but the machines are definitely capable of the task.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    tnmiketnmike Posts: 21member
    Well, I've tried about everything I can think of short of a full reinstall of the system. A friend of mine told me that the movies offered on itunes are made to only play on ipods without problems. He said that they are not really made to be played on a big screen. If that's true then that's ashame because I would like to view them on my laptop.

    Not sure why both of my computers (G4 laptop and G5 dual 2.7) have the same problem playing back itune movies/tv shows. Symptoms are the same...jerky/sluggish playback. It gets worse as the movie goes on...unwatchable.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,182member
    you're buddy's full of crap



    They will show a lot of artifacts on a big screen, as they were ripped at an iPod resolution, but playback should still be silky smooth.



    Try playing them using VLC ?... same problem ? (though perhaps that won't work if they are DRM'd)
  • Reply 8 of 10
    davegeedavegee Posts: 2,765member
    For kicks...



    Create a new account.



    Copy movies to a place where the 'new account' can see them... (shared folder?)



    Login as 'new account'



    Play movies



    If the slow-down is system wide this should tell you...



    Dave
  • Reply 9 of 10
    tnmiketnmike Posts: 21member
    I appreciate all your sugestions.I will create a new itunes account and see if that is the problem. I have tried to run the video in question with quicktime and it still is jerky. And it gets worse as the video plays...to the point it looks like a slide show with audio.

    (On my G5 I downloaded a movie from itunes a while back and it has always done a freeze frame kind of thing every 10 sec. or so. I have my G5 optimized for rercording music ((Digital Performer. ProTools, etc.)) so nothing is running in the background...just internet service for updating software.)



    Funny thing is I got a receipt today from itunes of the particular download in question. It was a $1.99 purchase. They had charged me $0.00. Could there have been an error while downloading...and itunes decided not to charge me? You think they would have let me know if it was a faulty download. Weird!



    Anyhow, still trying to figure it out. I will try you guy's suggestions with different viewers and such and let you know if that works.

    If you think of anything else to try please let me know.

    Thanks again,

    TnMike
  • Reply 10 of 10
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,440moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TnMike View Post


    I will create a new itunes account and see if that is the problem.



    He meant a new system user account.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TnMike View Post


    Funny thing is I got a receipt today from itunes of the particular download in question. It was a $1.99 purchase. They had charged me $0.00. Could there have been an error while downloading...and itunes decided not to charge me? You think they would have let me know if it was a faulty download. Weird!



    Where are you downloading from? It could well be corrupted downloads if it only happens with itunes downloads.
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