What's the bottleneck here (CPU usage)

[Rocket J Squirrel]

Say - and BTW - do we know whether Lubuntu will noticeably improve Flash videos on a computer like this one? (See OP for system description, including excellent typo.

[BertN45]

Say - and BTW - do we know whether Lubuntu will noticeably improve Flash videos on a computer like this one? (See OP for system description, including excellent typo.

The cpu usage is caused by Flash and the stream decoding, the operating system will make no difference. I also have an integrated intel video controller and a Pentium IV 3.2 GHz multi threaded and also that one gets loads of more then 90% on some HD 720p video from youTube. On some other movies it runs at 50% cpu load. I think it depends on how well the compression/decompression can handle the complexity of the frames. It stutters a little bit, but it runs on the limit of my internet bandwidth of 1.8 mbps/s. In my case internet is the real bottleneck.
If you do not want to spend money, you could set the you tube quality to auto, in my case it would run at 480p.

I also read somewhere that the intel drivers are overhauled in co-op between intel and canonical, maybe the problem will be solved in a couple of months. I have some 5-6 years old video cards lying around and could try one of those somewhere this week. One is 128mb Geforce 6200 and that is a standard PCI card.

[Rocket J Squirrel]

Thank you, BertN45.

Good point about lowering the quality of the YouTube stream to reduce stuttering when watching their videos. But my actual goal here is watching live sports feeds and the service that provides them doesn't give a way to do that, so I gotta make the computer faster.

Regarding video card, your comment brings up a point. The video on this mobo is integrated, there is no card. However there are two empty PCI slots.

Does anyone think there is joy to be gained by plugging in a card?

(And if yes, then followup questions: what cards would be a good choice, and will Ubuntu find the card and utilize it?)

And to pqwoerituytrueiwoq: I'll tinker around with the hand-the-Flash-to-another-player tip today.

[BertN45]

I am not very familiar with video cards. The PCI card I mentioned GeForce 6200 has a performance worst then my integrated Intel video according to the following benchmark results: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net
I think that card is one of the few still available using standard PCI.

[mardybear]

Hi again Rocket J Squirrel.

Unity is not a lightweight desktop environment. It utilizes system resources that could otherwise be used to run higher definition video. Lubuntu would be a good alternative. You can simply install/boot to another desktop environment without reinstalling your entire OS. I use Openbox myself...about as lightweight as it gets as it is simply a window manager, not a full blown desktop environment.

If you are going to try a dedicated graphic card, do NOT use an nvidia product...lots of problems with linux systems. In many cases, the onboard video will work pretty good as it's designed for your hardware...your mileage may vary...trial and error.

To disable plugin-container while running Firefox enter 'about:config' as a URL on your Firefox browser, use the search below to find dom.ipc.plugins.enabled, double click on it to change true to false, might have to restart Firefox. This will disable plugin-container (not Flash), which will help your system run leaner and should improve your video frame rate.

Also disable any unnecessary services to help your system run lean. I use Ubuntu 10.04 so can't comment specifically on Unity and Ubuntu 12.XX. Examples that you might not use, blue tooth, printer and scanner, etc.

mardybear

[Rocket J Squirrel]

Thank you Mardybear,

With plugin-container disabled, FF still takes up 100% of cpu even running at 240p resolution. This with a generic music video on YouTube. With the video pauses, cpu usage drops to 24% or so. Other than FF, Terminal running htop is the only other application running.

FF: 18% cpu
htop: 4%
/usr/bin/X 2%

other stuff below that.

[mardybear]

Hi Rocket J Squirrel...

Too bad - that's pretty heavy resource use. As long as your frame rates are okay but running at 240 pixels is poor.

Have you tried disabling Flash hardware acceleration. Pause a Flash video, right click on the video and select settings, uncheck enable hardware acceleration. Any better?

If not, post the results of 'sudo lshw' from terminal...curious about your video chip.

mardybear

Edit: Nevermind sudo lshw, forgot you already mentioned your graphics chip...it seems to be a problem with Ubuntu. See if you find anything useful here, otherwise try a different video card:
http://www.google.com/search?q=82865...nt=seamonkey-a

[Resistent]

Try LUBUNTU !
I think your hardware is good enough. You will be suprised!

The Windows Vista on my Laptop was horrible slow.. then I deactivated the "Windows Search" service and Windows worked faster. But I wanted to get rid of Windows, It was a pain for long time (Win 95, 98, XP, Vista in my life)

My Laptop looks like:
- 1 GB RAM
- Intel Celeron M430 1.73 Mhz
- Intel 943GML (Calistoga)+ICH7+M

So I decided to try Ubuntu and installed it with the Wubi Installer. In the installer window I took the standard "desktop environment" which was called "Ubuntu".
Horrible, it was horrible, again I could not do anything, Ubuntu also loaded very slow
like Windows.

Then I installed the packages for the Lubuntu "desktop environment". After that, I could login with the "Lubuntu" Look and Feel. Very great! Fast and I can watch youtube videos without problems. LibreOffice? No problem. I am very glad that my Laptop is usable. For what you need the different special effects for dissapearing windows etc.. Isn't that also the reason why the quality of movies is so bad? The too much beautiful explosions and whatever, and the reason the newest movies are boring. The meaning actor dissappears.
In Lubuntu, no need for special effects, I want to surf the web, the important content is INSIDE the web browser, and not around it.

Only Lubuntu will be installed on my machines from now on. Nothing else.

[Rocket J Squirrel]

mardybear: Interesting. I paused the flash video, right clicked on it, a menu popped up -- briefly, then FF crashed. Re-launched, tried again, and FF crashed again.

[Edit: In chrome I can enable/disable hardware acceleration w/o a crash. It has no visible influence on quality.* In 240p your generic music video on YouTube clocks in at 88% cpu, unlike FF which ran at 100%.

This is pretty poor performance, I reckon.]

*[EDIT EDIT: which ain't great.]

[mardybear]

Hey Rocket J Squirrel.

Yeah that's pretty poor performance...i can watch 240 Flash videos okay on my celeron 700MHz system

When i googled your video hardware and added Ubuntu, it seemed many Ubuntu users have had performance issues/given up on that graphic chip. As mentioned, you could try a different graphic card....or use Chrome if the performance is acceptable.

Few last things i would try before giving up:

I assume you've tried clearing all of your Firefox cache?

Try unchecking/checking Firefox, preferences, advanced, general tab 'use hardware acceleration when available'.

Try closing Firefox and renaming the following (if they exist on your system, make sure your file manager is set to show hidden files). Restart Firefox.
/home/your_home_directory/.adobe
/home/your_home_directory/.macromedia

Any improvements?

mardybear