Netbook video stuttering - can you advise?

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Hi,

I recently bought my daughter a MSI Wind U135 DX (1GB ram, 160GB disk, Windows 7) and she loves it. The only problem is that she wants to watch online TV such as BBC iPlayer and 4OD, and the playback stutters badly. Two questions for you:

First, is there anything that can be done about this? I dont know if she has other apps running when she tries to play the video. Would that make a difference? Also, would there be any effect by upgrading her version of Flash (assuming she doesnt already have the most recent one)?

Second question is - if we cant do anything about this problem I think I will have to replace the netbook because she intends to use it at uni and will definitely want to watch TV that way. Can you recommend a not-stupidly-expensive netbook that doesnt have video stuttering issues? I'm afraid I cant just look at a list of specs and know which is best!!

Many thanks
 
Welcome to the OcUK forums!

Hmmm. It should be able to play ipayer on standard quality, as well as 4od, though I think 4od can be more demanding sometimes, despite the worse quality.

Update the flash certainly. My other hunch is that there may be some sort of power management program or even windows setting that is throttling the CPU to save battery life. I have a similarly specc'd ASUS EeePC and it does this. Mine switches to high performance when plugged in.

Also, try killing unnecessary startup programs and other things that are running, 1GB RAM can be tricky sometimes if the rest of the machine isn't that quick.

You could also give another browser a go - Google Chrome works well on my netbook.
 
I believe that the majority of netbooks - certainly those with Intel onboard UMA graphics - can struggle with video playback, such as this, depending on other resources being used.

To be sure of adequate performance, you would need to aim for a netbook with nVidia Tegra chipset, as this provides hardware acceleration.

EDIT : That said, I believe that my old Eee901 managed iPlayer....but 'twas a while ago when I owned that, so time and my age may be affecting memory :rolleyes:
 
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My netbook with onboard Intel graphics is fine as long as it's not HD quality! No need for Tegra anyway as on these machines the work for flash is done on the CPU, which will be the primary factor for performance. My netbook also has an older and weaker CPU (Intel Atom 1.6GHz Diamondville/ N210 iirc)
 
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Thanks so much for your speedy and comprehensive advice. One further question - you say "my netbook with onboard Intel graphics is fine as long as it's not HD quality". Is there some way to specify whether things are played in SD or HD? It seems like everything these days is being offered in HD! So sorry if my level of question isnt up to overclockers standards!!!
 
MSI have the ECO engine technology. Assuming the TV sessions are used plugged in, you could select the highest (video gaming) with the lowest battery life and see if that helps.
I have the same basic config. in a Compaq chassis and do not get that issue. I have upgraded the memory to 2Gb by taking out the 1Gb stick and replacing it. However 1Gb also seemed to be OK as I ran win7 ultimate without issues although a bit slower.

Check the frame buffer in BIOS for size of Vram, check the ECO settings, possibly upgrade the memory for about £30.
 
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iPlayer only offer a few things in HD and 4OD don't offer anything as far as I know. The netbook should handle those things fine as well as Youtube at 480p.

Try upgrading Flash to the latest version if you haven't already. Also, background applications will affect the performance, particularly on a netbook since its single core and since there is no discrete graphics, all the video processing is on the CPU.
 
Make sure the CPU is running at full capacity (1.66Ghz) when using iPlayer/4OD.

My Samsung N210 (same cpu) struggles when the default power management setting is selected (It underclocks the cpu @ 1GHz max)

Edit:
Also remove any bloatware that could be slowing the machine down, multitasking on W7 with 1GB is a not great.
 
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My Samsung N210 (same cpu) struggles when the default power management setting is selected (It underclocks the cpu @ 1GHz max)

Edit:
Also remove any bloatware that could be slowing the machine down, multitasking on W7 with 1GB is a not great.

Interesting my better half's N210 is very choppy on flash video but I always assumed the cpu could not hack it, I will check the CPU clock when I get home. To be fair I did promise to upgrade it to 2GB of ram but as of yet I have not got round to it.
 
MSI is out with a slightly updated Wind U135 netbook, now known as the U135DX. The new 10 inch portable features a slightly faster processor in the form of the Intel Atom N455 processor, support for up to 2GB of DDR3 RAM, an LED backlit display, and a battery life of up to 7 hours.

The processor is an N455 I believe.
 
^ The N455 is virtually identical to the N450 :) (just with added DDR3 support?)

Interesting my better half's N210 is very choppy on flash video but I always assumed the cpu could not hack it, I will check the CPU clock when I get home. To be fair I did promise to upgrade it to 2GB of ram but as of yet I have not got round to it.

The 'Samsung Optimised' power plan only uses 50% CPU power when unplugged (check in power options > change plan settings > advanced power settings)
I just created a new plan with a 100% processor state when unplugged for use with 4OD/BBC iPlayer etc.
 
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