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Insight6
join:2012-08-25

Insight6

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[Snow] Fox News Video issues with Mac

My problem spontaneously started one week ago. I spend many hours a day on the Internet doing among other things research and review of both current event news and all types research and fact gathering in other areas from many sites.

One of my many sources is Fox News. However, as mentioned starting about one week ago and only with Fox News their videos all have video pause or delays throughout the entire video but the audio remains steady.

The problem is only with Fox videos.

Also, the problem is on Chrome, FireFox and Safari--same issue all browsers. All are up to date and no major add-ons or changes have been made to them. ISP Internet connection is fast and clean.

The extra twist is that on my PC the Fox News videos work fine on all browsers.

So what's the deal?

ADDENDUM: Please no Fox politico-socio cracks. Lets just stick to the technical issue! Thanks!

BellBoy
Steven Paul Jobs 1955-2011
Premium Member
join:2001-02-20
Los Angeles, CA

BellBoy

Premium Member

said by Insight6:

ADDENDUM: Please no Fox politico-socio cracks. Lets just stick to the technical issue! Thanks!

Oh and I was going to help too...but I was going to make a 'crack', so...

Black_Mage
iMage
Premium Member
join:2012-09-12
USA

Black_Mage to Insight6

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to Insight6
I'm playing a video on Fox News right now. No problems.

Insight6
join:2012-08-25

Insight6

Member

said by Insight6:

My problem spontaneously started one week ago. I spend many hours a day on the Internet doing among other things research and review of both current event news and all types research and fact gathering in other areas from many sites.

One of my many sources is Fox News. However, as mentioned starting about one week ago and only with Fox News their videos all have video pause or delays throughout the entire video but the audio remains steady.

The problem is only with Fox videos.

Also, the problem is on Chrome, FireFox and Safari--same issue all browsers. All are up to date and no major add-ons or changes have been made to them. ISP Internet connection is fast and clean.

The extra twist is that on my PC the Fox News videos work fine on all browsers.

So what's the deal?

ADDENDUM: Please no Fox politico-socio cracks. Lets just stick to the technical issue! Thanks!

Come on, 111 views and not one single constructive serious answer or speculation for a serious question?

Don't make me sink to going to the MS forum*--even though Fox flash videos plays fine on Windows.

Or worse, the "General Questions" forums where everyone thinks they know everything about everything--a theory I don't share.

ADDENDUM: I contacted the Fox web site and advised them of my issue and got the predicable no response.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ to Insight6

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Clearly there is some issue with the mac.

Since FOX uses flash player, I'd look at your flash settings on your mac, and see what if anything you can do there. Doesn't matter what the container is (Chrome, FireFox and Safari) it's all on adobe flash.

Insight6
join:2012-08-25

Insight6

Member

All though I use my Mac far more than my PC I understand Windows OS much better, as I only started using the Mac a year and a half or so back and have just learned by doing.

So where would I find those flash settings you are talking about?

Also, why do you say it's obviously the Mac since Fox uses Flash Player. I would think, just speculating or brainstorming, not trying to argue, that the problem is the Fox web site flash player videos with OS X as my Mac plays ALL other flash videos from all other sites all of the time without any problem. Just sayin!

And where are those "Mac flash setting you are referencing? Thanks.

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

System Preferences > Flash Player

But there really aren't any settings there that would cause an issue as your describe. Sorry if it's been mentioned before, but have you tried upgrading to the latest flash player and Chrome?

FYI: Chrome uses it's own, built-in version of Flash that is separate from the version installed in the OS. So it's possible something flash-based may work in Chrome and not in Firefox/Safari and vice versa.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

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said by Insight6:

Also, why do you say it's obviously the Mac since Fox uses Flash Player.

FOX's video FAQ says they use flash for live streaming. Your mac isn't handling that well, vs any of the other possible live streaming methods that you say are working, so I'd suspect the handling of flash video.

System Preferences (as Thinkdiff pointed out) are where all your settings for everything is, on the mac.

I've never subjected myself to Fox, streaming or otherwise, but I do stream other flash content on a number of Macs without issue. So it's not a general flash+mac issue. You have eliminated the FOX flash + your internet connection, since you say you can stream FOX to other PCs in your home. I assume you've checked the mac doesn't have some odd networking issue, so that leaves... flash, on that mac.

Insight6
join:2012-08-25

Insight6 to Thinkdiff

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Yes, I have the latest browsers of all types on both the Mac and PC. The problem is everywhere.

A side note that I just thought about that may be key: On the Fox videos that are preceded by a commercial the video commercial, which I assume uses flash, plays, fine. It is only on the OS X that the subsequent fox news video has the problem.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

can you post a link to something that doesn't play well?

Insight6
join:2012-08-25

Insight6

Member

John, EVERY SINGLE FOX NEWS VIDEO at www.foxnews.com all the time every time! Take your pick. Click on ANY of the linked or posted videos. You can't make a "wrong" choice. BUT...they all play fine on the PC.

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

Can you post the specs of your Mac? Processor? RAM? GPU?

Yes, I know you said you can play other videos fine, but I'm just curious.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

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said by Insight6:

John, EVERY SINGLE FOX NEWS VIDEO at www.foxnews.com all the time every time! Take your pick. Click on ANY of the linked or posted videos. You can't make a "wrong" choice. BUT...they all play fine on the PC.

Ok... I CAREFULLY selected from among the choices the story on turkey / Syria - it streamed fine to my ancient 2006 mac mini running lion, in firefox. I think we can rule out something with Macs in general and FOX News.

What mac (hardware, osx version) are you using? What else is going on on that mac? What's Activity Monitor telling you about free memory, CPU usage? Did you change something significant last week? New software? Update?

Insight6
join:2012-08-25

Insight6 to Thinkdiff

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to Thinkdiff
said by Thinkdiff:

Can you post the specs of your Mac? Processor? RAM? GPU?

Yes, I know you said you can play other videos fine, but I'm just curious.

CPU: 3 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: 6 GB
Video: ATI RADEON 5770 with 1 GB video memory.

Latest browsers AND flashplayer. Pretty strange too that the lead in commercials play flawlessly but the news videos have a problem.

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

Is this a Hackintosh? What model of Mac came with 3GHz Core 2 Duo and the 5770?

Insight6
join:2012-08-25

Insight6

Member

said by Thinkdiff:

Is this a Hackintosh? What model of Mac came with 3GHz Core 2 Duo and the 5770?

"Hackintosh?" What "model of Mac." Sorry, I honestly have no idea what you are asking or referring to.

It seems clear that there is no answer to be found at this time.

I laid out the all the hardware specs and version of OS X, answered all the questions asked by everyone trying to help about all the versions of flash, browsers, and described the exact circumstances of this spontaneous relatively new development.

The only thing that possibly changed was the latest version of flash came out. The problem started ABOUT that time but I simply do not remember if the problem started before the flash update or after--Only that they were in close in time--BUT, all other sites using Flash work fine and this is the same machine I have for a long time--about a year and a half.

I have people telling me they don't have my problem--like that helps anything while I have others telling me they too are experiencing the same thing--that's not much help either.

Thanks for your help. I appreciate your time. I suspect the problem will eventually spontaneously clear up. Maybe when I upgrade to Mountain Lion--if I ever get around to it.

The best mystery for me is why does the lead in commercial play fine preceding the video. That's flash is it not and it is coming from the or through the Fox News site as the news video immediately is segued in.

genxr
Premium Member
join:2004-08-11
Arlington, TX

genxr

Premium Member

TD was just wanting to determine what mac we're dealing with (iMac, Macbook, etc.)

My only suggestion would be to reset safari and clean out/delete the site information in the "Local Storage Settings" part of the Flash settings.

Insight6
join:2012-08-25

Insight6

Member

said by genxr:

My only suggestion would be to reset safari and clean out/delete the site information in the "Local Storage Settings" part of the Flash settings.

Did it. No effect. Thanks.
Dodge
Premium Member
join:2002-11-27

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Windows version of flash has an option to enable hardware acceleration of video which in rare instances may cause issues, does mac version have anything similar? If it does I'd try it both ways, with and without the acceleration to see if it improves.

Insight6
join:2012-08-25

1 edit

Insight6

Member

Been there done that on the iMac--no effect. So far it looks like it is permanent or will clear up spontaneously, (eventually.) When I get around to upgrading to ML maybe that will change.

Thanks for the suggestion.

ADDENDUM: I've noticed that contrary to previous statements not all lead in commercials on Fox Videos plays correctly. Some do and some have the same problem as the Fox Video that follows.

The key thing is Flash Player works on ALL other sites perfectly. However, I also have noticed by right clicking on a Fox Video player that besides making reference to the Flash Player is mentions a Fox Video Player. Unclear what the relevancy of that is!
Insight6

Insight6

Member

Upgraded to the new beta version of flash. No change. Search of Internet shows years of problems with flash and Macs. Fox is a common complaint but there are many about all sites using flash.

I remember when IE 7 came out. Fox videos wouldn't play. Just Fox. Rolled back to IE6. A month or so later somebody somewhere in the pipe straighten it out.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

said by Insight6:

Upgraded to the new beta version of flash. No change. Search of Internet shows years of problems with flash and Macs. Fox is a common complaint but there are many about all sites using flash.

I remember when IE 7 came out. Fox videos wouldn't play. Just Fox. Rolled back to IE6. A month or so later somebody somewhere in the pipe straighten it out.

That's great, but my mac mini with far worse hardware than yours runs FOX flash video fine. So do others. Your mac is having some software issue. I don't know what it is, but it's not "FOX | Flash doesn't work on Macs..."

tommy3rd
I Am Nuckin Futs
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join:2000-03-10
Clifton, NJ

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create a new user account, and see if it works from there. if that doesn't work, copy all internet plugins from the Library>internet plugins to the users>username>library>internet plugins or vice-versa... whichever folder is more complete.

Insight6
join:2012-08-25

1 edit

Insight6

Member

said by tommy3rd:

create a new user account, and see if it works from there. if that doesn't work, copy all internet plugins from the Library>internet plugins to the users>username>library>internet plugins or vice-versa... whichever folder is more complete.

Tommy, I haven't a clue what you are talking about. Not a fucking clue. LOL. You probably and understandably missed the part where essentially I explained that I know Windows pretty well having used all MS OS since 3.1 up through Windows 7, the latter being far and away their best OS.

The Mac was gift to me about one and one half year ago. To this day I haven't read one word about the ins and out how to info on OS X. I've simply learned by just doing. Hence my ignorance and lack of understanding about your advice.

JohnInSJ has been one several people who have really tried to help this situation. He thinks because his mini runs Fox Videos OK it HAS to be a software problem on my Mac. It might very well be right. Right or wrong his input is appreciated but simply for the sake of discussion in general OS X when compared to Windows has a GROUP have had a much higher and well documented problem with Flash going back to at least 2007. Technical articles have been written on it with proposed "fixes." The fact that one computer, regardless of OS, works fine with some issue or non-issue while one of its peers has a problem is not indicative that all computers with that OS will or will not have a problem.

A friend of mine has a new relative new iMac with either Lion or ML on it. He has EXACT same problem I do. So its just the luck of the computer draw. My computer is the same as when I got it. the problem spontaneously started just two weeks ago.

I'm sticking to my guns in predicting that the problem will spontaneously clear up in the near future. If it does I will post that here or if a reason is discovered for the problem that is particular to a problem on my computer and it is identified I too will post it here.

Cheers!

ADDENDUM: I should note that Flash has a history of not only having problems with Macs but also regardless of OS with different versions of browsers throughout the years and in their involvement. In fact Flash seems to be a bit of ADHD software child.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

Actually, I have several Macs that run flash on fox ok, that one is the lowest class of hardware

Tommy has asked you to create a new user account for you Mac:

»www.dummies.com/how-to/c ··· s-x.html

Now log in as that user (When logging out be sure to make note of the user name you are currently logged in as, so you can log back in as that user when you are done

»www.ehow.com/how_2056447 ··· ger.html

Now, try streaming video from Fox.

This will eliminate any odd settings that may be associated with your current/default user.

When you're done, switch back to your default user.

Insight6
join:2012-08-25

Insight6

Member

OK I successfully executed and tried what was suggested. As I strongly suspected there was no effect on the Fox News streaming video player.

It is well documented that over the past six years at least Fox News has had periodical problems with its videos playing on some Macs irregardless and unrelated to the model. It is also a documented fact that they have had problems with certain versions of IE in Windows and other Windows issues at periodic times.

The specific documented problems have all ways gone away over time. I believe that in my case they too will clear up in the foreseeable future--and spontaneously too without explanation.

The fact that on any model of computer or browser on a specific given machine regardless of OS that a certain function, feature, program, video, and so on works on one machine but has problems with another in theory same model machine is often of no functional relevant applicability.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

I don't subscribe to the "some machines are just cursed" model of computing, but if it works for you

There is something wrong, and it is specific to your machine - we just can't figure it out. Hope it gets better for you!

Insight6
join:2012-08-25

Insight6

Member

How much you want to bet the problem if it doesn't spontaneously resolve itself it goes away when I finally get my rear end in gear and my money together and upgrade to Mountain Lion?

Michael100
@209.140.206.x

Michael100

Anon

I had the exact same problem and found that if I cleared the browsing history in all three browsers it fixed the problem.

Insight6
join:2012-08-25

Insight6

Member

No effect.