Fix: Flash Jumps, Stutters, and Skips in Firefox and Internet Explorer
filed in Windows Vista on May.04, 2009
Up until recently I too was one of those people that suffered from the choppy video on YouTube and other flash video sites. After fiddling around with a few of my audio settings, I was able to alleviate the symptom, and now have smooth video.
How to Fix It (Windows Vista)
The issue was resolved for me when I disabled my Audio Enhancements.
1. Start->Settings->Control Panel
2. Select Classic View
3. Double-Click the Sound Icon
4. Click on the Enhancements Tab
5. Check the box for Disable all Enhancements
6. Hit OK
7. Close all instances of Firefox and restart it
You should no longer have any problems with your video skipping or stuttering.
July 9th, 2009 on 8:14 am
Any tips for Windows XP? Same problem and there is no enhancements tab. I can’t find anything similar to enhancements in the sound settings.
July 31st, 2009 on 8:33 am
I have experienced this problem and was able to cure it on my system.
In your BIOS setup:
1. Make sure spread spectrum is DISABLED. It is only used to prevent EMI/RFI.
2. If your video memory is shared with the system, make sure it is set to a minimum of 32MB.
3. Make sure your aperture size is set to 64MB ( not much advantage going larger than that.
These steps completely cured my problem.
January 18th, 2010 on 9:16 pm
Thank you, I have been experiencing this issue in Win XP, Vista AND 7. I had tried a number of methods to correct the stuttering, but this is the only method that has worked.
Thank you very much!
February 22nd, 2010 on 12:37 pm
@Gary
The aperture setting and video memory have nothing to do flash video, the “video” is not actually rendered by the video card, it is simply displayed at it streams. Everyone’s system is different and you shouldn’t change the Aperture size below your actual video memory. Lowering the aperture can decrease performance dramatically.