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[pepolpc]

Hello fellow XO'ers!

Like all of you, I've been somewhat disappointed with the choppy video performance of Adobe's flash player on sites like YouTube.  However, after many hours of searching, I've found a simple solution that can help improve, in some cases, dramatically, flash video framerate.

For the record, I'm running Opera under the Xfce window manager on the XO.  If your setup is different, I can't guarantee results, though I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work under Sugar as well.

STEPS:
1. If you haven't already, open a terminal, su to root, and install the adobe flash player plugin with:

Code:

rpm -i http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/flash-plugin-9.0.48.0-release.i386.rpm

2. Navigate to your opera plugins directory--

Code:

cd /usr/lib/opera/plugins

3. Here comes the magic--most flash movies default to high quality--this hack forces most videos to default to low quality, thus improving playback.  (Instructions for this hack came from the folowing 2 websites: http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27167 and http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-543747.html)
While in your plugins directory, run the following command:

Code:

cp libflashplayer.so libflashplayer.so.bak && sed -i 's/HIGH/LOW/g' libflashplayer.so && sed -i 's/LOW/HIGH/' libflashplayer.so

That's all!  Restart Opera, and you should notice an immediate increase in flash video playback speed.  I tested this on the following video from YouTube:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/lTxsIJBVCD0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/lTxsIJBVCD0</a>
entitled The Death and Life of Ice Cream--it runs nearly twice as fast after this hack!  This doesn't seem to fix ALL flash videos, however...nothing's perfect, I s'pose.

Hope you all find this info useful!  I know I've learned quite a bit from you all, and I'm happy to be able to contribute something back. 

--Paul (typed on an XO, so excuse any errors!)

[Irish_Moss]

That's awesome!
I just tried it on the default browser, and it worked!  Flash speed is noticeably improved.

Instructions are the same except the libflashplayer.so is located in /usr/lib/flash-plugin

[eden]

pepolpc, this ROCKS!  Thank you! 

And thank you, Irish_Moss, for the additional info for Browse!

[pepolpc]

You're more than welcome.

I didn't realize how versatile this little machine would be, but thanks to the experts that frequent this board and the olpc wiki, in just a week I've been able to:

1. Install the awesome Xfce window manager
2. Install Opera for the XO (btw, it's awesome!)
3. Install a kick-butt NES emulator (FakeNES)

and more!  Just a quick thanks to everyone!

--Paul

[Fricka]

Just an FYI - I used the instructions and did get YouTube videos play smoother in Opera. It worked great!

I also did it for the default browser and it seemed to also work (my test was the ice cream video).

However, when I went to Utterz http://www.utterz.com using Opera I could no longer play the audio files or the videos whereas I could play them before the change (and in fact a particular video played smoother than anything I've seen yet). With the change the same video just showed a grey rectangle.

I tried various "fixes" (clearing Opera cache, etc) but I finally just changed the settings back for Opera. Then the audio and video files on Utterz started working again and sadly the YouTube videos are back to being slow.

So, if you happen to go to other flash sites and find things are not working it might be due to the setting change.

I'm leaving the changes up for the default browser for now so if I want to watch You Tube I'll just use that one and Opera for all else. Unless anyone else has some suggestions?

[gecko]

Thanks, Paul!  The hack works great.  I don't have Opera installed but thanks to Irish_Moss I can watch YouTube using Browse.

I have a question, though.  When I look at a vid on YouTube, I see two flash objects, one above the other.  The one on top doesn't load automatically.  It has a red outline and the words Flash[[Click to play]]X.  The one on the bottom loads immediately and starts playing on its own. 

What is the explanation for this?  Are flash and gnash both trying to open the vid?  Is there a way to tell Browse not to start playing an flv vid in flash until I tell it to?

[g1g1greg]

In applying this fix to the default browser, you say youtube plays well (are you saying it is smooth on most videos).  I did this fix to the Opera browser and the ice cream video was fairly smooth, but others are choppy still.  Basically the default browser (after hacked) will be designated for youtube?
Thanks,
Greg

[Fricka]

Greg, who are you asking? If me, I'm only using the default browser for YouTube because I decided to undo the fix for Opera since I use the Utterz website more than YouTube. Otherwise I consider Opera my primary internet browser on the XO.

The default browser played the ice cream video smoother than pre-fix but I didn't test other videos so I would not say "it is smooth on most videos". Paul says it may increase frame rate dramatically "in some cases".

Gecko: I have the same issue with the double Flash players. I don't know if there is a fix, ThePete asked this same question in the forums earlier and has not had a reply.

[Niels]

Our 2 yo son was instantly drawn to the XO, and our 6 yo daughter quickly followed after being very disappointed that it didn't play DVDs. A number of kids' flash sites, like Sesame Street's Sesame Workshop, were completely broken under gnash in Browse, but Adobe flashplayer fixed it and the magic hack seems to have sped it up. Now that the XO can handle these sites, our 2 yo son can now play Elmo's Potty Time even when our 6 yo daughter wants to play Webkinz. No fighting over the mouse. And that has made all the difference. Thanks guys.

[Atif]

Just tried this and it DEFINITELY helped with youtube videos!

However it is still not "normal" or fluid with most videos.  I'm using Opera.

Are other people able to watch Youtube videos properly?

With youtube I've found that it also really helps to PAUSE the video when it first starts playing so that the XO can download the entire video.  The red bar at the bottom of the youtube  video screen fills in as it downloads.  Once it is done, if you THEN hit play the video is better.

[eden]

Just tried this and it DEFINITELY helped with youtube videos!

However it is still not "normal" or fluid with most videos.  I'm using Opera.

Are other people able to watch Youtube videos properly?

With youtube I've found that it also really helps to PAUSE the video when it first starts playing so that the XO can download the entire video.  The red bar at the bottom of the youtube  video screen fills in as it downloads.  Once it is done, if you THEN hit play the video is better.

You are not alone, Atif.  Even after allowing the video to complete loading, the playback on Opera is a little less smooth than on my PC (although much better than it was before this fix).  On the other hand, a .flv file played back with mplayer direct from an SD card is smooth.  But I am still impressed that this little laptop with low-power specs has stretched to do all it has so far!

[thepete]

I'm having similar issues to Fricka after trying this out, only I think I'm not as knowledgeable about Terminal--can someone tell me how to undo this process?  I'm not sure why, but when I pull up any page on Utterz with a video on it my XO browser crashes completely.  Meanwhile, Opera just gives me a big gray square.  This was actually happening before I tried this tweak, so undoing this may not do a thing.  At this point I kinda wish I hadn't upgraded the OS to 653 :\  Stupid me. 

[thepete]

Yeesh, OK, I uninstalled Adobe Flash and reinstalled it and that stopped Utterz from crashing the XO browser.  However, now Flash videos on Utterz show up, but they don't play.  However part 2, Utterz vids play fine in Opera, so I think I'm good.

[Irish_Moss]

Gecko, try this:
http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=569.msg5604#msg5604

It worked for me.

[dealy663]

When I tried this hack flash stopped working for me in opera.  I had to copy the original file back.

Opera said that I didn't have flash installed after this fix.

Any ideas?