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Poll

If you're with Windows, which players do you use?

Media Player Classic
[ 3 ] (16.7%)
Windows Media Player
[ 2 ] (11.1%)
Winamp
[ 3 ] (16.7%)
Foobar
[ 5 ] (27.8%)
RealPlayer
[ 1 ] (5.6%)
VLC
[ 3 ] (16.7%)
Other(s)
[ 1 ] (5.6%)

Total Members Voted: 5

Topic: Where do the goats live? (Read 10869 times)

Where do the goats live?

I have three browsers (IE doesn't count), and the four media players listed in the poll.
Some time ago, Chrome seemed to be the best solution to browse the Web and watch videos. But it's changed.
In the other browsers (O & Ff) videos perform smoothly. But in Chrome, they don't usually break or lag but the picture gets fractured - as if I see only part of the shots in the continuity.
As to YouTube, now the sound - which very often "goats" - means it's breaking (all the continuity is present, but it breaks so that the timing is also wrong). But when the video frame (the screen) is out of view (scrolled out of the pane, or the tab changed, or whatever), the sound and all are normal.
I think it's related that other players' playback gets similarly corrupted sometimes - seems only with Google Chrome being used to browse. Maybe it's certain sites (with their content), but sometimes even scrolling through normal pages gets the same issue with - usualy it's Foobar or RealPlayer running a radio.
Additional thing is that my Windows 'browsing' quite often gets troubled in some ways (delays & such), so it may be that something on my machine is also involved?
Or what about the hardware? Or certain drivers?
Still to reiterate: not other browsers but Chrome to notice that.

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #1 –
VLC is missing in the poll.

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #3 –
I use Winamp on Vista at work. So this poll is not for me anyway. Winamp is a non-goat media player. It really whips the llama's ass.

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #4 –
You're wrong - edited and reset.
However, this script/engine/whatever also doesn't allow to edit certain other setting - namely 'number of options to pick' by one person. So it stays 5.
I could ask Frenzie to eliminate the poll altogether. As for Winamp - I WANTED to list it - but just FORGOT the name, ok?

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #5 –
The KMPlayer used to be terrific.

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #6 –
MPlayer/SMPlayer here.

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #7 –
Obviously, goats live here :right:

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #8 –
Have you got your fun?
What about the question?
I don't insist on solving my problem, but if you have had similar or anyhow resembling issues...

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #9 –
Quote from: Josh on

Have you got your fun?
What about the question?
I don't insist on solving my problem, but if you have had similar or anyhow resembling issues...
Yes, I had similar issues fifteen years ago. Trying a great variety of players fixed it. In old times, Real Alternative, Quicktime Alternative, and Winamp in addition to Windows Media Player solved all problems. These days VLC is very versatile and powerful.

How about avoiding Chrome and seeking to download files instead of relying on plugins? Downloading media files can be complicated. It often involves opening up the source code of pages and extracting the urls to media files from there, but it's a worthwhile skill.

VLC can do amazing things. You can select File > Save, then there look up network (or some such) tab, and insert e.g. a Youtube link to get it converted to a local media file. Or you can open up a Youtube link with File > Open if your connection is fast enough.

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #11 –
Google OS is for you then.

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #12 –
Quote from: Josh on
I think it's related that other players' playback gets similarly corrupted sometimes - seems only with Google Chrome being used to browse. Maybe it's certain sites (with their content), but sometimes even scrolling through normal pages gets the same issue with - usualy it's Foobar or RealPlayer running a radio.


Quote from: Josh on
Additional thing is that my Windows 'browsing' quite often gets troubled in some ways (delays & such), so it may be that something on my machine is also involved?

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #13 –
So what about the picture sequence jerking?
When I run a downloaded video, everything seems ok! Even when a browser with several tabs is open.

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #14 –
ׂ

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #15 –
Quote from: j7n on
It has to stutter.
So that's what it's called? No "jerking"?:)

Quote from: j7n on
...because of all the bloated page elements around the flash or browser-inbuilt video control.
Hm... My usual "cinema" has not at all so many elements as it seems. Can stuff in other tabs affect the perfomance heavily?
I'm not sure if it's mostly Google (Chrome) to blame or that the issue is the overall quantity of certain "active elements" either in that same browser or even all the processes on machine. My Chrome, being my not default but usual/casual browser, has the start setting to get all the pages reopen. And I have not less than 5 of tabs on it usually, including a couple of dictionaries (which pages are not heavy loaded, mostly), Facebook, used to be MyOpera - now it's DnD; some additional dictionaries have their pages heavier enough; sometimes (often) it's also a Yahoo! search page; quite often some additional stuff, now there's an interactive map here, for example...
Nah, it used to behave well on videos, my Chrome...
My other browsers have less tabs open - or, in the case of Opera, the "no-keep" setting... The old Firefox recently played videos ok - having some 4 or 5 other tabs open surplus... So...

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #16 –
ׂ

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #18 –
.

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #19 –
ׂ

In-browser video versus off-browser radio?

Reply #21 –
Quote from: j7n on

Last time I tested Opium (based on Chrome), video playback jerked and stuttered in it too. The browser failed to make the video playback process/thread higher priority. Even though there aren't that many other tabs, the video player still had to make way for them because it wasn't considered important enough by the browser.

Take YouTube for example. For several people over at forums.opera.com it appears to  consume all the CPU power just loading the "sidebar" before any videos are started. If you move the mouse around, there are other little bars floating into view, interrupting the video.

If I start a good player on top of the browser, it automatically manages its priority to be higher than the browser (Above Normal is enough for me). If there is enough memory, the browser can then sit there in the background running JavaScript for as long as it wants, and video playback isn't affected.
So you say, is it a different issue with that about "stuttering" sound in separate apps radio play? Sometimes? ???

Re: Where do the goats live?

Reply #22 –
ׂ