Terrible video playback in firefox,but audio works well.

[TD15]

I have antix 19.2.1 full running on hp compaq nc6230 with pentium M 1.7GHz (1GB of RAM). I tried to watch a youtube video through firefox ,and I can say it was terrible. Even at 144p it was more like watching an image change every 2 seconds but audio plays normally. Does it have a relation with hardware based decoding not configured or because of lack of DirectX?
Back when I used windows XP watching high quality videos off DVDs was not a problem. That's good news because it indicates that the laptop is capable but needs configuration.

[SwampRabbit]

I have antix 19.2.1 full running on hp compaq nc6230 with pentium M 1.7GHz. I tried to watch a youtube video through firefox ,and I can say it was terrible. Even at 144p it was more like watching an image change every 2 seconds but audio plays normally. Does it have a relation with hardware based decoding not configured or because of lack of DirectX?
Back when I used windows XP watching high quality videos off DVDs was not a problem. That's good news because it indicates that the laptop is capable but needs configuration.

I can't offer too much help as I only run antiX in a VM, maybe this thread should get moved to the antiX subforum for better visibility.

Can you provide your Quick System info so we can get a better idea of what drivers this system is using for your hardware?

Firefox isn't the best for YouTube (at least for me), you may have better luck with Chromium, but your system is quite old so hardware acceleration may be hit or miss anyway.

There are other applications available to watch YouTube videos, such as SMtube, not sure of any other viable ones.

Your issue has nothing to do with having DirectX or not.

Have you attempted to watch a DVD with it yet?

[andyprough]

What happens if you install mpv and play a youtube video through it?
For example, to play a cute panda video from youtube:

Code: Select all

sudo apt install mpv
mpv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAEzpwvrveg

Do you get any better performance?

[Stuart_M]

If I had to guess I would say it doesn't have enough RAM.

Several search results showed that 512MB seemed to be a common/popular RAM amount from reviews on this computer. Compaq's web page for this computer (https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp ... /c00287979) showed it was capable of 256MB, 512MB or 1024MB of DDR2 SDRAM, upgradable to 2048MB in two slots, all at 400MHz (!).

So the question is, how much RAM is in your computer?

Internet browers are memory hogs and will typically use 1GB of RAM (with only one tab used).

Just a guess.

[anticapitalista]

antiX comes with a couple of apps that do youtube videos without using a browser eg mps-youtube

[TD15]

Your issue has nothing to do with having DirectX or not.

Ok then I do not need to switch back to outdated xp then.

[TD15]

If I had to guess I would say it doesn't have enough RAM.

Several search results showed that 512MB seemed to be a common/popular RAM amount from reviews on this computer. Compaq's web page for this computer (https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp ... /c00287979) showed it was capable of 256MB, 512MB or 1024MB of DDR2 SDRAM, upgradable to 2048MB in two slots, all at 400MHz (!).

So the question is, how much RAM is in your computer?

Internet browers are memory hogs and will typically use 1GB of RAM (with only one tab used).

Just a guess.

1GB of RAM (updated the thread)

[TD15]

I have tried chromium, it worked well evem with 480p video with the CPU loaded merely 30% compared to 100% on firefox. It seems that firefox was not using hardware acceleration.
That's the system info:
System: Host: hp-compaq Kernel: 4.9.212-antix.1-486-smp i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.9.212-antix.1-486-smp
root=UUID=943f09f5-0841-44a7-925f-340758504d2e ro vga=791 quiet
Desktop: IceWM 1.6.6 dm: SLiM 1.3.6
Distro: antiX-19.2_386-full Hannie Schaft 27 March 2020
base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Machine: Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Compaq nc6230 (PU986AA#ABA) v: F.0E
serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter>
Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 0944 v: KBC Version 40.21 serial: <filter>
BIOS: Hewlett-Packard v: 68DTA Ver. F.0E date: 10/24/2005
Battery: ID-1: C175 charge: 11.3 Wh condition: 14.5/14.5 Wh (100%) volts: 12.5/10.8
model: Hewlett-Packard Primary type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Charging
Memory: RAM: total: 1001.0 MiB used: 370.1 MiB (37.0%)
RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
PCI Slots: Permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU: Topology: Single Core model: Intel Pentium M bits: 32 type: MCP arch: M Dothan
family: 6 model-id: D (13) stepping: 6 microcode: 18 L2 cache: 2048 KiB bogomips: 1196
Speed: 600 MHz min/max: 600/1700 MHz Core speed (MHz): 1: 600
Flags: acpi apic bts clflush cmov cx8 de dts est fpu fxsr mca mce mmx msr mtrr pbe pge
pse sep ss sse sse2 tm tm2 tsc vme
Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Vulnerable
Type: l1tf status: Vulnerable
Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled
Type: meltdown status: Vulnerable
Type: spec_store_bypass status: Vulnerable
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics: Device-1: AMD RV370/M22 [Mobility Radeon X300] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: radeon
v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 1002:5460
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa
resolution: 1024x768~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: ATI RV370 v: 2.1 Mesa 18.3.6 direct render: Yes
Audio: Device-1: Intel 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW AC97 Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard Compaq NC6220
driver: snd_intel8x0 v: kernel bus ID: 00:1e.2 chip ID: 8086:266e
Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.9.212-antix.1-486-smp
Network: Device-1: Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG [Calexico2] Network vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: ipw2200 v: 1.2.2kmprq port: 2000 bus ID: 02:04.0 chip ID: 8086:4223
IF: eth1 state: up mac: <filter>
IP v4: <filter> scope: global broadcast: <filter>
IP v6: <filter> scope: link
Device-2: Broadcom Limited NetXtreme BCM5751M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: tg3 v: 3.137 port: 2000 bus ID: 10:00.0
chip ID: 14e4:167d
IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
WAN IP: <filter>

[Stevo]

Chromium and Firefox do not support hardware accelerated video decoding out of the box on antiX or MX. Firefox 80 has a couple of "about:config: settings I've tried switching on (search for va-api there), but it doesn't work for me yet. I'm not sure Linux supports hardware acceleration for Intel hardvvare that olde, though.

[TD15]

Problem solved I guess.
Fun fact: That laptop GPU was announced 5566 days ago!