ways to enhance video playback quality in firefox?

[manuelstagars]

i am running xp home on my s10e with 2GB RAM installed. however, online video playback in firefox (youtube and other video streaming sites, embedded flash videos on manufacturer websites etc.) is still most erratic, with frequent breaks and stops, even though the status bar on the video windows is far ahead of the cursor, indicating there should be enough of buffered data to be streamed.

ironically, i also have a (very old) dell laptop sporting an 800MHz processor and 512 MB RAM on which the same sites opened in the same version of firefox play back immediately in perfect quality. where is the bottleneck on the s10e?

i installed a ramdisk with 32 MB through which i am directing internet cache in firefox, but unfortunately there has been only minor improvement in quality since.

standalone applications like vlc or quicktime stream video from the harddrive without any problems.

has anyone experienced similar issues, or found a way to better video playback in firefox?

[pseudo]

I have experienced no problems with firefox playing flash in windows (in linux it's a different story due to buggy intel video drivers)... have you got all the most up-to-date drivers for your S10? Check out the lenovo website if you're not sure, it's pretty comprehensive.

[manuelstagars]

i do have the most up to date drivers; just re-installed them, experienced no change.

[pseudo]

hmmm... you've got 2GB of RAM, try with the original RAM installed, maybe it's that? Otherwise I'm out. Sorry.

[manuelstagars]

This issue has persisted before the RAM upgrade (it is in fact the reason for the upgrade). I simply cannot figure out what the problem is; the same youtube videos play without problems on another laptop with exactly the same software setup, a weaker processor and only 512 MB RAM.

[pseudo]

OK, have you tried to stream video over the internet using VLC? Try that to see if it's the connection. If that works fine it may be the browser or the flash plugin. Try re-installing both?

It's not the RAM, you have the latest hardware drivers, it's not the connection, that leaves the viewing software or a hardware issue. It doesn't sound like the graphics card else VLC would have the same issues. Maybe try downloading a flash video and playing it in your browser to see how that performs?