Flash 10.1 Solution (I think!) - Play HD Youtube!

[TrackSmart]

UPDATE: I think I found the solution to hardware accelerated Flash Video under Windows 7 (and presumably Vista). Previously, my test video was a 1 FPS slideshow whenever I played it in HD. Now it plays smoothly once cached - even at full screen. TEST VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz86TsGx3fc

UPDATE2: HD Hulu video plays decently when windowed. However, you notice some dropped frames, especially when you go to full screen. Still, it's a world of difference. It's actually watchable. I'm not sure if this is due to optimizations or if we are getting true hardware acceleration, because CPU is around 85%-90% with spikes to 100% at times.

UPDATE3: 1080p Youtube doesn't appear to work (example: Zombie Land trailer). The video stayed green with distortions up top. Still, you will now be able to smoothly play most web video, including "normal" HD Youtube. CORRECTION: 720p plays fine. You only get graphical corruption when jumping up to 1080p.


INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Uninstall all old versions of Flashplayer, it's plugins, ActiveX, and adobe downloader.
2) Install graphics driver version 7.14.10.1006 (Vista). If you are running Windows 7, you'll have to change the properties of the EXE file so that it runs in Windows Vista SP2 compatibility mode. That's what I did.
3) Install driver and restart computer
4) Install flashplayer active X and plugin for version 10.1: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/
[I also freshly opened and closed each of my browsers at this stage, though it's doubtful that is a necessary step]
5) Restart computer. Now HD Youtube should play smoothly at ~70% CPU utilization after the video has finished caching.


*** CONCLUSION: You'll have to use a slightly outdated Windows Vista driver to get it working without video artifacts under Windows 7. The driver version above is the answer.

Here's a direct download link for driver 7.14.10.2006 courtesy of the Windows 7 Sticky and Josh5183:
http://stuff.josh.sc/aao751h/drivers/aa ... 0.1006.zip

Here's a link to Adobe Flashplayer 10.1 Beta:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/


720p Youtube (Works!)



1080p Youtube (Does NOT Work):

[Bajer]

I guess we will just have to wait for adobe to make flash 10.1 support the gma 500 with the newest drivers playing hd video content on the internet is imo one of the only thing missing, to make this small pc really good.

[TrackSmart]

I guess we will just have to wait for adobe to make flash 10.1 support the gma 500 with the newest drivers playing hd video content on the internet is imo one of the only thing missing, to make this small pc really good.

Indeed. That's about the only thing, as it handles all other typical tasks just fine.

Just curious, but is anyone running one of the older graphics driver versions who feels like testing this? Basically, you just uninstall flashplayer, then install the new version (located in the first post). Restart your computer and see if Hulu or Youtube videos play without artifacts. I'll try this myself when I get a chance, but I don't have the time right now to be rolling back drivers - too much work to be done.

[AdamElphick]

Adobe is aware of the problem and seems less than forward about saying what they will do about it... in fact they claim in the following thread that the GMA500 is not capable of H264 video!

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/526017?tstart=0

Shameful to blame a piece of compliant hardware for failings in their own beta release!

[TrackSmart]

Adobe is aware of the problem and seems less than forward about saying what they will do about it... in fact they claim in the following thread that the GMA500 is not capable of H264 video!

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/526017?tstart=0

Shameful to blame a piece of compliant hardware for failings in their own beta release!

Clearly the person who responded to that comment was confusing the GMA 500 for a different GPU. They were probably thinking about the GMA 950 that is in most netbooks.

[c921]

Has anyone gotten accelerated flash video to work on their 751h? It plays HD Youtube on mine at only 50-70% CPU usage, but with so much gray "interference" that videos are completely obscured.

The one glimmer of hope is that a guy with an MSI X320, which also has GMA 500, says he got it to work. He's using different graphics drivers though, version 7.14.10.1006 (Vista) drivers. I'm currently using 8.14.10.2011 (under Windows 7). Is anyone using that older driver version? Can they see if the new Flashplayer works for them?

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/

Thanks for this update! I get to finally watch HD in youtube!!!
I did what you wrote here, uninstalled the previous flash plugins then restarted my netbook.
I'm running on Vista with SP2 and the GMA500 version 7.14.10.1006

I can only play 720p HD videos in youtube though with a FULL SCREEN. Its just a bit pixelated but its very watchable not irritating in full screen.
The screen turned green and crashed when I tried playing the 1080p.
Looking good. I hope Adobe updates this so that I can get to love my netbook again.

I tested this video at 720p and it worked flawlessly - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYmmh9zkpQM

[TrackSmart]

Superb. I'm glad that you have confirmed that it works on your system, too. I'm guessing this will work on most GMA 500 laptops running Vista or Windows 7. As you noticed, we are still out of luck with 1080p YouTube (I also get the green screen), but still a huge breakthrough.

Has anyone gotten accelerated flash video to work on their 751h? It plays HD Youtube on mine at only 50-70% CPU usage, but with so much gray "interference" that videos are completely obscured.

The one glimmer of hope is that a guy with an MSI X320, which also has GMA 500, says he got it to work. He's using different graphics drivers though, version 7.14.10.1006 (Vista) drivers. I'm currently using 8.14.10.2011 (under Windows 7). Is anyone using that older driver version? Can they see if the new Flashplayer works for them?

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/

Thanks for this update! I get to finally watch HD in youtube!!!
I did what you wrote here, uninstalled the previous flash plugins then restarted my netbook.
I'm running on Vista with SP2 and the GMA500 version 7.14.10.1006

I can only play 720p HD videos in youtube though with a FULL SCREEN. Its just a bit pixelated but its very watchable not irritating in full screen.
The screen turned green and crashed when I tried playing the 1080p.
Looking good. I hope Adobe updates this so that I can get to love my netbook again.

I tested this video at 720p and it worked flawlessly - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYmmh9zkpQM

[Epedemic]

Thank you. This works pretty well with win7 and ie. Would prefer the newest driver, as it has other fixes, but i'll manage at the moment. Wonder who will fix this, intel or adobe?

[bkathens]

Wow this has breathed new life in to my 751h! Thanks so much for doing all the research and getting this figured out!

[TrackSmart]

Wow this has breathed new life in to my 751h! Thanks so much for doing all the research and getting this figured out!

You are quite welcome. And I hope other people catch on to this fix. The ability to play 720p flash video on an Atom powered netbook is great. It finally does what was promised to us when the Acer 751 was released (i.e. they said it would play HD video - which was only partially true at the time, since playing HD video off the hard disk didn't work out-of-the-box and since HD Flash video was not accelerated).