Network TV Video

[abbyozzi]

Hi Everyone, I'm new here and am having a problem. When I go to watch videos on the Network TV stations (NBC<CBS<ABC) they're blurry and are choppy. I have NO problem watching any other videos online. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm using Linux Mint 17.2. The problem happens whether I'm using Google Chrome, Firefox or Maxthon Browsers.
Thanks in advance

[phd21]

Hi abbyozzi,

Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux Mint and its excellent forum!

It could be their websites.

It would help to have more specific system setup information, see FYI below.

1.) If you do not have the "Fresh Player plug-in" for FireFox installed, "PepperFlash plug-in" for Chrome, "Flash Plug-in installer", then you might consider doing that.

Fresh Player Plug-in Sees New Release 2015
http://www.webupd8.org/2015/01/fresh-pl ... lease.html

To install this using the PPA method, open a console terminal, type in, or copy & paste, each line below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install freshplayerplugin
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer
sudo apt-get install pepperflashplugin-nonfree


This is an alternative installation command. If the above pepperflash command did not work, type in:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure pepperflashplugin-nonfree


2.) *** Great article and post *** HTML5 and Firefox -- advanced settings
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... lit=+html5


3.) You can go to the Adobe Flash website to check and verify that you have that setup properly...
Adobe Flash player
https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/

How to Upgrade Adobe Flash Player on Linux Mint
http://www.wikihow.com/Upgrade-Adobe-Fl ... Linux-Mint


Hope this helps ...

FYI: It would help everyone here to have more information about your system's setup: like what edition and version of Linux Mint are you using, Cinnamon, Mate, KDE (my favorite), or Xfce; version 17, 17.1, 17.2, or What?; 32-bit or 64-bit? Some more information about your hardware would be useful as well. You can get this information from top of your system menu's Welcome screen, System Information program(s), and the best is by typing in "inxi -Fxz" from a console terminal prompt, which you can then copy and paste back here. This information helps anyone here in this forum to be able to answer any questions you may have better , thanks. You can even add this information (abbreviated) to your signature using the control panel link in the above left of this forum screen; then when you post a question or reply to one, that info will automatically be there, ex: see mine and others below their posts.

[abbyozzi]

Hi,
Thank you for all the information. Unfortunately nothing worked. Below is the information requested. I did forget to mention that besides the videos on the network tv channels being choppy they are also blurry. I don't have any problems playing videos on any other websites. Thanks again for your help. Here is the info.
Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela Cinnamon 64-bit

System: Host: mint-HP-2000-Notebook-PC Kernel: 3.16.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.2)
Desktop: Cinnamon 2.6.13 Distro: Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela
Machine: System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP 2000 Notebook PC version: 088B110000305910000620100
Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 188B version: KBC Version 69.18 Bios: Insyde version: F.47 date: 06/05/2014
CPU: Dual core AMD E-300 APU with Radeon HD Graphics (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 5190.86
Clock Speeds: 1: 780.00 MHz 2: 780.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Wrestler [Radeon HD 6310] bus-ID: 00:01.0
X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD PALM GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Wrestler HDMI Audio driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:01.1
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.16.0-38-generic
Network: Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k bus-ID: 07:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Card-2: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller
driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 2000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 320.1GB (2.3% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54323 size: 320.1GB
Partition: ID: / size: 290G used: 6.8G (3%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 3.86GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
RAID: No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 53.1C mobo: N/A gpu: 53.0
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 172 Uptime: 58 min Memory: 959.6/3545.6MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.11) inxi: 1.9.17

[Hoser Rob]

Try going into Settings->Driver Manager. See if there's something there for your video card. You're using the open source radeon driver. The fglrx one (though it may not be called that exactly) should work fine for a 6xxx card.

[abbyozzi]

Hi Hoser,
I tried that also. I did a reboot in between, but I'm still getting the blurry and choppy playback. I found a post on Google that said to try running Windows Version of Firefox inside Wine, but that didn't work either.

[phd21]

Hi abbyozzi,

I just read that "AdBlock" type programs could be interfering with video. What add-ons and plug-ins do you have installed? In case one of your extensions is involved, could you test the CBS site in Firefox's Safe Mode, under "help", "restart with add-ons disabled"?

Could you provide a specific link, or two, that you are having a problem with so we can try it? I went to the CBS shows, and my machine is 10yrs old, lousy video, and a single core, but I could watch a video, not full screen, but it was a little choppy, otherwise good quality, and sound was perfect, but that is normal for my machine.

For some reason your processors are not running at 1.3 ghz but at the much slower 750 mhz according to the "inxi -Fxz" results. If you have a setting in Bios for "best performance", I would enable, choose, it. Either way, this is not a fast machine, especially for streaming video. I read some reviews that claimed any video over 480p resolution might be problematic with this computer (Amazon.com user review).

Can't use firefox to watch videos on cbs.com - if it is a permissions problem, easy fix.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1011633

Right click on the website > Choose View Page Info >Permissions

Activate
Plugin Flash > Choose[x] Allow
Silverlight > Choose[x] Allow

Hope this helps ...

[phd21]

Hi abbyozzi,

Hey, I was researching how to use Netflix for another post and came across this interesting tidbit (piece) of information, that might also help you. In the link below, the comments at the bottom showed the information which I have now quoted for you below.

How to Watch Netflix Natively on Linux – the Easy Way
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/watch-netf ... -easy-way/

"Hulu" is possible now though thanks to a PPA made by Martin Wimpress, the founder of Ubuntu MATE.
To install this using the PPA method, open a console terminal, type in, or copy & paste, each line below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/hal-flash
sudo apt update
sudo apt install libhal1-flash


Then reboot your system, this is not strictly necessary but is advised to ensure that browser and plugin processes quit correctly.

Note* – this will fix Hulu in Firefox, for any Linux distro, but it will also fix Amazon Prime Video as well.

Hope this helps ...

[abbyozzi]

Thank you everyone for your help so far. I've tried all of the above with no success. Here is one of the links where I get the blurred/choppy playback. I hope this helps.
http://www.nbc.com/days-of-our-lives/vi ... vc137306=1

Thanks

[phd21]

Hi abbyozzi,

I just tried your NBC link, and I had the same problems as you. Choppy and blurry, then after a minute or so, it got a little better, but still not watchable to me. So, I spent well over an hour and a half trying other browsers (Google, Firefox, Opera), numerous multi-media players, Smtube (this was close), etc... no luck. And no offense intended, but this is not my kind of show and the number of commercials was outrageous, and yet the commercials played almost perfectly.

That is weird that other websites seem to work fine, except these.

Perhaps, If you could download the video(s) from somewhere, then it would certainly play better locally through a multi-media player; Since you can watch it for free online, that should not be a problem. Or, watch them somewhere else like Hulu, maybe Netflix, Hulu Plus, etc... If you are a cable or satellite subscriber, you might be able to view them online that way as well.

Mp3Rocket - actually played a little better
http://www.mp3rocket.me/videos/1_18927/ ... isodes.htm


Hope this helps ...

[abbyozzi]

Hi PHD21,
Thank you so much for taking such a long time checking this out. I was glad it wasn't just me having the same problem. Also, Thank you so much for the advice. I want to thank everyone for being so helpful. I'm a noob and appreciate this forum for being here.
Thanks again!

[phd21]

HI abbyozzi,

You are most welcome.

Keep us posted on any new progress or developments on this...