02-11-2008, 06:04 PM

Hello,

So i bought myself an oldie clamshell, just for the pure basics of simply surfing the web and doing my usual downloads and watching some short youtube at my aunts house. I figured the clamshell would be fine, but when I watch youtube videos the sound is MINUTES ahead of the video, I get better results with dial up after a couple of hours! I waited, and waited, and waited, and it never got better. My aunts toshiba can watch youtube videos fine on the same connection.
Is this the internet connection or the iBook?
I don't think it was the connection speed, it's cable, don't know the speed. I was using an airport card and was pretty close to the router.

Is it time to trade in the clamshell for something better?
I wish I would have checked this out before I bought it.
Anyway, what would be more suitable for youtube vids?
A white G3?
Titanium G4?
Anything else?
I don't want to spend more than, lets say $200 on the 'book alone.
I would be hesitant but I would go over to the dark side (PC) if anyone knows of some cheap models.

Suggestions?

Oh my clamshell s a 366mhz indigo with 320mb ram and panther, which, I thought would be fine for youtube vids. Maybe it's the browser? (safari)

Anyone know?


Thanks,
Tanner.

02-11-2008, 10:51 PM

Adobe recommends a 500MHz G3 for Flash 8 or 9.
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashp...fo/systemreqs/

Sorry, but I always find it a little bit funny when someone posts, "This (more-than-five-year-old-computer) stinks at (anything.) Yeah, go figure?

02-12-2008, 04:14 PM

Originally Posted by technologist

Adobe recommends a 500MHz G3 for Flash 8 or 9.
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashp...fo/systemreqs/

Sorry, but I always find it a little bit funny when someone posts, "This (more-than-five-year-old-computer) stinks at (anything.) Yeah, go figure?

I would agree with you, but I think ultimately it would depend on what the specific task is.
I didn't think the clamshell wouldn't be able to handle the youtube videos, I thought that if it even loaded videos on my dial up after a while, it would on the clamshell too, but I didn't think processor speed played a real factor for some reasons. Which ultimately is why I don't know much about the internet in general, seeing as i have dial up.

So flash is what's used to play those videos?
That's really good to know, I should have thought of that BEFORE buying....
would a white 500 iBook be sufficient if i get like 384mb of ram?

02-12-2008, 04:40 PM

Yeah, Youtube is Flash. (You can tell by control-clicking on one of them.)

I'd try for a little above the minimum. G3s of all stripes are pretty barebones nowadays, but the 600MHz iBooks were not only 20% faster...they also had a 50% faster data bus.

02-14-2010, 03:14 PM

I know this is an old thread but.... I have a couple of Clamshells so I thought I'd comment.
You tube is one of the few things that clamshells don't do well. Other than that they're pretty amazing for a 10 year old laptop. For instance with the latest firmware update available for them they will take a 120 Gig hard drive. You can put a 512MB module of ram in them and the B rev. has 64MB on board. So for a total of 576MB. My Clamshell has a DVD/CD ROM and plays DVD's without any issues. I use a wireless N USB adapter with my Graphite 466Mhz Clamshell iBook. It gets around on the internet fairly well. The adapter I use is a Belkin F5D 8053 wireless N USB adapter. I use this both on my Clamshell running Tiger and my iBook G4 running Leopard.
Now, as for Youtube on a Clamshell. Some people download youtube videos then try to play them on there Clamshells.
I haven't tried it. I think I would download it then convert it to a format that is easier for the Clamshell to deal with. If it's really important to you to "stream" Youtube videos, than I would consider a laptop with at least a 800+Mhz processor.
Hope that helps others that are trying to do this.
Daniel aka totallybonkers

02-14-2010, 03:25 PM

Daniel is right,

G3s just don't do streaming video or any flash content well at all. It's not your internet connection, it's the CPU clock speed is just too low. If you want to go Mac, you're going to have to spend more than $200. You really should go with a nice G4 iBook or 12" Powerbook 700 mhz or above.

03-10-2010, 04:19 PM

There is a couple of things you can do to watch streaming youtube. I have a clamshell 466 and i can watch any video on youtube without the skipping.
First- use the opera browser. It may not be the fastest, but is best for video. I have tried this with all browsers.
Then shrink the content of the page as much as you can and still enjoy it.
This works for most videos. If it is still choppy, enter &fmt=5 at the end of the video address. To make it easier, right click on the video you want to watch, copy link address, paste it in the address bar and type &fmt=5 This way you do not have to type it in while the video is loading. Entering &fmt=5 works wonders for youtube playback on g3's.

03-10-2010, 09:32 PM

I have a macbook core2 duo 1.8ghz 3gb ram and it sucks too for youtube vids.
After about 1 minute the fans start going crazy.
It is really annoying.
My old compaq POS thing that weighed a ton had no problems with you tube.
I dunno what the deal is with mac and flash.

06-16-2010, 09:38 PM

It sounds like my iBook G4 (Late 2004) is acting the same way. I have 1.25GB RAM and 1.2GHz G4. It is the 12" and running Leopard. I am trying to watch the videos through MacTubes even, and it still plays the audio for a good 15 seconds before the 2 FPS video starts playing. Whats going on? My HDD is new and the Leopard is a new install. I have the "Energy Saver" settings for the CPU set to "Highest". Resolution is 1024x768 and on Thousands of Colors. I have an iMac G4 17", 1GHz and 512MB RAM that plays these videos better. This is crazy. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. I am trying to stream on AirPort and Ethernet. I want to be able to stream. Not being able to on an iBook of my specs is odd..? They should be pretty seamless.

Thanks again.

06-16-2010, 10:32 PM

Are all these videos using Flash to play? If so you have found your issue. Flash over the years has gotten quite bloated and slow especially on Power PC Macs.

Even my iMac G5 2.1 Ghz was starting to bog on You Tube videos. Adobe finally released Flash 10.1. On my iMac G5 at least it made a large difference. Now CPU usage is under 70% (was 100% pegged before) and the videos are very smooth. Not sure how this will work on a 1.2Ghz G4 but worth a try.

I am also running 10.5.8 on the iMac G5.

06-17-2010, 11:00 AM

My iBook g4 does great at you tube videos..I also have RAM maxed out...don't know if that helps or not.

06-17-2010, 04:00 PM

Well, I thought I was all up to date using the software update, but I will check when I am home. I sure hope there is an update not installed yet that will make it better. My RAM is also maxed out at 1.25GB but I would think that would be plenty to watch a simply video. Flash has gotten more bulky but the video quality on youtube is the same on the SQ videos. So, why is it such a resource hog to watch the same videos it used to a year ago smoothly? IDK.. Thanks for the help. Also, you asked if it was all Flash based YouTube that I was watching. Is there another option? If so, I'd love to try. Thanks

06-17-2010, 11:09 PM

Well, turns out there were some updates, (Java mostly and security) that we not installed. I installed them and the videos are 100% better. The SD ones were ok, a LITTLE choppy at times, therefore I did not try the HD ones. But, thanks for the advice and I'd like to say that I love this site and plan on becoming a long time member.

Thanks a tonn

Kerb