MacBook and video playback

Hi all. This is my first post here. I've tried to search for answers elsewhere and found some, but they are sometimes contradictory and I'm having a hard time determining whether my issue really is hardware, or possibly software, so apologies if this is the wrong forum.

I have a 2008 MacBook white, Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4 ghz, 2 gb RAM with the on-board GMA X3100, and I'm having trouble playing Hulu & Netflix videos without small stutters (internet is not the issue - my wife's Lenovo plays fine). Is my set-up right on the line between smooth video and not? From what I've gathered, my processor should be fast enough, and the 2gb RAM should be fine if I'm not running anything else that's RAM-intensive. I've tried updating Quicktime and Flash, but it didn't help. I have noticed that the videos run a bit better through Safari than Firefox, but even in Safari they hiccup. Thanks in advance for any help. )And I haven't yet upgraded to Snow Leopard, if that makes any difference).

Paul

EDIT: I should add that I've been checking out the new Mac Mini, and although the on-board video card is better, the processor looks to be about the same, and the 2gb version supposedly plays streaming video fine. So I wonder what the difference is?

I occasionally also get that and that's with 4GB of RAM...however I usually have 3 Firefox windows open and they each have at the very least 10 tabs open. Not to mention that I haven't restarted my computer in almost 6 months. >_>"

Upgrading to Snow Leopard is not going to make much of a difference if any at all. I have the same identical computer that you have with the exception that mine has 4 GB of system memory. I have yet to run into a video that I couldn't play smoothly. I also run Win 7 on the machine and have no problems with videos.

The Intel GMA X3100 GPU chipset is not designed for graphic intensive 3D games or otherwise, but it does well enough when not taxed to the maximum.

What I suggest is that you do some maintenance cleanup on your machine to see if that will help. Download and install the free OnyX cleanup utility. Read the directions and then let it do its cleaning.

Also make sure you have the latest Adobe Flash update (10.1) installed.

Regards.