Macbook image output is choppy when watching Hulu with video out

My sister has a Macbook with (I want to say) a 2.2 Ghz core duo processor and 1 GB of DDR2 RAM. I showed her how to hook it up to a TV via a mini DVI->HDMI cable and most things run great except for most flash video. Quicktime movies play fine, Netflix plays fine, but sites like Hulu and equivalent websites bog horribly when displayed full screen.

Here's the weird part: while the frame rate bogs to **** when in full screen mode, if you use the OS X zoom feature by pressing cntrl+two finger swipe on the touch pad, it will play full screen without the stutter. What could be causing this? Do you think Hulu is just lazily programmed and bloated and it's more than the 1 GB of RAM can handle, or is this a graphics card issue? I don't really know much about the difference between playing a video at normal size vs. full screen in terms of hardware, so I'm not sure where the lag is coming from. FWIW, also, it doesn't lag if you just watch Hulu full screen on the computer when it isn't connected to a TV. Oh, and the resolution is as close to the native resolution of her computer as they had (has black bars on either side since macbook displays aren't 16:9).

Lastly, if it's just something to do with using the video out, is there any way to set the TV as the "main" monitor so that the macbook screen will get choppy instead of the TV?

Flash is a terrible resource hog. My guess is it has something to do with maintaining two displays when the TV is connected. Since you only have 1GB and that memory is shared with the integrated video, it's likely memory related. I'd upgrade it to 2GB if possible and make sure that Flash is up to date. 10.5/10.6 really needs 1GB to run comfortably. If you want it to run well, 2GB is a must.

The issue is really one of Flash. It's just a dog on Macs in general. Although, it'd help to up the memory.

You might try using both mirrored mode and extended desktop mode to see if one will provide a better result. You can also make the external the primary display. All 3 of these, you can find how to set them up in this link. Head for Post # 2, Item # 3.

You could also try clamshell mode - where you actually shut the lid and let the machine go to sleep. It requires an external USB keyboard/mouse to wake it up and run only the external display. Link

(btw - good tip in your first post)

edit: In extended desktop mode, once you push a video into full screen, it will black out the other screen. So this option might be the one to try.

wow, quick AND helpful responses, I think I've found a new primary Apple forum It's nice to get on a forum where the first reply isn't some variant of "you suck and I hate you", lol.

Yeah, I'll definitely try it in extended mode and make the TV the primary monitor. The main reason I hadn't thought of that was because I had a PC laptop that would bog horribly when in extended mode, but played fine when in mirrored mode (I've been Mac since 92, the PC was an old work computer from my dad and was free to me, that's the only reason I was using it).

Also, yeah, that cntrl+scroll trick is great for videos without a fullscreen mode or for flash games that don't have a fullscreen mode (looking at you, Super Mario Crossover) and sometimes even for low res pictures since it does a good job interpolating pixels.