Wits End With Mac Mini and Network Cable Streaming

I have a 2010 Mac Mini, 8 gigs ram, connected to high speed internet (ethernet). It plays recorded videos fine as well as hd music. It refuses to play back network videos (NBC, CBS, ABC etc.) Hulu or the likes without stopping like it has buffer issues. It stutters every 15-30 seconds or so and resumes poorly. It currently has the latest updated Mountain Lion OS. I love it as a music and video server (recorded files) , but this streaming issue has me baffled. I have compared it to my Dell I5 laptop (6gb ram) with Win7. The Dell I5 Win7 system works almost flawlessly when streaming network TV thru the browser. In fact it plays equally well ethernet or wireless. I have scoured the internet for a resolution without success!
My next step is to sell the mini and go back to a reliable PC Laptop with Win7. Any help appreciated. Thanks!

How full is the hard drive on the Mini and is there anything else running at the same time? You can find that out by opening your Activity Monitor located in Applications, Utilities. And do you have the latest version of Flash installed? Also, your Mini can be upgraded to Mavericks for free. Why haven't you taken advantage of that?

The hd is at about 20% as I primarily use an Ext Hd for my media. The Flash is up to date.
From what I have read, the latest ML updated should be more than up to the task of internet streaming. Safari or Firefox!

So these pauses happen on either Safari or Firefox? How fast is your connection to the net? You did say a Dell on the same connection does not pause?

Reason I ask is it sounds like what I have ran into with slow internet.

Mac and Dell hooked up parallel to same router ethernet connections (1 and 2). Same cable provider (Download speed up to 15 Mbps). Firefox or Safari browser on the Mac and Firefox on the Dell. All updated. Compare network streaming ( same program) NBC, CBS, etc., and verify HD stream mode in the network media viewer. The Dell works smoothly in all cases including wireless. The Mac, in most cases is unwatchable (hardwired or wifi). The Mac monitor is set to unscaled and the "motion" compensation mode is disabled. Both computers on at the same time monitoring the same program.
Downloaded files on the Mac play without issues (video or audio).
Note the Dell laptop will play most streaming 1080i without issues. (verified 1080i by the monitor)
All things being equal... the Mac cannot play streaming HD videos without jerking and stopping.
I guess the easy answer is to replace the Mac with the Dell as my media server and use the Mac for browsing and email.
Or... and I cannot believe it will make a difference, is to upgrade to Mavericks. Plenty of info that updated ML is more than capable (with updated Flash) to deliver smooth HD streaming.

Have you tried switching the ethernet cables between the Mini and the Dell? Sometimes the cables do go tummy up!

Or... and I cannot believe it will make a difference, is to upgrade to Mavericks.

Click to expand...

No one implied that it would make a difference. The question was - "Also, your Mini can be upgraded to Mavericks for free. Why haven't you taken advantage of that?"

I am considering upgrading to Mavericks. I see there is an upgrade to Safari with this update.
I'll keep you posted!

Have you tried a different router all together?

Also have you set any QoS protocols or changed them if your router supports this. Another thing to check is your MTU settings, this changes the amount of data sent per packet. Can cause issues depending on the network card. Should be set at 1500 in most cases. This should be the same in both the computer and the router. Last but not least, make sure your network in both router and computer is set to Full Duplex. Non energy saving mode.. See if this helps..

Those protocols are for wifi. This condition exists whether I am using direct ethernet output from the router or directly from the the cable ethernet output connection.

Happy Daze

OK... I upgraded to Mavericks which also includes an upgraded Safari. I have been testing various internet based network program streaming with the new Safari. This seems to work very well. The current Firefox seems to still have issues. When running side by side against the Dell laptop, the streaming seems indistinguishable from each other. Even running the Mini wireless produces excellent results. I realize network streaming will not always perform like a downloaded video file . I'm not sure what the issue with Firefox is, but at this point who cares! Safari works for streaming.
The activity monitor shows 8 gig available with 2.02 gigs at idle. App memory is 461mb and file cache is at 671mb.
With Safari opened and with HD streaming the memory used jumps to 2.51 gb with no swapping. App memory jumps to 797mb with cache up to 923mb. This all looks pretty good. Plenty of headroom here! Thanks to all who responded to my post.
Bill