Choppy / Stuttering Video on a Mac Mini

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I did a partition format and re-install of the OS Yosemite. It was the same regards the stutters in iTunes and Quicktime Player. I have both VLC and also tried MPlayerX, and they both can play the same video without the kind of big freeze frame/resume problems that I see with Quicktime player and iTunes. Though fine for watching back my own DVD rips, I also regularly rent videos from iTunes so I dont think VLC will be of use to me in that department. I can only guess it's to do with some kind of hardware video acceleration problem with quicktime. Is it worth me replacing my HDD with an SSD for this reason still? I was going to do that before I knew about the stutter, but now I'm not sure it's worth boosting it to max RAM and SSD since I'm not entirely happy with the video playback.

Though I've read it was suggested somewhere, I have not managed to do a PRAM refresh because my keyboard is a non-apple bluetooth perhaps... not being fast enough to catch on whilst booting. So is it worth be buying a USB keyboard to do the PRAM clearing thing given I did a full partition format and re-install of Yosemite?
 
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Seems like you haven't done the suggested troubleshooting.
Figuring out things is much harder when you just guess...
 
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Thanks for the reminder
1) I just tried a safe mode booting and the vlc-safe-mode. Opening an mp4 file with VLC, I don't see any visible video image window but there is a progress counter is if it was playing in the background.

2) I only have a USB2 HDD I dont have anything Thunderbolt or Firewire. Before I start this, are you suggesting I proceed to install Yosemite to this as an external USB HDD and boot from it to try the video?

Thanks again for the help in diagnosis!

*Update: re-installed with USB2 ext HDD and it fine playing the video in Quicktime and also iTunes! Will try an internal HDD change to see if the stutter comes back.
 
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What I was looking for was starting up (not installing anything) from a different drive, to see if we can tell if it's your internal HDD or your motherboard/other hardware causing the problem.

So, it seems likely that your internal hard drive is failing. (could be the internal hard drive cable too, I think)
 
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Here is an update of my problem. I upgraded my RAM to 16 GB, thinking this was going to resolve the problem, but unfortunately RAM was not the issue. Spent unnecessary $$ !!
This weekend I formatted the HD again, but this time I only re installed, my photos, music and movies ( 3 apps ( Itunes, Iphoto & Imovies) . Initially when I restarted my Mac, it seemed fast and played a movie I tested without hanging and stuttering, Great !, I thought the problem was finally resolved, but after 15 min. the computer started lagging, the beach lag was back and the movies started to hang and stutter again. What I did notice was that the video would hang but the audio would continue to play without stuttering. So doing a little more research on the web I am going to erase the internal disc again but this time I am going to use the secure option so it completely wipes the entire disc clean. Then I will re install Yosemite and see if this does the trick. If not.. I think I will need to get an new HD.. Let me know what you experts out there think ..
 
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Video stuttering on Mac Mini

Hi,

I read this thread with great interest, as I'm now seeing the same problem with my *brand new* Mac Mini. It's 4 days old, and just had my Aperture videos converted to Photos and can't get any videos to play without stuttering.

Pretty disappointing to see this kind of video performance from a new computer.

Here's the specs on my Mac Mini:
Late 2014
2.8 GHz i5
8GB RAM
Intel Iris 1536

Open to ideas/suggestions.

Thanks!
 
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2023-14" M3max MBPro, 64GB/1TB, iPhone 15 Pro, Watch Ultra
Two common troubleshooting techniques:
1) Install VLC. Startup in Safe Mode, and see if you get video to play OK using VLC. Why? Safe mode disables third-party extensions (and does some drive repairs), and VLC plays independently of extensions.
2. Create a second bootable drive, and startup using that. And try a video. That will test whether the internal drive is the problem.

You can try gsahli's suggestions above and that will help eliminate a couple of potential culprits - hard drive or extensions.

Although you indicate a recent upgrade of your Aperture videos to Photo. I assume you mean due to an upgrade to 10.10.3? If so was everything working okay prior to the upgrade? If it was it could be an issue with 10.10.3. If you have a backup prior to the upgrade you could restore the backup and see if the issue is fixed. The new Photo app combining Aperture and iPhoto I am sure will have some issues to iron out.

Although with a four day old new mini the option to call Apple or even return it is available. It is under warrantee and if it is a hardware issue they will take care of it.

Lisa
 
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Here is an update of my problem. I upgraded my RAM to 16 GB, thinking this was going to resolve the problem, but unfortunately RAM was not the issue. Spent unnecessary $$ !!
This weekend I formatted the HD again, but this time I only re installed, my photos, music and movies ( 3 apps ( Itunes, Iphoto & Imovies) . Initially when I restarted my Mac, it seemed fast and played a movie I tested without hanging and stuttering, Great !, I thought the problem was finally resolved, but after 15 min. the computer started lagging, the beach lag was back and the movies started to hang and stutter again. What I did notice was that the video would hang but the audio would continue to play without stuttering. So doing a little more research on the web I am going to erase the internal disc again but this time I am going to use the secure option so it completely wipes the entire disc clean. Then I will re install Yosemite and see if this does the trick. If not.. I think I will need to get an new HD.. Let me know what you experts out there think ..

I thought you already wiped the HD clean and started over and it didnt work? If you haven't, boot up into disk utility. verify disk/repair disk and verify permissions and repair permissions.

if no luck, try resetting pram.

If no luck after that, then put Yosemite on a disk or flash drive and wipe the HD in it's entirety. So there's nothing left. Install Yosemite from scratch. If the issue still continues then you've got a hardware issue.

I have the same machine. My first mac, a 2011 2.3 mac mini. Bought it back then to run plex (it was only on mac then). Now I have a few of them. But that same mac has been running 23x7 since then. And I continue to put it through it's paces. Playing a local video through vlc should be a non-issue.
 
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stuttering, choppy video

My video was stuttering/choppy: It's the WindowServer process: kills the system. Don't have too many window open (especially if you have multiple displays) and don't have changing desktop pictures (uses HUGE amount of CPU for some reason).

Good luck!

I am using a Mac Mini with latest version of Yosemite (v.10.10.1) as a home media center and it has worked great in the past, playing back music and videos from multiple sources (web, quicktime, VLC, iphoto, Plex). A few weeks ago the video playback from all my sources started to become choppy, to stutter, and often the picture would hang for seconds at a time. Totally unusable. Driving me nuts.
Have spent a great deal of time resurching the web for a solution but no luck yet. Is there anyone out there with the same problem ? Do I have to reformat my Mac ?
Any help will be very welcomed
Thanks
Mauricio
 
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2023-14" M3max MBPro, 64GB/1TB, iPhone 15 Pro, Watch Ultra
You need the WindowServer process.....and if that fixes it then something else is wrong.

Lisa
 
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Stuttering video for middle third of movies on TV

I have a really weird problem with my mac mini. Whenever I play a video, and it doesn't matter whether it is a movie (using VLC) or watching Netflix, everything is fine for about 20-30 mins, then I start to get video "stutter" on a regular basis, about every 5 s - the sound is fine. After some time, which varies from 20 mins to an hour, this stops and I get normal video again.

I am playing the videos on an RCA 1080p TV hooked up through the 2nd HTMI port on my mac mini. I don't get the stuttering when I play videos on my LG monitor. So this suggests the TV is the problem, BUT I don't get that stuttering when I play videos on the TV using my macbook air!

I have a late-2014 mac mini
2.8 GHz i5 processors
16 GB memory
Intel Iris 1536 MB graphics card

Anyone got any ideas?
 
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Just a quick thought. You say you are playing the video through the 2nd HDMI port on the mini to the RCA TV and it stutters. Are you using a different port to play the video on the LG monitor? If so switch the port connected to the RCA TV and also you might try another cable. It is worth a try or it might produce the same results.

Not sure what else is going on. Especially since the RCA TV works fine with the MB Air.

Lisa
 
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Thanks Lisa for your idea. Yes, I did try that, but got the same behaviour. I have spent hours and hours scouring the web trying to find any solutions, and have tried many of them (re-booting, closing all windows, cleaning memory, checking Activity Monitor), but nothing works...
 

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