Grapics issue on Macbook air

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I have been using a 2012 Macbook air 128gb for the last few years and it has served me really well. A while back i started having issues when watching movies etc on VLC where it would really get pixelated at times coming and going in waves, especially the dark colours and this was with everything from low quality to high quality video, thinking this was perhaps a glitch with VLC i tried the same videos on quicktime (most of the formats would however not work on it though) with the same results, so after a bit of asking around i thought that the graphics card was giving problems...... it was getting a bit long in the tooth so i decided to buy a new model and got a new Macbook air 128gb 13". I did a backup of the old machine on time machine and then used that on the new mac and to my dismay i am having the exact same problems with the new computer!
So i am now wondering if its perhaps the media players or is it some sort of software issue that i have transferred with the time machine or should i perhaps try another type of media player.

I have tried VLC 2.2.4 as well as 1.1.12 and they both have the same pixilated problem. My current mac has the following specs:


MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017)
1,8 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Intel HD Graphics 6000 1536 MB

Any help or input would really be appreciated.
 
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Welcome to the forum. Pixellation can also be caused by slow bandwidth, or congestion in your network. What does Speedtest.net report on your connection? How are you connected to the Internet? Do you have Ethernet capability (I think you'll need an adapter for the MBA, but Ethernet to the router may increase your local area network speeds.) What devices do you have near the MBA that might create interference with your network (wireless home phones, other WiFi devices, BlueTooth devices, other wireless Internet of Things (IoT) devices like smart refrigerators, home automation, etc)?
 
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Welcome to the forum. Pixellation can also be caused by slow bandwidth, or congestion in your network. What does Speedtest.net report on your connection? How are you connected to the Internet? Do you have Ethernet capability (I think you'll need an adapter for the MBA, but Ethernet to the router may increase your local area network speeds.) What devices do you have near the MBA that might create interference with your network (wireless home phones, other WiFi devices, BlueTooth devices, other wireless Internet of Things (IoT) devices like smart refrigerators, home automation, etc)?

Thank you very much for the welcome.

Sorry i forgot to add that this is not watching videos off the internet but this is watching movies etc off the HD or a external HD
 
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How are the drives connected to the MBA? Are they USB2 or USB3 drives? (USB2 are slower and may be part of the problem). Do you get the pixellation if you copy the video to the internal storage and play it from there?
 
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How are the drives connected to the MBA? Are they USB2 or USB3 drives? (USB2 are slower and may be part of the problem). Do you get the pixellation if you copy the video to the internal storage and play it from there?

All my drives are used through USB3 and i get the exact same pixelation when I play them directly from the internal HD
 
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Is the pixellation in the same scene every time? If so, the pixellation could be in the file itself. And when you say "used through USB3" are the drives also USB3? Using a higher speed port with a slower USB2 drive will result in USB2 speeds.
 
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Is the pixellation in the same scene every time? If so, the pixellation could be in the file itself. And when you say "used through USB3" are the drives also USB3? Using a higher speed port with a slower USB2 drive will result in USB2 speeds.

It will actually come and go every 5 to 10 seconds and most notable on dark colours. The drives are all pretty new and USB3 as far as i know.
 
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That's bizarre. All my normal suggestions have already been covered by your testing. I'm assuming you don't have any other video/memory/processor-intensive apps open while watching these videos, correct? Are these .mp4 format videos? Have you tried converting them to another format to see if the problem persists? If you have access to someone else's computer, I'd try playing a video there too.
 
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That's bizarre. All my normal suggestions have already been covered by your testing. I'm assuming you don't have any other video/memory/processor-intensive apps open while watching these videos, correct? Are these .mp4 format videos? Have you tried converting them to another format to see if the problem persists? If you have access to someone else's computer, I'd try playing a video there too.

This is happening with all video formats, i managed to try the same videos on a colleagues macbook pro and we both agree that his does not have any of the same pixallation as my macbook air.

Can someone perhaps recommend other media players that i can possibly use?
 

chscag

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You could try using the QuickTime player to see if that makes a difference but I doubt it. There's something going on with your machine. Maybe something you have running in the background? Do you have an AntiVirus app running?

Why don't you download the free Etrecheck app from here and run it. Paste the complete results in your next reply to us. Your machine should be able to run video without any problems. And based on the fact that your friend's machine does not have pixelation, there's something either software or hardware that's causing it to occur on your MacBook Air.
 
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Create a new user account, and see if the issue persists? Are these HD videos? the 1.5GB video memory could be the issue.
 
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This is happening with all video formats, i managed to try the same videos on a colleagues macbook pro and we both agree that his does not have any of the same pixallation as my macbook air.

This leads me to believe it must be something else running on your computer that is interfering with video playback. If that is so, and you cloned all your apps/settings to your new Macbook Air, that would explain why you're still having the issue on a brand new computer. Do you have PowerPoint? Try importing a video into a presentation and play it there. You could also try playing it in your web browser or any other program you can play or import video with.
 
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Create a new user account, and see if the issue persists? Are these HD videos? the 1.5GB video memory could be the issue.

This unfortunately happens with most formats and not just HD. I shall try the new user account and see what happens. thanks
 

chscag

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Did you download Etrecheck as was suggested? Download it and paste the results in your next reply so we can see what's going on with your machine. You can also try the new user account first if you like.
 

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