Full Screen Video Capability Problem

[William33 110]

Our new XPS 420 computer is awesome. However, I suddenly lost the ability to view all videos full screen. I get this grey/white triangulation thing when I select full screen, or no action at all. I am running the most current version of Java. Yes, I am using the Vista OS and it worked very nicely from Friday until Sunday. The video piece is the only issue with Vista thus far.

Thoughts? And please don't tell me to trash the Vista or buy a Mac. I am trying to make a go of it with Vista here....

[Marilyn. 340]

are you taking about watching videos with media player or online or what?

did you download anything recently, like an upgrade or something that might be interfering?

[Marilyn. 340]

found this.. not sure if it would help though...

Try this:

1. Right-click on a Youtube video

2. Choose 'Settings...' from the Flash Player's context

3. Uncheck "Enable Hardware Acceleration"

4. Click the "Close"

http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum..._parentId=29316

[William33 110]

are you taking about watching videos with media player or online or what?

did you download anything recently, like an upgrade or something that might be interfering?

Watching videos online, with whatever source it comes from. I believe YouTube is Java....as opposed to media player.

[William33 110]

Awesome solution Marilyn. I disabled "hardware acceleration" and full screen is up and running.... Thanks very much for that!!!!!

What is the purpose of hardware acceleration anyway? At this stage, it seems pretty useless.....

[Marilyn. 340]

I have no clue...

Awesome solution Marilyn. I disabled "hardware acceleration" and full screen is up and running.... Thanks very much for that!!!!!

What is the purpose of hardware acceleration anyway? At this stage, it seems pretty useless.....

it says this on the same page that I got the fix from...

This indicates a deeper problem with your video card drivers, but this fix is quick and easy. You might check out your computer manufacturer's site for new video drivers.

but you said your computer is new so hmmmm....

[Niels Bohr 72]

I can't help you because I never experienced the problem myself. Sorry. Yes, I'm embarrassed for not being able to help as an Engineer. Although, I can fix it, but, to do that I need to see for myself you current settings.

[William33 110]

Well, we have an ATI Radeon video card (256mb). Perhaps I need to adjust some settings....

[William33 110]

bump....For further guidance.......

Edited May 20, 2008 by William33

[Dan J 277]

Awesome solution Marilyn. I disabled "hardware acceleration" and full screen is up and running.... Thanks very much for that!!!!!

What is the purpose of hardware acceleration anyway? At this stage, it seems pretty useless.....

Youtube uses flash to play movies, not Java.

But anyway. Hardware acceleration allows Flash to offload some of the video processing to the video card. If your computer is fast enough, and your not trying to play HD content, you should be fine with hardware acceleration turned off.

I would suggest trying to reinstall the video drivers. The ones provided by ATI should work. http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

They are updated on a monthly basis.

[William33 110]

Awesome solution Marilyn. I disabled "hardware acceleration" and full screen is up and running.... Thanks very much for that!!!!!

What is the purpose of hardware acceleration anyway? At this stage, it seems pretty useless.....

Youtube uses flash to play movies, not Java.

But anyway. Hardware acceleration allows Flash to offload some of the video processing to the video card. If your computer is fast enough, and your not trying to play HD content, you should be fine with hardware acceleration turned off.

I would suggest trying to reinstall the video drivers. The ones provided by ATI should work. http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

They are updated on a monthly basis.

Agreed, Adobe Flash player is active on YouTube. My original problem is now fixed. I will consider the download, if the problem persists.

Thanks Dan!

[Niels Bohr 72]

Dan, my celeron with integrated video is capable of playing those videos. However, william33, has a super fast computer. It must be some other problem. Anyway, he got it fixed.

[PlatyPius 5]

It's possible that your computer has the "Microsoft" version of the ATI drivers installed. NVidia had this problem for a while...With the NVidia drivers, everything would work fine. Then Windows would do it's "Automatic Update" thing and install a Windows version of the video driver that was far inferior. It limited Frame Rate and was essentially a driver 5+ years old. If you reinstalled the actual NVidia driver, everything would work fine again. It's possible the same thing is happening with ATI now.

Never let Windows automatically install updates - let them download automatically, but look them over before they're installed (select "Custom" for the installation setting).

[Heracles 417]

Which video card did you choose?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

It's possible that your computer has the "Microsoft" version of the ATI drivers installed. NVidia had this problem for a while...With the NVidia drivers, everything would work fine. Then Windows would do it's "Automatic Update" thing and install a Windows version of the video driver that was far inferior. It limited Frame Rate and was essentially a driver 5+ years old. If you reinstalled the actual NVidia driver, everything would work fine again. It's possible the same thing is happening with ATI now.

Never let Windows automatically install updates - let them download automatically, but look them over before they're installed (select "Custom" for the installation setting).

I had that on my Nvidia 8600 - I didn't have problems with Youtube, but the video-feeds in my sidebar stopped working after a couple of recent windows updates. Some sort of conflict between windows and the video card.

Vista works pretty well for the most part, but it does seem to have a lot of glitches - luckily none that I've had so far have been catastrophic, but ironically enough the updates seem to make it more unstable.