24 November 2009

Flash Player 10.1 Beta Release

I've always complained about how youtube videos never play quite as nicely in Mac OS X as they do in Windows. In a brief summary, it's always been like watching my fave asian drama uploads in a slow motion of sorts. Unsmooth - if there was ever such a word. Such has been the Mac Snow Leopard experience with Flash Player in Safari 4.

But that's changed. I read an article in Tuaw about the improvements on video playback quality on meager netbook IntelGMA950 (or 945) chips, And what's even more delightful is it brings HD quality video playback on web browsers accessible to the netbook masses. Now I didn't care for HD then since I was already having trouble with the normal video - it'd only mean a more exasperating experience so why bother, anyhow?
Then came this Flash Player 10.1 promise which urged me to try.
First off:

1) Uninstall your currently installed Flash Player plugin. It's always better to do some clearing up before you dump in a new stuff inside your hackintosh guts. Download the uninstaller DMG file direct from Adobe's site.
2) Quit any browsers you might have running. Or if you're OC (and in my opinion, being OC is never a bad thing - ok, that's a biased person who's OC herself that's talking), quit all open apps and then run the uninstaller. (mount the DMG by double clicking it and then launching the package inside)
3) Once you've uninstalled your current Flash Player version, install the 10.1 beta installer which you get from Adobe Labs.
4) After installation, enjoy your youtube HD contents! I would've loved to try hulu but it can't serve outside the US which is too bad.

So what's the deal? I did try to play an HD video in youtube and found out there were lags - a second or two of frozen frames every 10-20 seconds, choppy in short. After the Flash Player update, I played the same vid and noticed an improvement. Although that improvement doesn't blow your mind away, it was easily smoother than before the update; less noticeable lags, in my opinion.
I would've and should've captured it in video but I forgot to charge my old digicam and a cellphone would rather hamper providing proof of difference between the before and after.
The point is, go try it and see for yourself :D

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