Flash producer stuttering at initialize

Hi,

I’m experiencing inconsistent behavior when playing Flash templates.
As you can see in the attached screenshot the template I trigger on layer 1-20 has large amounts of ‘late-frame’ spikes. Causing delayed/non-smooth stuttering playback. Re-triggering the template on that same layer will play fine, until I clear the layer or channel. But: this doesn’t happen every time!
When initializing the Flash producer by a load command, as I did on layer 2-20, wait for a few seconds and then play the layer, everything is fine.

I’m running more complex templates on older/slower machines, mostly 2.0.7 and Win7, without issues and without loading first. That’s concerning me.

Things I’ve checked:

  • Firewall/antivirus is disabled
  • Fill/key video playback is fine and always in sync
  • Lowering the number of channels doesn’t help
  • All power saving settings in both Windows and BIOS are disabled

I’m running 2.2.0 stable on a Win10 Enterprise, Intel XEON 2136, Quadro P4000, 32GB ECC RAM, 2x Decklink Duo 2 (2x key/fill on card 1, 2x fill-only on card2), Samsung Pro NVME drive.

All help is welcome,
Bart

Have you set windows performance to maximum and disabled any power saving for the processor in the BIOS?

Hey guys, have you found any solution? I did find one, it’s about flash buffer depth, but it’s not very good for me. I’m using NRK caspar version.

What did you change?

I just added flash buffer in config. So it first initialize the fth, then plays template. But it’s not really good for me, because it causes delay. So I’m thinking maybe somehow it’s possible to start flash player when a server is started? BTW. Also tried with 2.2 with no luck ;/

Did you take a look at these topics?

This seems to be a global issue and it also affects me. It needs to get fixed.
I uninstalled the update from November but I don’t see the one from June. Perhaps that one is already a part of the Windows build I have.

It would be helpful if someone who fully got rid of the stutter reported here their Flash ActiveX component version.
The file is C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash\Flash.ocx (Right-click -> Properties -> Details, then look up File version)
Mine currently is 32.0.0.156 and I experience the stutter only sometimes.
The one from the update that I uninstalled is 32.0.0.255 and it stutters always.

There was an issue with Flash Producer reported by @didikunz in February 2019 but I’m not sure if that is the same issue that we’re dealing with here. If not, maybe a new issue should be submitted on github.

Assuming it’s Adobe’s fault, the ultimate solution would be to have Adobe fix it, although I’m not sure they will care. The other idea I have is to somehow distribute an older OCX and make Caspar use it instead of the one provided with Windows, but that might be difficult because of legal reasons.

FlashVersion

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Is windows running in high performance mode?

CPU throttling ruins performance.

Yes, I think that’s mandatory in any new Windows install and hardware changes. It keeps stuttering anyways on every template host load, not as bad as the update made it look but still. Can’t seem to get it right. Maybe trying to replace the flash dlls manually?

Yes, windows are on HP mode

I have a problem with initializing flash-player. It takes almost 2 seconds between receiving command for playing template and completion of initizlization. So i have this delay everytime when casparCG wasn’t in use for some time… when commands are following pretty often - there is no such delay - initialization comes right after receiving the command. Also when i update existing (already playing) template there is no delay. The problem surely with init of flash player. How it can be solved?

On initial startup that is normal behavior. But when you have that delay, when Caspar has been idle for a while I guess that has to do with not enough RAM, so that it swaps the program out of memory and needs to reload it afterwards. How much RAM do you have in that machine?

  1. On initial startup at my others PCs there is no delay with initializatoin of flash player. I have this trouble only on new notebook (((((
  2. 8 Gb RAM - I think it is quite enough for CasparCG
    P.S. Dell G5 5590. M2 as system Drive. SSD as media storage. Discrete video - NVidia GTX-1660 Ti 6Gb

Didi, replying to your e-mail: I don’t care how long it takes to initialize whole server - that’s not critical. But that delay appears every time when I want to play the template by CG 1-0 ADD 0 …
UPDATE command works normally. As I said before, delay caused by initialization. What is the reason?))))

I don’t know. - On other computers, that do not have the problem. What is the difference? Do you have more RAM there?

What also can be is some trouble with the network, so, that the command goes around somewhere before it finds the server. But that should be the same also for the update command.

So it sounds more of a performance problem with Flash. Can you check if you have the same delay when playing a video clip?

Video is fine. It happens only with flash. Sometimes I work via Ethernet to control remotely. Sometimes it is 127.0.0.1
It is surely not a problem with a network.

Didi, it is amazing! And that what is amazing:
I think about the reasons and first of all is performance insufficient. Ok. De-install drivers of NVidia. Downloaded more earlier drivers and prepare to install them. But when I look at the “Device manager” there is a video card existing. When I try to “update driver” from that menu it says “you drivers is up to date”. Ok. Start the Caspar and what do I see - no more delay with templates. In “program and features” list there is no driver for NVidia. But everything is working! It’s a kind of magic!

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I am raising this post after a year and I am asking for help. I still have some Flash templates and am working on them. I also have this delay and everything is happening on the new HP Omen laptop, I710750H, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 + Ultrastudio Mini HD + CasparCG Server 2.3.0 f4879b8e. Firewalls, antiviruses, everything have been shut down. I tried installing older Nvidia drivers but it didn’t help. Can anyone give me advice on what to do?

So you have a delay, everytime when you first play a template, or only when you play a template on a new layer for the first time?