This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Firefox 27.0 still slower playing videos than IE8, solution?

  • 2 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by cor-el

more options

I'm running Windows XP Pro and IE8 has always rendered videos (youtube for example) much faster than Firefox. Probably TWICE the frame rate.

IE8 also outperforms Chrome too.

What is the problem?

I'm running Windows XP Pro and IE8 has always rendered videos (youtube for example) much faster than Firefox. Probably TWICE the frame rate. IE8 also outperforms Chrome too. What is the problem?

All Replies (2)

more options

Hello,

First check your plugins version:

Did you already try disable hardware acceleration?

Try disabling graphics hardware acceleration. Since this feature was added to Firefox, it has gradually improved, but there still are a few glitches.

You might need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).

Then perform these steps:

  • Click the orange Firefox button at the top left, then select the "Options" button, or, if there is no Firefox button at the top, go to Tools > Options.
  • In the Firefox options window click the Advanced tab, then select "General".
  • In the settings list, you should find the Use hardware acceleration when available checkbox. Uncheck this checkbox.
  • Now, restart Firefox and see if the problems persist.

Additionally, please check for updates for your graphics driver by following the steps mentioned in the following Knowledge base articles:

Did this fix your problems? Please report back to us!

Thank you.

more options

Note that both IE (ActiveX) and Google Chrome (Pepper) come with their own versions of Flash that are developed especially by Adobe in cooperation with the developers of those browsers.

Which security software (firewall, anti-virus) do you have?

You can check for problems with current Flash plugin versions and try these:

  • disable a possible RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin extension for Firefox and update the RealPlayer if installed
  • disable protected mode in the Flash plugin (Flash 11.3+ on Windows Vista and later)
  • disable hardware acceleration in the Flash plugin