Choppy streaming video

Whenever I try to stream online video, such as from youtube, I get extremely choppy video content. The audio usually works fine, but the video will lag a few seconds each frame and skip quite a bit. I know that it is not my internet connection, as I have tried streaming the same video's on different computers on the same network (with no problem), as well as tried my macbook on different networks (with the same problem). I have seen this similar issue in different threads with no clear-cut resolution (and I have tried many of the suggestions from those threads).
My issue started about three weeks ago completely randomly. Since then, I have tried a few things to fix the issue. I have tried different browsers (firefox, chrome, safari) as well as made sure my adobe flash was updated. I have updated from Snow Leopard to Lion (was going to anyways, but hoping to fix this issue gave me the final push). I have repaired my disk through Utilities and also run cleanups through Onyx. My computer runs completely fine at all other times, but as soon as I try to stream video, the video becomes choppy and my computer becomes as slow as molasses. Through activity monitor, I have noticed that while streaming (and shortly after) my computer goes to about 0% CPU Idle, with most of the CPU power going something called kernel task, which will run between 100-150 % CPU when the lagginess occurs.
Are there any suggestions at all?
My specs are:
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Mac OS X 10.7.2

Through activity monitor, I have noticed that while streaming (and shortly after) my computer goes to about 0% CPU Idle, with most of the CPU power going something called kernel task, which will run between 100-150 % CPU when the lagginess occurs.
Do you have Activity Monitor set to show"All Processes" instead of its default of "My Processes?" If not, that leaves the "usual suspects" well under the radar. The "Show"option is in the toolbar of the AM window--this image is from 10.6--might be slightly different in Lion:
The other items re using AM to find a culprit are:
1) Use the computer normally for a while before checking AM's status. Items that tend to clog teh system may not show right after a restart.
2) Close all user applications so the computer is basically "at idle."
3) Highlight the "%CPU" column to bubble the worst offenders to the top.
I also like to quit any Dashboard widgets before this test to eliminate clutter; widgets that have to "phone home" can skew the results. To save having to restart the computer to turn off active widgets, get the widget "DashQuit":
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/status/dashquit_berenguierduncan.html
Handy little rascal to have when troubleshooting. Once installed, the Dashquit widget is simply a button that turns off all open widgets.
If viewing YouTube via Safari, be aware that there are a lot of Safari extensions that might interfere. Try turning off extensions in Safari.
Let us know what you find.
AJ

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