Question Youtube Buffering - Windows 10 - Hardwired w/Stable Internet Connection

[sdph536]

I have a windows 10 desktop with chrome as my browser. Everything is completely updated. I do not have a VPN and do not have third party addons.

The issue is regardless of what video I choose on Youtube I get the spinning circle buffering.

My PC is hardwired and my internet connection is stable - I have a 1gb service plan and average speed is 500-700mbps.

I am logged into Youtube and have a premium plan.

The video will eventually load at the default quality.

However, I have noticed that if I choose a video and it buffers, I select the gear icon and switch quality to the lowest it starts immediately and in the time it takes to go back and choose the highest quality the video plays immediately again and with no buffering.

I have no clue what is going on here but it would be nice if I didn't have to flip the quality to low and then to high to get the video to load right away.

Any advice?

 

[kerberos_20]

try disable hardware encoding in browser settings

 

[sdph536]

@kerberos_20
If you mean "Use hardware acceleration when available"

Its already disabled.

 

[kerberos_20]

clear browser cache and cookies, disable browser plugins/addons including adblock

 

[sdph536]

@kerberos_20 - I don't have any plugins/add ons or adblocker. I clear the cache and cookies, restart and still the same.

 

[Spielwurfel]

Sounds weird, but I would guess it is more of an Youtube issue than anything else. A few things to try out, if you can to get closer to the culprit.

• Does it happen with other streaming services?
• Does it happen with other browsers?
• Does it happen in other devices on the same connection (wired or wireless)?
• Right click on the YouTube video screen, select "Statistics for nerds"and check what is going on

Maybe your ISP is trying to severely throttle Youtube, and you found a work around with the quality change you did.

Make sure you select a video from a YouTube that gets a lot of views, I've seen many smaller ones that take significantly more time to load, probably because it is not well cached on the server that serves your content.

Check these points an tell in here what you found =)

 

[sdph536]

• Does it happen with other streaming services? ( no - other streaming works just fine.)
• Does it happen with other browsers? (yes, I only tried edge but the same thing happens)
• Does it happen in other devices on the same connection (wired or wireless)? (I tired another PC that was wireless and does the same )
• Right click on the YouTube video screen, select "Statistics for nerds"and check what is going on (Not sure what to share within regards to the stats for nerds....)

 

[Spielwurfel]

• Does it happen with other streaming services? ( no - other streaming works just fine.)
• Does it happen with other browsers? (yes, I only tried edge but the same thing happens)
• Does it happen in other devices on the same connection (wired or wireless)? (I tired another PC that was wireless and does the same )
• Right click on the YouTube video screen, select "Statistics for nerds"and check what is going on (Not sure what to share within regards to the stats for nerds....)

Based on your tests, I would guess it is some sort of throttling from your ISP. If you have the availability, I would try hot spotting your cellphone to your wireless PC and check if same happens.

From the statistics for nerds, I would check if there is any data going through to the video, but very slowly, or just nothing at all. If there is data, but going very slowly, would more likely to be ISP throttling, in my opinion. Why would they throttle just Youtube and not other streaming services, I have no idea, but your problem is really weird.