YouTube slow buffering speed.

[TallgirlWithGuitar]

Look at all the ISPs here, and we're all getting the same sluggishness. Too bad YouTube is notoriously unresponsive when it comes to their site issues.

 

[remixedcat]

I'm getting problems as well with constant buffering... even using different routers, computers, phones, etc.... any other site like vimeo, liveleak, dailymotion, cnn, etc... are blazing fast but YT is buffering like realplayer!

 

[cellulove]

Same problem, pretty intolerable. I'm running 23 mbps down. New to AT&T UVerse, this wasn't a problem with Charter (btw checking in from LA, CA).

Called AT&T and 3 separate reps said they had zero complaints regarding this. They offered no solutions. Perhaps if more of us called to to UVerse to complain?

Any solutions out there?

 

[TallgirlWithGuitar]

It's become very clear that the problem lies with YouTube. I suggest everyone lodge complaints with them...though they (maddeningly) respond with canned "Thanks for the feedback!" type replies.

 

[dbhosttexas]

The problem isn't your ISP connection. I am having the same issue here on Comcast / Xfinity 50/10 service. Everything I use BUT youtube is crazy fast. And even Youtube has been fast, at certain times. And I am not telling when because I don't want people rushing to those times to watch videos when I am doing it...

Just look at this thread and all the different regions and ISPs... The only thing consistent is Youtube...

 

[Leprocotic]

AT&T U-Verse here...

Never had a problem with Youtube until the past two weeks. We don't have screaming fast speeds, but I've never had a problem watching HD streaming videos (even with multiple users at once) until recently with Youtube. Pages load quickly, but the video buffering is as stated before - few seconds of playing, then approx. 8-10 seconds of load time.

When I pause a video, the loading bar seems to go for a bit, but once I hit play, the bar seems to disappear and restarts the buffering process for some unknown reason. Even if the video completely loads while paused, it will re-buffer the entire video. 240p loads the fastest, but even that's still slow, too. Already defragged, cleared cache, etc... nothing works.

I'm certain that the problem is with Youtube now that I've read all of the other posts. Once again... another problem that Google does not address.

 

[Elli21486]

May I add some input into this. I have been having this issue for a while now and although I don't have the fastest speed (3mbps I believe), I have never had this extent of a problem. Being a logical thinker that I am, I have decided to do a test. Not very complex, play videos of various lengths with right clicking the video and showing the video info while playing. Although not conclusive, it seems there is a pattern I am seeing. Videos uploaded after 2011 seem to be the videos affected. Not only that but the videos seem to be 720p or higher. If a video was uploaded at 480p or lower, it seems to be playing fine. Long videos also seem to be affected after 2011, doesn't matter if HD or not.

A few questions arose from this, if it affected videos after 2011, when was the exact date? At what length of video does it affect? The most important one though is, does this finding only affect me personally or is it a global issue? This is why I am posting, to see if what I found is the same for others. Try it and post back since I would love to have this one problem resolved. I will be doing more of these test during this weekend.

 

[Staff-Tech]

This thread has been going on for almost as long as my own youtube problems have. I noticed one post here that confirms my suspicion that indeed youtube is laboring with a demand it cannot meet. I've noticed when streaming is at its worse, you can always go to one of the popular channels and stream an HD video without a problem. My guess is that youtube is shifting those high paying videos to servers that are dedicated to getting a few high paying videos out. For the rest of the poor slugs who do not rate, those videos are stuck on over used servers and youtube doesn't give a hoot. They're still getting paid for views.

Solution: Watch the popular videos and make more money for google... or read a book.

Question: Why is there not a public uproar or online (or main stream for that matter) press about this? Tom's Hardware is the only place I found with any meaningful discussion on this ongoing problem.

 

[whatismyproblem]

This thread has been going on for almost as long as my own youtube problems have. I noticed one post here that confirms my suspicion that indeed youtube is laboring with a demand it cannot meet. I've noticed when streaming is at its worse, you can always go to one of the popular channels and stream an HD video without a problem. My guess is that youtube is shifting those high paying videos to servers that are dedicated to getting a few high paying videos out. For the rest of the poor slugs who do not rate, those videos are stuck on over used servers and youtube doesn't give a hoot. They're still getting paid for views.

Solution: Watch the popular videos and make more money for google... or read a book.

Question: Why is there not a public uproar or online (or main stream for that matter) press about this? Tom's Hardware is the only place I found with any meaningful discussion on this ongoing problem.

I definitely support your question. I disprove your theory about different servers. The Newegg videos and the freddiew videos both suck and stutter on 1080p and I have Verizon FiOS.

 

[whatismyproblem]

This thread has been going on for almost as long as my own youtube problems have. I noticed one post here that confirms my suspicion that indeed youtube is laboring with a demand it cannot meet. I've noticed when streaming is at its worse, you can always go to one of the popular channels and stream an HD video without a problem. My guess is that youtube is shifting those high paying videos to servers that are dedicated to getting a few high paying videos out. For the rest of the poor slugs who do not rate, those videos are stuck on over used servers and youtube doesn't give a hoot. They're still getting paid for views.

Solution: Watch the popular videos and make more money for google... or read a book.

Question: Why is there not a public uproar or online (or main stream for that matter) press about this? Tom's Hardware is the only place I found with any meaningful discussion on this ongoing problem.

I definitely support your question. I disprove your theory about different servers. The Newegg videos and the freddiew videos both suck and stutter on 1080p and I have Verizon FiOS.

 

[Staff-Tech]

I definitely support your question. I disprove your theory about different servers. The Newegg videos and the freddiew videos both suck and stutter on 1080p and I have Verizon FiOS.

While your experience may not support my "money server" theory, it certainly does not disprove it. Of course there may be times when all servers are sucking wind. But quite often (enough to raise suspicions) when an obscure video is lagging, a money maker is streaming fine. I too have the faster FIOS.

BTW, I didn't know NewEgg vids were that popular.

 

[whatismyproblem]

While your experience may not support my "money server" theory, it certainly does not disprove it. Of course there may be times when all servers are sucking wind. But quite often (enough to raise suspicions) when an obscure video is lagging, a money maker is streaming fine. I too have the faster FIOS.

BTW, I didn't know NewEgg vids were that popular.[/quote]

I used NewEgg to test an unpopular channel against a popular one. Other ISPs are throttling YouTube, but I doubt that Verizon is. Maybe its a theoretical bandwidth issue? I was downloading some iTunes TV shows and I was only using only about 6 Mbps out of the 25 that I actually get.

 

[jasbur]

Here's my speed chart from right-clicking:

Holy crap - what's going on?

 

[Monsterpuff]

This worked wonders for me.

http://mitchribar.com/2013/02/how-to-stop-youtube-sucking-windows-guide/

 

[TallgirlWithGuitar]

YouTube is preparing to charge for certain channels. This, we know. We also know that they absolutely refuse to acknowledge the slow buffering that has angry throngs of its users wielding torches and pitchforks. Now Barb reports that the popular channels' videos are performing fine.

Sounds to me like YT is putting all its resources behind the channels for which it intends to charge users, and everybody else can go fly a kite.

Now, if only more people uploaded the videos I enjoy to other sites.

 

[remixedcat]

we'll make our own youtube! With blackjack and hookers!

 

[colostmybag420]

I live in Tampa, FL, USA and have Bright House and for the past 2 months I have been having major intermittent YouTube issues. It happens on both of my PC's, tablet computer and phones. It only happens at certain times of day and only on certain videos. I thought it was my connection speed, but I would pull up speed test pages and get 12 mbps download. I also tried changing browsers and increasing cache sizes. I contacted my ISP to upgrade to a 30/2 plan, but then decided to google this issue before increasing my monthly bill... LOL. Now i'm sold that this is a YouTube issue and i'm going to test this theory by going on DailyMotion and Vimeo tonight at peak time.

 

[colostmybag420]

**UPDATE**
I watched YouTube for about 2 hours last night and it was smooth, but gradually got slower until 10:30pm hit, then it would'nt even buffer a 360p video. So i hopped over to Vimeo, and sure enough, i watche dthe Russian Cat Circus video on HD with no lag or pre-buffer at all! Darn you YouTube!!!

 

[Jon Wood]

I've figured out a (kind of) solution to this. Completely uninstall all versions of flash and any flash plugins, and load youtube in Firefox (doesn't work with Chrome). You will initially get a message saying that you need a plugin but this will then disappear and the video will load. I've watched about 50 TV clips with this method and each one has buffered to 100% almost immediately with no stopping at all.

 

[2flyguy]

Update.

Speed on youtube is now appalling,less than 300kbps (usually over 7000kbps),according to the "view video info" option,accessed by right clicking on the video.

Done speedtests,downloaded files - Streamed other videos off various sites.Iplayer,ITV,4OD,Demand5,IGN etc ...All play fine with zero buffering.Files downloading at full speed.

I have not been to work today.Been using youtube all day without issue - everything played instatly - until after 15:30.

Its either youtube or orange having serious issues - But i'm not seeing many reports anywhere about youtube - Ive read a few comments from Orange customers (on youtube).

i wonder if Orange's/EE's recent spat with google over bandwidth has anything to do with this?

I am having the exact same problem around the same time. I have no idea how to fix it 🙁
I can stream beautifully with 1080p without any problems before I get a sudden drop in buffering youtube videos around 8-9pm EST.

 

[2flyguy]

Its starting to seem like its affecting a lot more people...I have already seen multiple comments describing this problem.

 

[Saga Lout]

Time to close this one - it's clearly a YouTube problem and not something anyone here can assist further. 2flyguy's link is deleted because of some of the comments in the page.