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Tech: youtube videos so slow to play
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Subject: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 22 Sep 10 - 12:30 PM I get a lot of musical enjoyment by watching YouTube videos of traditional music. But it takes so long for videos to load. They play for a few seconds, then stop, the load for a bit more. I didn't used to have this problem. I still use Windows XP (service pack 3), but my desktop is a good one. It has lots of memory and works well in every other respect. I have checked Help and Microsoft support, and nothing helps. A long time ago, before my computer had a a DVD player, a serviceman came to the house and put in the DVD player and installed software called Cyberlink Power DVD 7. Do you suppose that the problem arises because Cyperlink and Windows Media Player are duking it out behind the scenes? Questions: What software plays the YouTube videos? Is it Windows Media Player or something else? Do other people have this problem? Somewhere on my computer I saw the chance to 'make Windows Media Player the default player.' I hesitated to do that, but now I wonder if I should. Of course, I can't locate it now. Any tips or just background wisdom would be appreciated. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: treewind Date: 22 Sep 10 - 12:39 PM The software that plays YouTube videos is Adobe Flash Player. The problem could be software in your PC, but it's equally likely to be congestion somewhere in the network between your PC and YouTube's servers. Try checking the speed of your broadband connection at Speedtest.net or similar. Also try YouTube at different times of the day and - if there's a systematic variation it it likely to be network congestion when everybody else is viewing and downloading stuff, not your PC. Poor performance on YouTube is a common problem. You're not the only one. There's a new version of Flash player out recently - might be worth upgrading... see Adobe Flash Player |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 22 Sep 10 - 01:05 PM Thanks very much, treewind. I'll check those things out. Speaking of congestion, the day before yesterday, some 'cable broke' in River City, and my internet connection was hinky. But my little troubles didn't compare to the situation at my husband's job, where nobody in a firm of 3,000 people had any internet or e-mail for hours. As you say, maybe my slow videos are linked to big-picture problems. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 22 Sep 10 - 01:20 PM YouTube has a little known feature for musicians who use on-line videos as |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,PeterC Date: 22 Sep 10 - 02:38 PM YouTube was slow for me today. Connection speed is always the first thing to check. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: Gurney Date: 22 Sep 10 - 04:00 PM YouTube is sometimes slow for me, too. If it is, I connect to a local, i.e. in this country, site, to see what that is like. I most often get trouble as the young folks get home from school. Not my young folks. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: Acorn4 Date: 22 Sep 10 - 04:10 PM This is a common problem. The broadband speed where we are is very slow. One thing which can help is to wait until the video has fully loaded - you can see this by the indicator moving along at the bottom. It uses a "streaming" system which downloads and plays at the same time. If you wait until it's fully loaded, the system will be able to concentrate solely on playback. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 22 Sep 10 - 04:41 PM I updated my Adobe. Nothing's changed, but now I know it's not the fault of my computer. I know that I can minimize it and wait for a while, but that's so awkward. I do enjoy cruising the world via YouTube, seeing unusual instruments and scenery. When I can't sleep, I become a midnight rambler. Something else I enjoy is the videos at TheOnion.com Some of them are too mean or too gross, but others are SO funny... |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,andrew Date: 22 Sep 10 - 06:06 PM You could download the video, and then watch it. On a Mac with Tooble is one way, but there are other ways. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: gnu Date: 22 Sep 10 - 06:10 PM A piss poor solution is to start the download and put it on pause, do sommat else, come back and watch it. For what it's worth. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 22 Sep 10 - 06:52 PM I suggest you have someone (not yourself) examine your machines (Apple or PC all the same) "Flash Cache" .... stored as "*.SOL"(star-dot-SOL) files.
ALL flash (macromedia) (youtube etc) has an isideous "ET Phone Home" aspect (ever see "google analytics" flash across your loading tool bar?)
Have your friend do a "Search or Find" beginning at the root of your HD....
Sincerely,
To paraphrase Ferlingehtti, Hard-drives, are very much like underware .... when you REALLY get into them .....some very shocking things come up. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: Tangledwood Date: 22 Sep 10 - 10:55 PM Youtube has been very slow to play for me during the day since the weekend. I just realised that schools are on holiday here which might have something to do with it. If you attempt to watch on line the file is still being downloaded to you but being stored in a temp folder which is later deleted. So why not download it deliberately to be saved anyway, then if you want to watch it another time you don't double up on download allocation. Real Player will download most youtube clips. Windows Media Player may play on line but while it's playing you can access the menu for "file location", find where the temp file is, then copy it to a safe storage location. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 23 Sep 10 - 12:15 AM Is network congestion regional? Because it's eleven o'clock at night now, and I just played this beautiful video with piano music and butterflies straight through. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0VJBvaO5G4 Well, well. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: Tangledwood Date: 23 Sep 10 - 04:27 AM I would guess that any point in the network can become congested. The youtube server would be at it's peak workload when the highest number of users are on line, presumably USA #1, Europe #2. When those populations are mainly asleep the rest of the world experiences higher performance. Likewise, at the other end of the connection your local ISP is least congested when your population is sleeping. Then there would also be variations between weekends and weekdays I imagine. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 23 Sep 10 - 11:03 AM That makes sense. I wouldn't want to save those videos to my computer. (They must be huge.) Thanks for the tip, Gargoyle. I have a friend who would be able to follow your suggestion. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,field report Date: 23 Sep 10 - 12:09 PM YouTube very slow down here in New South Wales today too. Other flash applications seem normal. (Don't ask!) |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: dwditty Date: 23 Sep 10 - 01:53 PM It is not a fix, but if you open the video, then hit the pause icon and wait for the red "load" line to get a good head start, you can watch the video without it stop/starting all the way through. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 24 Sep 10 - 10:42 AM I turn the volume on my speaker down to nothing, minimize the video, then go to other pages for a while. Come back, turn up the volume and listen. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: Murray MacLeod Date: 24 Sep 10 - 05:36 PM @ Gargoyle: it's ".underwear" "underware" is something else entirely. Exactly what, I am not sure ... |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: Bonzo3legs Date: 24 Sep 10 - 06:12 PM Oh for heavens sake, download Realplayer for free, then right click the video in youtube and download it. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: Tootler Date: 24 Sep 10 - 06:23 PM I wouldn't want to save those videos to my computer. (They must be huge.) Not excessively so. I checked on five I have in a video downloads folder. They range in duration from 4 to 8 minutes and in size from 5.4 to 18 MB. You tube videos are pretty highly compressed. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: Tangledwood Date: 24 Sep 10 - 11:44 PM But even if you watch them directly from You Tube they are on your computer - until you delete your temp files. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 25 Sep 10 - 11:17 AM "Oh for heavens sake, download Realplayer for free..." And then what will happen? Will they load faster? Will Realplayer tinker with my settings? More clarity, less emphasis, please. ================== It is ten o'clock on a Saturday morning, and the videos are loading much faster now. The cartoon 'Dilbert' recently showed the evil Dogbert introducing a new product. Dogbert said, "It's just a block of wood. When a customer complains that it doesn't work, we blame the network." The cartoon made me laugh, but I think it's clear that my slow loading can indeed be blamed on the network. What about this Realplayer idea? |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: Girl Friday Date: 25 Sep 10 - 04:15 PM I think it's definitely the server's fault. On this computer Youtube used to stop and start with Tesco, but now using o2 which is fine. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,andrew Date: 25 Sep 10 - 04:40 PM It's been said before on this thread. Download the video. There's quite a few different methods available, and then watch it. You won't use up any more of your download quota than if you just watched it, and then you can watch it as many times as you like without using any more of your download quota. If you don't want to keep it,trash it. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: GUEST,Ladydigger Date: 26 Sep 10 - 10:43 AM I had this problem last week too. It was so slow that I just gave up. That little circle in the middle of the screen just went round and round! I decided to clean up my disc. It's easy. From your START menu, Go to ACCESSORIES. Choose SYSTEM TOOLS then choose DISC CLEANUP. This will remove all the old stuff you no longer use (temporary files and other crap). When that is done restart your computer. Now go to ACCESSORIES again and choose SYSTEM TOOLS then choose DISC DEFRAGMENTAION. This will "line up" all computer files so it does not spend time searching. This may take some time to complete (Mine took three hours) but hang on in there. When completed, restart computer again. By now it should be squeaky clean and much, much faster. I thought it may be my internet connection but this solved my problems. Don't worry about deleting iles. Microsoft will not let you delete anything important, it will only list stuff you do not need or drives that can be safely defragmented. Note: set your defragmentation schedule to to carry out the procedure once per month (pick a time when the computer will be switched on). Happy youtubing! |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: Tootler Date: 26 Sep 10 - 12:48 PM Sometimes, I suspect it is the video itself. I have just watched three You Tube videos. Two streamed fine, but the third kept stopping. If it had been my computer (which is new) or my Internet connection, they all should have behaved in the same way, so my conclusion is that it was the video itself. Maybe the original that was uploaded was in a less compressed form (Most video formats seem to involve some degree of compression to keep the file sizes reasonable). |
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Subject: RE: Tech: youtube videos so slow to play From: Edthefolkie Date: 26 Sep 10 - 05:35 PM We have a snail like broadband connection but YouTube is normally OK up to 480p definition. It is however no good at 720p, reasonably enough given BT's pathetic local link. So there may be some mileage in the advice to clean up your disk and defrag it. Downloading & converting isn't a bad idea either, and most of the free software apps which do this also allow you to change coding formats, write to DVD etc. As for RealPlayer, I can't stand its intrusiveness. In particular I'm fed up with its endless exhortations to upgrade and its attempts to become one's default player. Why would I want to buy their product when they act like hackers? |
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