Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad

Subject: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 03:58 PM

I am at a total loss to understand why I am able to view certain Youtube videos with no problem, and other videos just freeze up on me.

For example, I have no problem playing Johnny Winter playing "Highway 61 Revisited"

but I simply cannot get Johnny Winter playing "Mississippi Blues" to play, it goes in fits and starts, and takes about half an hour to load the first 2/2 minutes.

The thing is, I have played the latter video on a friend's computer and it plays fine, no problem, so why does it not play on mine?

I am on AOL, Windows XP, her ISP is Wannadoo, if that is of any significance ...

It doesn't matter whether I use the AOL browser, IE7, or Mozilla Firefox, it still hangs up.

I am able to play many other videos with no problem, but there are many which hang up.

Any advice which leads to the solution of the problem will earn my undying devotion and gratitude, plus a free DVD set of the latest Phil Cunningham "Music of Scotland" series

Thanks in advance ...

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 04:26 PM

well, the 2nd one is twice as long as the 1st one. That would be MY guess as to the issue. It will depend on the connection speed..(dialup vs. broadband).

Both play fine here. (my broadband downloads them faster than they play.)

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: Effsee
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 04:35 PM

I seem to be in the same boat as you Murray. A bit hit or miss when it comes to being able to watch anything on Youtube.
I'm on AOL/Broadband/Vista. Just a wild guess, but might it be different kinds of video files that have been uploaded to Youtube?

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 06:46 PM

As far as I know, all vids on YouTube are in .flv format. It may be that AOL is off & on. I'm in a large metro area where service is pretty well robust.

   If the file 'starts' to play, hit 'pause' and watch the red line for a bit...you can only watch the part shown by the progress of that line. It may help to allow it to 'finish' before trying to watch.

So many possible factors in this complex game.

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 06:47 PM

What kind of broadband connection do you have, and is it the same as your friend's?

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 07:21 PM

Kevin, I have AOL Platinum Broadband and she has Wanadoo, but I think the issue is actually with my computer, it has also started powering up really slowly, when I switch on there is a white cursor on the black screen which blinks away for ages before the Windows screen comes up, so I think I will have to take it to a professional.

even so, I cannot understand why some videos always play flawlessly and others always hang up.

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: Gulliver
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 09:38 PM

I have had no problem with about 98% of the YouTube videos I've watched (and I've watched thousands), but there is that 2% that stop and start, for no explicable reason. In those cases I use a program such as YouTubeCatcher to download the video and can then watch it without any problems. I had no problem with the above-mentioned videos, and can only suggest looking at your computer setup (including memory) and suggest clearing your cache and deleting unnecessary files such as temporary Internet files and your Recycle bin (this seems to affect performance on my computer).

Don

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 10:07 PM

it is 'perhaps' the amount of free memory in your computer. This could be why smaller files play more easily than larger one. Do you know how to view/clear the cache? Or set parameters for clearing memory in general? Some of that can be fairly routine once you figure out the system.

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 10:18 PM

Gulliver is right. Dump all your temporary internet files post haste and the problem will clear up. I just went through the same situation.
                                                   SOL

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 06 Jan 08 - 11:49 PM

What a bunch of whiners, try living with 28.8 dial up every day of your life. It takes me over half an hour to download a couple of minutes of video in 3-5 second clips, which play every time they download.
Then and only then can I "sometimes" replay the whole thing.
There I feel a lot better now, Thanks, JohnB.

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 03:15 AM

Dang JohnB - you get 28.8 on dialup?

The best (actual) I could ever get out of mine was about 8.8.

I don't have any problem with either of the two videos, but I have switched to a "second tier" DSL and have fairly plentiful memory resources.

In Vista - as in Windows:

Close all programs. Cleanup can't remove files that are "open/in-use" by a program that's running.

Click open the "Computer" icon on the desktop, or just open "Windows Explorer." Find the C:\ drive and right click on it. Click "Properties" on the little drop down that opens.

On the Properties window, (General tab if it opens on a different one) there should be a button labelled "Disk Cleanup." Click there and let it look for trash that can be removed. It may take a little while to find everything, but you should soon get a list of cleanup items. In WinXP, most of them will have check marks on them. In Vista there are a lot of "extras" that may or may not be checked. The ones that are checked will be removed when you click ok.

You can run a disk cleanup from Internet Explorer at Tools|Internet options, but if you run it in IE (or another browser) Temporary Internet Files from the site you're on, and possibly others that IE is "using" can't be removed, so you don't get a good cleanup.

If the problem is just from the file size of the second video, clearing enough temp space for your computer to store the larger one in should give you the best possible odds on getting a good run of the video. If it's a speed/bandwidth problem with your connection, you may still have to wait for the download to complete before running the show, but most YouTube videos (that I've seen) retain the file to let you do a replay without downloading again.

After you've done the disk cleanup, it's a good idea occasionally to run a "Defragment Hard Drives" especially on the C:\ drive. Start|Programs|Accessories|System Tools|Disk Defragmenter is the usual route to get to it.

In Vista, depending on the version and how the builder set it up, you may find that defrag is scheduled to run - usually weekly - in the background while you're doing other stuff. If it's scheduled, you probably don't need to do a "special" on it.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 01:53 AM

JohnB

I'm on dialup too - found that Firefox - which is available for my Win98SE as well as later Windoze & Linux - has a 'Flashblock' extension. Yahoo answers used to load slow as a pain, but now that Flashblock stops the flash clips on EACH answer page downloading, the whole thing speeds up massively. I mean Massively!

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: GUEST,mehhimbored
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 06:00 PM

i have aol and windows 2000
videos load in about 5 minautes per second.
it just plays...then stops....then loads...then stops.....then loads and stops.
i dont know if its my computer or AOL is the problem.

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: TheSnail
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 07:46 PM

Exactly the same problem. I have AOL and Windows XP. It looks as if AOL might be the common factor.

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 02:26 AM

I'm not on AOL but I have the same problem.

All I do is turn the sound down and go off to make a cup of coffee while the computer gets on with downloading the item in fits and starts. Once it is complete, I can play the video right through whenever I want without problem until I re-boot the computer. Closing and re-opening YouTube has no effect - the video is still there ready for immediate, uninterrupted play.

DC

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 03:46 AM

The original problem probably is simply that the internet connection isn't fast enough to keep up with the playback of the video.

A video generally will start to play when a certain percent of the file, or a certain "playback time" has been downloaded, expecting that the rest of the file will download while the beginning is playing. With a slow connection, the playback gets to the end of what has been downloaded and stops to wait for some more. For a short video, the playback might not catch up to the download, while for a longer one it's more likely to catch up and stall to wait for more.

As Doug C suggests, the solution is just to do something else until all of the file has been downloaded. Then come back and replay the video. The only permanent "fix" probably is to get a faster connection.

YouTube generally lets you replay as many times as you wish, without reloading.

Some other sites (MSNBC Videos are a prime example) always start the download over if you try to play it again, or even if you just go back to the start to replay what has been partially downloaded. For these sites, waiting for it to finish, or replaying won't help. If the first try doesn't work just assume they didn't really have anything very interesting to show you. (Usually safe to assume at MSNBC, unless you're into drugged up athletes or starlets with antisocial tendencies.)

Even some DSL lines may have this problem to some extent, if you get one of the slowest (cheapest) options. The rate advertised is the maximum rate you're permitted to use with the contract you got. It is NOT GUARANTEED to be the actual rate you'll get in use; but your actual speed will never be faster than what the contract allows. Similar double-speak probably applies to cable/satellite hookups. If you're not getting at least half the rate advertised you may be able to get a provider to check out your line and tweak the settings, but cooperation varies, and what they can do may be limited by local conditions.

John

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 05:46 AM

The very early incarnations of the 'streaming protocols' allowed you to modify parameters, such as how much was cached, how much had to be downloaded before it would start to play, etc. I seem to remember that you could also grab the temp cached file and keep it for later replay.

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: TheSnail
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 07:12 AM

I don't think JohnInKansas's explanation works. On the "Jack Hudson - video clips" thread there is a link to three videos, all from the same source, all around the same length -

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=jackhudsonvideo&search=Search

"Two Hours From Canada" and "Driftwood and Nails" play fine, "Across The Great Divide" does the start-stop thing.

It's a mystery.

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: GUEST,Dazbo at work
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 08:11 AM

don't know if it's a contributary factor with the videos but the length of the clip is not a true indicator of the file size. Picture size, ratio and KB/S all affect the file size - perhaps these videos are "better" quality.

And when will youtube allow 16:9 format? the only way I can load my 16:9 videos is to reduce the size and bit rate until if fits in the 4:3 window without being squashed:-(

Subject: RE: Tech: YouTube videos driving me mad
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 10:46 AM

One additional thing that might be worth trying -

The embed call on the first two clips both indicate a "shockwave flash" program. Flash was bought out by Adobe about a year ago, and significant changes and updates were made to the program, including patches for known malware vulnerabilities that Macromedia had failed to patch for many months prior to the change. I don't know whether the shockwave application was part of that acquisition, but both are now Adobe products.

It's possible that an update to the latest versions might help. Both are free downloads at Adobe. (Look at the top right at the link.) Each of these two players will be a 1+ or 2+ MB download. You can update your Adobe pdf Reader at the same place, but the latest version of it is just over 22 MB so it's not a "trivial" download with dialup.

The "problem" described is exactly what we got with the dialup connection we had until a month or so ago, and the only remedy we found was, as suggested, to let the YouTube files download completely and then replay from the file in Temp memory. With our old connection, which appeared to be even slower than the average dialup, none of the YouTube clips could be played "first time" except as intermittent bits and pieces, so we almost never bothered trying to visit YouTube. Our new faster connection eliminated any problems there.

John