Jerky stop start vids.

[gemma10]

Can no longer watch Sky news videos or any downloaded videos, BBC excepted as they all are very jerky in playback. FF has recently done two upgrades in short succession and was wondering if that is the cause. Also updated Flash player but that hasnt cured it. Anyone else seeing this. :bored:

[Old and Horrified]

I see exactly the same and can't seem to find the problem. Youtube videos run for 30 second or so and then stop. My broadband is not very fast, but BBC programmes on iPlayer run perfectly. I'm looking forward to seeing suggested fixes.

[Ant]

I've long ago stopped using FF for Youtube and the like. Instead SRWare Iron (http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron_download.php)browser which is a lightweight stripped down version of Chrome performs perfectly.

[mixture]

Old and Horrified & gemma10,

Is this a recent problem ? Before leaping into blaming software, maybe it is/was a problem with your ISP ?

[gemma10]

Only seen the problem since the last two updates from Mozilla which were separated by two days once again. I keep saying I`m going to abandon FF as they seem to try and fix their fixes.

My download speed seldom drops below 10Mb.

[Old and Horrified]

I get the problem with Both IE (11) and FF. I run Win 7 Enterprise. I started noticing it about 6 months ago, but it could have been happening for longer. I only get about 1.3mb speed as we are down the end of a long country lane, but BBC iPlayer works fine which implies, at least to me, that is not the problem. The strange thing about YouTube is that the buffer bar moves well ahead of the play position, and then just stops so when the play position catches up everything stops. Eventually (after maybe a minute or more) it will restart. In other words its more or less unwatchable. ISP is Orange/EE. Any suggestions would be most welcome!

[Booglebox]

Are you using the most recent version of Flash?

[gemma10]

I too am on EE, download speed no a problem, and have same problem on youtube as mentioned above. On Sky downloads the playback is like watching a video from an old VCR with a dirty head and running at the wrong speed. I downloaded the recent adobe flash three days ago. Anyone know if its possible to view incoming downloads via VLC.

[jimjim1]

I have the idea that youtube gives ISPs tools (or that the ISPs get their own) to 'manage' the download. For example on my internet connection youtube never buffers ahead to the end of the video as it once did. One possible method would be to allows certain ISPs to use certain servers.

So I speculate that the problem might be connected with your ISP.

For a while I used a youtube management browser add-on which seemed to help.
SmartVideo For YouTube

These sound reasonable settings.
"under buffering options, ensure that the videos buffer on start, will not play until a certain amount is buffered and buffers while paused.
DO NOT check the first box that says to play the video on start"

Usual caveats about third party software apply.

Other people have suggested blocking certain IP addresses using the windows firewall.

######################
Here are some notes I made a while back. Sorry, I don't have the energy to ferret around further at present.

###
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/youtube/ApR7zN1freI%5B26-50-false%5D

###

google [youtube tools for isps]

http://www.nanog.org/meetings/nanog57/presentations/Tuesday/tues.general.Medhi.Youtube.18.pdf
Dec 2011
This has info on youtube video server selection algorithm.
Flash mentioned, not html5.

"ISP3 has access to exclusive
servers even for non-popular
videos"

pytomo - Tomography tool working as a YouTube crawler - Google Project Hosting (http://code.google.com/p/pytomo/)

[mixture]

I have the idea that youtube gives ISPs tools (or that the ISPs get their own) to 'manage' the download.

No, they don't ... really, they don't ....

You'll just have to believe me on that, its too horrendously complex to even begin explaining to you !

In a nutshell, what you are getting yourself confused with is packet shaping, contention ratios, FUPs and all the other tools in the ISPs arsenal that provide them with a commercially viable way to give you high speed broadband at home for a stupidly low price per month !

The reason I asked the OPs the question about ISP related was for a completely different problem based on something I know was happening earlier in the week (temporary fault) .....

For example on my internet connection youtube never buffers ahead to the end of the video as it once did.

If you had bothered spending 30 seconds on Google, you would have found out YouTube switched to MPEG-DASH at the end of last year and hence the complete video buffer is the thing of the past....the point of DASH is it only buffers as much as is necessary, not the whole lot !

YouTube use a variety of DASH profiles and codecs depending on the player they are targetting.... which is why, coming back to my original point to you ... you can assume YouTube are doing a pretty good job on delivering a quality user experience (they've got a solid network and legions of excellent programmers ... the likelihood of a significant issue affecting a significant number of users is becoming ever more unlikely with the increased maturity of the YouTube platform).

Therefore issues you are experiencing are likely to be down to either your ISP having temporary issues, or more likely if you're on a cheap connection, the commercials you have agreed with them surrounding the technical constraints placed on your internet connection.

Usual caveats about third party software apply.

Using third party software to try to "fix" youtube is likely to be a pointless waste of anyone's time.... might as well wave a dead chicken over your computer and see if that helps your youtube !

Other people have suggested blocking certain IP addresses using the windows firewall.

That's a very silly idea instead. Have you seen the size of the Google/YouTube network ?

Totally and utterly pointless, and that's before we consider how pointless it is from a purely technical point of view !

[Booglebox]

I reluctantly concur with my esteemed colleague :eek: with the exception of:

Using third party software to try to "fix" youtube is likely to be a pointless waste of anyone's time.... might as well wave a dead chicken over your computer and see if that helps your youtube !

Adblock may make a substantial difference, by removing un-needed Flash / GIFs.