Unable to view YouTube videos

[techiemon]

Have been having some issues with YouTube for the last month or more now.

Originally it was the flash problem, that message no longer appears as I have downloaded it. But now, ok the screen will load the video will buffer and then nothing. It won't play. I can move the cursor forwards and backwords and it will play like 2 seconds of the video and then stop and then move the cursor again it will play for like 2 seconds and then stop again..

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on? This is happening on all three of my browsers. Opera, FireFox and IE6.

I have tried disabling Norton Internet Security, and nothing changes. So I know it is not an anti-virus software issue. Did something maybe happen when I downloaded the enw flash software? Is there settings that need to be changed, and if so where?

Thanks!

[Jolly-Swagman]

Is Adblock or Flashbock or No Scrip Active

[repo man11]

Do you have more than one web browser? If more than one, have you tried to view Flash based videos with both?

Can you view the Flash demo here, http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/productinfo/features/ ?

[EmAn]

I have this problem intermittently using FF3. When it starts acting up like that I just clear the cache of the browser then restart it and all is well again for a few days. On firefox 3 a good utility to have other than the obvious is called RAMBack and it works wonders for helping speed up my system.

[techiemon]

Is Adblock or Flashbock or No Scrip Active - are these programs or.... something to do wtih java?

yes, I have more than one broswer and it is happening on all of them, cannot view the youtube stuff on any of them now. Not sure what happened.

I tried clearing the cache before I posted, didn't do anything. This is the first time anything like this has happened and I have been using youtube for quite some time...

[repo man11]

Any luck with the Flash demo?

[techiemon]

Seems like most of it works... I only tried it in Opera. But as I get futher down the list it just sits there and buffers. Alpha Channel, full screen, do this. The rest of them seem to work.. Why are you recommending this? Is that the problem? If I have to buy something to fix this, I won't do it. All the websites should work with general software without having to buy addiational software to make them work.. Especially something like You tube...

[repo man11]

YouTube requires Flash to work properly. You should be able to view all of the Flash demo if Flash is installed properly. l would try uninstalling and reinstalling Flash, which is free software. I believe Adobe has a Flash troubleshooting link on that page as well.

Also, I recently read a thread on another forum where people using certain ISPs were having issues viewing YouTube videos. They were apparently being blocked either intentionally or by accident.

[MRD]

Flash isn't free software, it just doesn't cost anything. Big difference. There is a free software implementation of flash, but it's still alpha stage and isn't really usable yet.

Is this affecting all the computers on your LAN, or just one? Is it affecting multiple OS's, or just one? Does it happen from all users on the system, or users with more limited permission sets?

[repo man11]

Flash isn't free software, it just doesn't cost anything. Big difference. There is a free software implementation of flash, but it's still alpha stage and isn't really usable yet.

In a legal sense, yes. In this case, the difference is meaningless, and needlessly pedantic to point out. He seemed to be worried that he was going to be required to purchase something, and I wanted to reassure him that was not the case.

[MRD]

It's not needlessly pedantic, it's critically important that more people understand the real differences between free software and freeware.

[curtis1552]

quote from above:
Flash isn't free software, it just doesn't cost anything. implementation of flash, but it's still alpha stage and isn't really usable yet.


it's been outta alpha a while if you're thinking of Gnash
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/
they can't play the 'newer' files b/c they haven't caught up yet, but most flash will work.

[techiemon]

Indeed I was just just worried I was going to have to pay for something to get this fixed. Sorry or any confusion. I realize someone out there designed the software and got paid to do it, I am not a cheapskate, but I didnt want to have to buy some additional software to make it work.

Anyway... ok, I will try uninstalling whatever flash it was that youtube wanted me to install and try reinstalling it.

As for some other questions. I am a single user, there is only one PC in use. Only one OS.

[MRD]

Well, not to worry on that count, because whether you go with free software flash implementations or Adobe's (currently much more developed / mature) flash implementation, it will not cost you anything. Go ahead and try removing and reinstalling and make sure firefox is not running when you do it, as that can sometimes mess it up. Make sure you get the right version too, 32 vs 64, etc. If you still have problems, try to answer the problems in my first post on this thread, and we'll see what we can figure out.

[burningcpu]

Old thread, but I was having this same problem with flash in firefox 2, but it went away since I've started using ff3. Maybe try the new version?

[reznik]

hmm