YouTube Video Buffering Speeds

[Albion72]

System information before I explain the complexity of this issue:

Windows 7 64bit
ATI Radeon 5870 video card
intel core i7 at 2.7ghz
6gb RAM

Internet Provider: Qwest
Down Speed: 7168 kbps
up speed: 896 kpbs

I have Flash and Shockwave players installed on all of my browsers (I have Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer). They are the latest versions.

I just downloaded the latest driver for my graphics card.

I am running AVG Security (Free) and Spyware Search and Destroy. Both programs turn up no threats on FULL scans. I regularly clear browsing history for all browsers, and use CCleaner to get anything that it misses.

I am connected through a modem, there is no router, just a straight connection from my modem to my PC via Ethernet cable.

When I first got this PC (about half a year ago), I was able to watch HD YouTube videos without the need to wait for buffering at all really.

Now I am struggling at 360p. Sometimes refreshing the video several times gets it to buffer semi-quickly. Other times I have to play with the quality settings, like go from 360 to 480 back to 360 again to get it to buffer. Even then, the buffering is extremely slow. There seems to be no reason for this.

Do you guys have any ideas what the issue(s) might be?

 

[rickoles]

Check the youtube FAQ / support.

 

[325cic]

System information before I explain the complexity of this issue:

Windows 7 64bit
ATI Radeon 5870 video card
intel core i7 at 2.7ghz
6gb RAM

Internet Provider: Qwest
Down Speed: 7168 kbps
up speed: 896 kpbs

I have Flash and Shockwave players installed on all of my browsers (I have Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer). They are the latest versions.

I just downloaded the latest driver for my graphics card.

I am running AVG Security (Free) and Spyware Search and Destroy. Both programs turn up no threats on FULL scans. I regularly clear browsing history for all browsers, and use CCleaner to get anything that it misses.

I am connected through a modem, there is no router, just a straight connection from my modem to my PC via Ethernet cable.

When I first got this PC (about half a year ago), I was able to watch HD YouTube videos without the need to wait for buffering at all really.

Now I am struggling at 360p. Sometimes refreshing the video several times gets it to buffer semi-quickly. Other times I have to play with the quality settings, like go from 360 to 480 back to 360 again to get it to buffer. Even then, the buffering is extremely slow. There seems to be no reason for this.

Do you guys have any ideas what the issue(s) might be?

Currently, all browsers are not good to handle HD video. that why you see it really slow.

I recommend you try out IE9 beta browsers or firefox 4 beta. It will speed thing up because it uses hardware acceleration. I am really happy with since I used it. I bet you will too

 

[Omsion]

Are other sites loading fine at your max speed?

Youtube sometimes can be inconsistent with their speeds. It just depends on which server you get routed to for whatever video/quality setting you've loaded up.

If this is consistent, it's more likely an issue with your ISP routing. A quick purview of the dslreports forum seem to indicate that this problem crops up quite a bit with Qwest. You can try changing your DNS servers to something that's not Qwest (eg/Google Public DNS, OpenDNS, L3), since that generally changes the routing around a bit.

Currently, all browsers are not good to handle HD video. that why you see it really slow.

I recommend you try out IE9 beta browsers or firefox 4 beta. It will speed thing up because it uses hardware acceleration. I am really happy with since I used it. I bet you will too

This has nothing to do with video playback, as far as I'm reading - it's a download speed issue.

 

[Albion72]

325cic, I will try one of those browsers. Thanks for the idea

Omsion, this will be the next thing I try, although I might need some help figuring out how to do that. And yeah this is really consistent, every video, every day. Its just youtube videos that suck at loading.

 

[Omsion]

Changing DNS servers on Win7, IIRC:
Network and Sharing Center -> Change adapter settings -> Right click the adapter that connects you to the internet -> Properties -> TCP/IPv4, Properties -> Insert DNS addresses

For reference:
Google
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

OpenDNS
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

L3
4.2.2.2

 

[Mpegger]

Could be a combination of something, but personally, I dunno what. I have the same situation but I am not sure what the problem is (my end or youtubes?)

I have a network meter to see what my current bandwidth is on the 2nd screen and can clearly see that while a video is playing, the transfer speed from Youtube drops down considerably. If I pause the video, it'll go back to using up all my download bandwidth. Press play, and the transfer speed plummets again.

Much like the OP, I never had this problem way back when. Its only in the last few months that this problem has been going on. Maybe its a Flash issue? Again, I just can't tell, but it seems to occur only on Youtube, as other video sites playback just fine and use up all the bandwidth it can.

 

[Omsion]

Could be a combination of something, but personally, I dunno what. I have the same situation but I am not sure what the problem is (my end or youtubes?)

I have a network meter to see what my current bandwidth is on the 2nd screen and can clearly see that while a video is playing, the transfer speed from Youtube drops down considerably. If I pause the video, it'll go back to using up all my download bandwidth. Press play, and the transfer speed plummets again.

Much like the OP, I never had this problem way back when. Its only in the last few months that this problem has been going on. Maybe its a Flash issue? Again, I just can't tell, but it seems to occur only on Youtube, as other video sites playback just fine and use up all the bandwidth it can.

Yeah, I've watched my bandwidth when playing back Youtube video as well. Sometimes, for reasons unfathomable, Youtube just refused to feed me data at any reasonable pace. This also has been bugging me on and off for the past year actually - in two different cities with different ISPs. Only thing in common is Youtube, so I blame them

FYI, 480p videos seem to need ~140-160kbps to play without pausing to buffer.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

The YouTube problem is not DNS lookup related.

And slow DNS resolving is unlikely with Windows, while OTOH, Linux regularly hangs the web browser for a DNS lookup.
(A workaround for Linux is to use dnsmasq)

Linux seems to not have proper DNS caching out-of-the-box. => This don't apply to you, so you're good.

The YouTube problem you're talking about is usually just YouTube having a bad day.

You may have better luck with Exposure Room or Daily Motion.

 

[325cic]

325cic, I will try one of those browsers. Thanks for the idea

Omsion, this will be the next thing I try, although I might need some help figuring out how to do that. And yeah this is really consistent, every video, every day. Its just youtube videos that suck at loading.

Report back when you tried it.

 

[GIXXERGUY6]

System information before I explain the complexity of this issue:

Windows 7 64bit
ATI Radeon 5870 video card
intel core i7 at 2.7ghz
6gb RAM

Internet Provider: Qwest
Down Speed: 7168 kbps
up speed: 896 kpbs

I have Flash and Shockwave players installed on all of my browsers (I have Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer). They are the latest versions.

I just downloaded the latest driver for my graphics card.

I am running AVG Security (Free) and Spyware Search and Destroy. Both programs turn up no threats on FULL scans. I regularly clear browsing history for all browsers, and use CCleaner to get anything that it misses.

I am connected through a modem, there is no router, just a straight connection from my modem to my PC via Ethernet cable.

When I first got this PC (about half a year ago), I was able to watch HD YouTube videos without the need to wait for buffering at all really.

Now I am struggling at 360p. Sometimes refreshing the video several times gets it to buffer semi-quickly. Other times I have to play with the quality settings, like go from 360 to 480 back to 360 again to get it to buffer. Even then, the buffering is extremely slow. There seems to be no reason for this.

Do you guys have any ideas what the issue(s) might be?

Try right clicking on the player(youtube video) and disabling Hardware acceleration. See if that helps.

 

[Omsion]

The YouTube problem is not DNS lookup related.
...

It can be, because Google (and other large content providers) directs traffic based on the incoming DNS requests (when it gets a DNS request, it changes its response based on the IP of the requesting DNS server). For example...where I end up by using different DNS servers for youtube's frontpage:

(71.250.0.14)
173.194.35.91

(68.237.161.14)
173.194.33.91

(208.67.222.222)
173.194.35.136

(8.8.8.8)
173.194.33.136

(4.2.2.2)
64.233.169.136

So if his ISP is screwing up the route that youtube traffic normally comes from...if it comes from a different direction/location, that might fix things. Thus how changing DNS servers can help youtube speed.

Sure, it's somewhat oblique and longshotish, but it's been reported to work before.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

It can be, because Google (and other large content providers) directs traffic based on the incoming DNS requests (when it gets a DNS request, it changes its response based on the IP of the requesting DNS server). For example...where I end up by using different DNS servers for youtube's frontpage:

(71.250.0.14)
173.194.35.91

(68.237.161.14)
173.194.33.91

(208.67.222.222)
173.194.35.136

(8.8.8.8)
173.194.33.136

(4.2.2.2)
64.233.169.136

So if his ISP is screwing up the route that youtube traffic normally comes from...if it comes from a different direction/location, that might fix things. Thus how changing DNS servers can help youtube speed.

Sure, it's somewhat oblique and longshotish, but it's been reported to work before.

According to the web browser, it's not. It doesn't say "Looking up XYZ..." and stay there for a long time.

(While under Linux, "Looking up XYZ..." is a regular occurrence)

 

[Omsion]

According to the web browser, it's not. It doesn't say "Looking up XYZ..." and stay there for a long time.

(While under Linux, "Looking up XYZ..." is a regular occurrence)

Note I'm not directly talking about the DNS lookup, which is what you're describing. I'm describing what happens after. Again, Google directs traffic based on where the incoming DNS requests are coming from. Thus changing DNS may change the server Google sends him too (see the list of different servers I get sent too by changing my DNS provider).

If this problem is an ISP routing issue with the path his videos normally take, then this may help, since it likely changes the path the data is sent over as well.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Note I'm not directly talking about the DNS lookup, which is what you're describing. I'm describing what happens after. Again, Google directs traffic based on where the incoming DNS requests are coming from. Thus changing DNS may change the server Google sends him too (see the list of different servers I get sent too by changing my DNS provider).

If this problem is an ISP routing issue with the path his videos normally take, then this may help, since it likely changes the path the data is sent over as well.

OK, just wanted to let folks know that it's not the classic slow DNS problem.

And, for me, I thought because of the fact that YouTube is based in California and I'm in Vermont, that there was nothing I can do about it!

Thus, if you're in the eastern US, there's a chance that you can do nothing about it.

While Exposure Room appears to be in Virginia, thus can save eastern US users' bacon from slowness.

 

[DaveHCYJ]

And, for me, I thought because of the fact that YouTube is based in California and I'm in Vermont, that there was nothing I can do about it!

Thus, if you're in the eastern US, there's a chance that you can do nothing about it.

Google (and every large corporation) have servers all over the world, so that they can serve content from you from the closest servers. This reduces their costs as well as improves latency.

What Omsion was getting at is that DNS should be providing you with an IP address of the most local server farm. It possible however that the ISP is screwing up the DNS requests and giving you an IP that is farther away than it has to be.


Edit: Here is an example of what I'm talking about -- both of these IP addresses are for www.google.com using different DNS servers to get them.

Pinging 74.125.43.99 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.125.43.99: bytes=32 time=195ms TTL=38
Reply from 74.125.43.99: bytes=32 time=196ms TTL=38
Reply from 74.125.43.99: bytes=32 time=196ms TTL=38
Reply from 74.125.43.99: bytes=32 time=198ms TTL=38

Ping statistics for 74.125.43.99:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 195ms, Maximum = 198ms, Average = 196ms

Pinging 74.125.93.99 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.125.93.99: bytes=32 time=109ms TTL=45
Reply from 74.125.93.99: bytes=32 time=106ms TTL=45
Reply from 74.125.93.99: bytes=32 time=105ms TTL=45
Reply from 74.125.93.99: bytes=32 time=105ms TTL=45

Ping statistics for 74.125.93.99:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 105ms, Maximum = 109ms, Average = 106ms

 

[CompuTamer]

Youtube has been slow for me lately too. Idk what's up. It has phases. It works great, fails terribly, works great, fails, etc.