YouTube streaming problems

Does anyone else here have problems with buffering interruptions when streaming YouTube videos - primarily HD videos?

My FTTC service was installed on Wednesday and speed test results suggest an excellent connection with up to 38Mbs down and 8Mbs up. I can upload at 1MB per second - a 320MB video uploaded in 5 and a half minutes. But it's really slow coming the other way.

No obvious problems with BBC iPlayer or Vimeo.

I'm with Fast.co.uk and they are trying things, but no success in solving this problem so far.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone else here with FTTC also has YouTube problems specifically.

Thanks,

Ian

Can you provide an example link?

You can also right click on the YT flash player screen and select "Take speed test".

In reply to a post by 4M2:

You can also right click on the YT flash player screen and select "Take speed test".

Yes, found that - the rate is quite variable and it says frames are dropped.

Ian

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Can you provide an example link?

Try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW8p8JO2hQw

Don't forget to switch to 1080p mode.

Ian

streams fine on Mkt 1 exchange G.dmt ADSL Entanet business connection - 725 KiBytes/s

In reply to a post by yarwell:

streams fine on Mkt 1 exchange G.dmt ADSL Entanet business connection - 725 KiBytes/s

On BE the test just says at the top:

"Your average video speed at this location from Jan 26, 2011 to Feb 24, 2011 was 4.12 Mbps."

jchamier,

You have to click the link "Show Test Video" lower down the page. 'The test video will show you your streaming information in real time (look next to "Streaming HTTP").'

In reply to a post by 4M2:

You have to click the link "Show Test Video" lower down the page. 'The test video will show you your streaming information in real time (look next to "Streaming HTTP").'

Ok, I'm using Flash 10.2.152.26 in IE 8 (32bit) on Windows 7 x64, and I get this:
http://img8.imageshack.us/i/ytspeedtest.png/

The window seems all crunched up in the top left, but I can just see I'm getting about a constant 14mbps. In Firefox I seem to get a constant 8mbps on the same PC.

Good news to report, YouTube HD video streaming is much better today. I just hope it stays that way!

Ian

ifb_online,

Glad to hear that YT HD streaming has improved

Just out of interest: how fast do Vimeo HD videos buffer - can you monitor the speed with the tbbMeter or similar? Usually I get ~6300Kbps on adsl max but it can get much slower at certain times of the day; yet speeds from other sites, e.g. iPlayer, remain high.

4M2.

In reply to a post by 4M2:

ifb_online,

Glad to hear that YT HD streaming has improved

Just out of interest: how fast do Vimeo HD videos buffer - can you monitor the speed with the tbbMeter or similar? Usually I get ~6300Kbps on adsl max but it can get much slower at certain times of the day; yet speeds from other sites, e.g. iPlayer, remain high.

4M2.

Just had a look at some Vimeo 1080p clips clips - a 90 second clip was buffered fully after 11 seconds of playback, for example.

Unfortunately, my YuuTube problems have returned

Ian

ifb_online,

Thanks for doing the Vimeo test. For me this one minute HD video http://vimeo.com/20427953 fully buffered after 14 seconds.

Sometimes I find with YT if a video is slow to buffer then I just refresh the page and buffering will begin again and be much faster...

4M2.

9 seconds for me. I will try your YT tip thanks!

Ian

Just uploaded a 309MB 1080p video (direct from the camera) to Vimeo. The upload rate was slower than YouTube (which managed 1MB/sec for me) at 475K/sec. But the video buffered within seconds on playback. I have yet to see this video on YouTube fully buffered before the video ends!

Ian

In reply to a post by ifb_online:

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Can you provide an example link?

Try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW8p8JO2hQw

Don't forget to switch to 1080p mode.

Ian

constant 3.8meg sec on VM 30mbit cable. Best performing YT clip I seen for a while. Fully buffered 1:22 in.

Edited by Chrysalis (Tue 01-Mar-11 12:51:13)

In reply to a post by 4M2:

ifb_online,

Thanks for doing the Vimeo test. For me this one minute HD video http://vimeo.com/20427953 fully buffered after 14 seconds.

Sometimes I find with YT if a video is slow to buffer then I just refresh the page and buffering will begin again and be much faster...

4M2.

6 secs here.

Ian,

That's interesting because Vimeo will encode at 720p and YT will encode at the full 1080p and at a higher bit rate.

4M2.

Chrysalis,

That's fast!!!

4M2.

I'm almost a week into my new FTTC service with Fast.co.uk. When I started this thread I was having problems with streaming HD videos across my connection from YouTube despite speed tests showing I had 38Mns of bandwidth.

To give Fast.co.uk credit they have been very concerned and have apparently made some tweaks at their end and I can report that 720p content from YouTube does now stream reliably, but not 1080p.

I'm in a difficult position as YouTube video is very important for me as I produce video content. The upload speed is perfectly fine and is probably faster than what I'm getting for download. If 720p had not improved, I would have had to investigate the option of moving to another ISP, but 1080p is not (yet) critical for what I do.

I know others get clean YouTube streams at 1080p, as I do at home with my 20Mbs Virgin connection.

So my message to Fast.co.uk is - great, friendly support, but you need to fix this problem and fast (sorry for the pun!).

Ian