difficulty looking at videos

[The Flying Tench]

When I try to look at a video it shows about 10 seconds, then pauses for about 30 secs (I guess downloading more film) and then I see another 10 secs. So it takes ages to watch a 4 minute video.

 

I have 20 Meg broadband, and a Lenovo lapatop with 2GB memory.

 

Can anyone advise the likely cause of the problem, and anything I can do to improve it? I don't think it was as bad when I first got it, so I'm wondering if I can have used up some needed memory on something else?

 

Thanks

[Newt]

You should have more than enough memory and your connection is about 10 times faster than mine so isn't likely to be causing the problem. I have it happen on occasion but not often.

 

What operating system is your laptop using and is everything updated?

 

Take a look at this topic and run through the suggestions there. It was written for eBay problems but the suggestions are all good for general use.

 

http://community.ebay.co.uk/topic/General-...sing/2000002762

[Steve Burke]

John, are you certain your broadband is that fast? Or is it up to 20mb? If the latter, that's the fastest speed available and depends on both on which telephone exchange you're on and also how far away you are from the exchange.

 

For instance, our speed is up to 8mb but we're lucky to get a tenth of this. Watching YouTube or video news reports is almost impossible. It's one of drawbacks of living in the country.

[poledark]

You could first check your actual speed and if this is anything over 2mbs then you should be able to watch utube in the lowest speeds, usually 240 or 360, with no problems The higher speeds, 760 or 1080 will need a faster download speed.................unless you wait for the D/L bar to get ahead of the play arrow.

 

My D/L speed never gets above 1.8, but giving the video time to "get ahead" works for me.

 

Den

[chesters1]

BT at the moment have a voting system to get the fibre based cabling put in ,i hear its a 1000 and over to get on the bottom of the list ,trouble is theres not even 800 people in the village and i have no doubt only half or so will have broadband to vote looks like 1 to 1.5mb is it for me

lucky them

http://www.racetoinfinity.bt.com/winners

Edited January 30, 2011 by chesters1

[Klaus]

BT at the moment have a voting system to get the fibre based cabling put in ,i hear its a 1000 and over to get on the bottom of the list ,trouble is theres not even 800 people in the village and i have no doubt only half or so will have broadband to vote looks like 1 to 1.5mb is it for me

lucky them

http://www.racetoinfinity.bt.com/winners

Hi Chesters

Why dont you have a vote to have a prison built in your village ? that way you can have extra people & votes. + more than likely high speed internet would be given free to the inmates and you then can pay the premium extra price. Win win all round

 

Klaus

[The Flying Tench]

You could first check your actual speed and if this is anything over 2mbs then you should be able to watch utube in the lowest speeds, usually 240 or 360, with no problems The higher speeds, 760 or 1080 will need a faster download speed.................unless you wait for the D/L bar to get ahead of the play arrow.

 

My D/L speed never gets above 1.8, but giving the video time to "get ahead" works for me.

 

Den

Thanks everyone. Newt, I deleted all the temporary files, cookies etc as per your your list and it didn't seem to help much, so...

 

Den - how do I check the actual broadband speed, and also the Utube speeds?

 

J

[Newt]

How about the other half dozen or so suggestions in that topic?

[poledark]

John, down in the bottom RH corner of your screen there are some little icons...one looks like 2 TV screens. place your cursor on it and you will see the connected speed.

 

When watching a utube video there is a little box down near the RH corner which will have the numbers 280 or 340 or 42o or 780 or 1080. These are the speeds that the video can be viewed at. If you are trying to watch an HD (720 or 1080) then you will have problems if your internet speed is 2mb or less. so select the lower speed (if available)

 

Den

[kirisute]

Thanks everyone. Newt, I deleted all the temporary files, cookies etc as per your your list and it didn't seem to help much, so...

 

Den - how do I check the actual broadband speed, and also the Utube speeds?

 

J

http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/bw.asp

check your actual download speed on the link above!

just chose your closest location and run the test.

 

lets dispell some rumours next:

broadband actually has two main value..a SYNC speed and a THROUGHPUT speed (for want of a better term).

your SYNC speed is the speed at which your router talks back to the local exchange...for "up to 20 meg" a good sync speed is anything between 13 and 17 meg....ive never seen anyone hit much higher for a long period.

your THROUGHPUT is the speed you get AFTER the router..so from your phone port into your house and to your computer..this is effected by various factors..for instance: phones on the line, bad connection, extension leads, poor adsl filters,fax machines, line noise etc etc

 

Your Router might SYNC at 15 meg..but if you have a 3 phones and a fax and some nice long extension cables as well all that noise on the line will actually drop your THROUGHPUT down several meg..so you might exprience a speed of closer to 9 meg!!

 

http://www.speedtester.bt.com/

luckily BT provide the tool above, which will tell you your SYNC speed and your EXPECTED line speed...

run the test with the information it ask for: (your phone number and broadband email address)

the system will test your phone line and tell you your expected MAXIMUM SYNC speed and your current SYNC speed..chances are there is a big difference is MOST cases. If your expected speed is 8 meg but your SYNC speed is less than 2 then i would suggest a phone call to your provider to see if anything is up.

NOTE: most providers have a claus that states if your speed is higher than 1 meg then you dont have a problem! its bad policy but they will pull it alot of the time!

 

check your router as well! most home router run on an IP range of 192.168.1.?? or 192.168.0.1...typing that into your browser will open the router control panel and allow you to see what your line speeds and adsl connection sppeds are! If things just dont add up then you need to do some diagnosis yourself!

change all your ADSL filters; they do blow occasionaly and they can cause alot of issues.

unplug all the phones and test again...usually this will instantly add about a meg to your speed! over time it will add 2 or 3!

drag your router down to you PRIMARY BT socket! your primary socket has a faceplate that can be unscrewed at the bottom half of the unit. Do so, and inside you will see another phone socket! This is DIRECT connection to your phone line! plugging in here will cut out EVERYTHING in your house from your connection! its as close as you will get to plugging into the exchange itself! your router will connect as per usual and then give a far truer sign of your actual connection speeds!

NOTE:

your sync speed will go up and down all the time! digital exchanges "learn" what data connection your line can safely and stably handle and then set the speed accordingly! if your router suddenly connects alot lower than your usual speed for more than an hour then the exchange will start to slow down your internet connection speed until it reaches a stable speed! eg: say your adsl filter goes a bit wonky..causing your sync speed to drop by 2 meg...the exchange will automatically drop your connection speed down until it reaches a steady connection...from 6 to 4 etc.....if that situation doesnt change then your speed will never change again! resolving the problem will allow the exchange to push more data down your line and raise your speed again! HOWEVER; it can take up to 24 hours for your SYNC speed to go higher...in most cases it takes at least 4 before you will notice a good speed increase again!

 

so there is alot more to your broadband than simply plugging in your router! as with all thing "computer" you need to seriously start thinking about a routine of upkeep and testing/tweaking to keep things running smooth! dont panic though 99% of everyone i speak to doesnt do anything other than plug their router in either! LOL!

 

now for youtube and video streaming;

youtube is notorious for having streaming issues...it might simply be that your hitting one of those times (its been quite bad this last week) however there are things to do that might help:

update your FLASH player www.adobe.com; current version is 10.??? so if your running anything less its time to update!

get rid of all your internet toolbars! handy search engine toolbars; ebay toolbar; printer toolbar...most are useless and in 90% of cases they also keep a constant data connection to your broadband! so if your browser is open then they are eating your connection speed! the more you have the slower your browser will be, the slower the internet will be!

quickest way of killing them all? TOOLS>INTERNET OPTIONS>ADVANCED then click RESTORE ADVANCED SETTINGS and RESET. in the reset option chose to reset EVERYTHING....this will restore IE to factory defaults; disabling all browser toolbars and also deleting all your temp files etc!

with that done you can uninstall toolbars at your leisure from the standard add/remove programs option in control panel!

 

ccleaner; www.piriform.com; download it and run it....it will scan your pc for "rubbish" and remove it all for you. ive seen systems with upwards of 5 gig of temp and internet files that all go towards slowing things down alot! ccleaner can be like a magic wand....its free, its easy...its a 110% MUST HAVE!! run it once a month to keep things peachy!

 

try a different browser! some are faster than internet explorer! but ALL of them are 99% the same these days! and offer almost exactly the same features! if your swapping browser find one you like, and STICK WITH IT!! dont chop and change and swap about! each browser will store its own temp files!! the more you have; the more crap your pc has to deal with!

NOTE; Apple's Safari isnt compatible with FLASH this limits it alot! googles CHROME is very fast but comes bolted together with alot of "crapware" that you simply dont need..if you install Chrome be sure to tick boxes that say "dont install other software"! Mozilla is a common choice...its whatever floats your boat...but pick one..and stick with it!

 

if you simply cant get Youtube to play nice; why not download the vids themselves? www.keephd.com

copy and paste the video URL into the keephd website, then get the option to download the video in most common formats? its not as functional as streaming but it does allow you to keep your fave vids!

 

at the end of the day it could be many things that are causing your issues....test other video website; there are plenty that use both flash and java to stream videos. BBC is a good choice and will tell you if its something more youtube based than your internet connection etc.

let us know how you get on!