Video buffering.

[Mike G]

I have suddenly developed a problem on my PC when it comes to playing videos. It seems like my system can't cope with them any more. When (if) they start playing, they are terrible resolution, with the image being quite pixellated. A minute or two can go by like that, then whilst the image quality goes back to normal, the video will suddenly stop, and that dreaded circle symbol arrives.........round and round we go.

I have done all the standard computer health checks, such as re-starting, unplugging and then turning back on, selectively emptying caches, running virus and malware checks, deleting unused programmes, checking the amount of memory I have, unplugging the router and then replugging it back in, trying another browser, and checking my internet speed:



I don't expect anyone to trouble-shoot this issue for me, but if anyone has any suggestions for categories of checks and adjustments I could make, I'd appreciate it.

Oh, I should add that I have crashed out of my browser (Firefox) altogether and generated a Microsoft crash report box a few times when trying to refresh the Youtube (or whatever) page.

 

[spb]

Presumably this is playing videos from websites, in a browser? If so:

• Which browser are you using, and have you tried any others?
• Which site(s) are you seeing this on, and have you tried any others?

 

[Mike G]

The problem occurs on any videos, including Youtube. It happens in both Firefox and Opera.

 

[Mike G]

This video, below, I opened in a new tab an hour ago, and it has only buffered/ downloaded the first 3 minutes, and nowit's fallen over at that point.

 

[AJB Temple]

Do you have an ad blocker running. If so turn it off for now and see if the buffering issue continues.

 

[Cabinetman]

Totally frustrating Mike, I wish I could help but I’m a bit of a numpty with the these things. One thing that I realised when it happened to me was that I was too far away from the Router.
Ian

 

[Mike G]

Thanks Adrian. I hadn't tried that, but I now have.........and it makes no difference.

 

[Mike G]

Totally frustrating Mike, I wish I could help but I’m a bit of a numpty with the these things. One thing that I realised when it happened to me was that I was too far away from the Router.
Ian

I'm about 2 feet from the router. The thing is, absolutely nothing whatever has changed with my set-up, and it has gone from working perfectly well, to barely working at all.

 

[thetyreman]

have you tried using cable instead of wifi? it's often much faster p.s you might want to blur out your IP address too mike for security.

 

[AndyP]

Is yous the only device accessing the router? Could something else be hogging the band width? Does your ISP provide a method of checking who is connected and what their usage is?

 

[Jonathan]

Mike I know zero about computer stuff but I had simular problems, my fix was to bypass the router and put Ethernet straight to the PC, worked for me so I put Ethernet cable to everything I could.

 

[Mike G]

I haven't tried a cable, but I can't see why that would be a fix because wifi has worked immaculately for at least a couple of years.

 

[Mike G]

Is yous the only device accessing the router? Could something else be hogging the band width? Does your ISP provide a method of checking who is connected and what their usage is?

My wife uses it a bit, but she's out, and everything of hers is off (as is the TV)........and the issue persists.

 

[AJB Temple]

Mike, just to be sure, if you turn off ad blocker, you will need to reset the cookies / clear cache for the sites in question and possibly restart before you know if it works or not. Tedious I know. Does your browser use "shields" (Brave does for example) if so turn that off as well for the sites in question.

 

[Mike G]

Mike, just to be sure, if you turn off ad blocker, you will need to reset the cookies / clear cache for the sites in question and possibly restart before you know if it works or not. Tedious I know. Does your browser use "shields" (Brave does for example) if so turn that off as well for the sites in question.

I didn't do that. I'll give it a try. But sheesh, Youtube is an almighty pain if you have to tolerate all the ads.

 

[AJB Temple]

Yes. But this is a software war between the content providers and the blockers. So we go through this off and on dance from time to time.

 

[Mike G]

I went through the whole rigmarole (whitelisting Youtube, clearing the cache, re-starting), and no, Adblock Plus doesn't seem to be the issue. I've also pulled the plug out of the TV, and so there is no other device in the house running other than my PC. No change.

 

[AJB Temple]

Hmm. Computer hasn't overheated has it? Or had a power surge? I'm wondering if there is an issue with the graphics card. Can you run a system diagnostics to check whether everything is operating properly?

 

[Mike G]

Not that I know of. I wouldn't know how to run a systems health check.

I have just tried playing a video on my wife's laptop, and it was fine. We can therefore rule out network/ Wifi issues. It is local to my PC. So, yes, I guess the graphics card would be something worth a look.

 

[AJB Temple]

I no longer have a PC in the house to check how to do diagnostics (Mac only these days) but hopefully someone else will be able to tell you what to do. I imagine they will need to know what operating system and version you are running.

 

[Windows]

In YouTube, hit the cog, hit Quality and let me know what the highest number you see is and which option is selected.

If you’re watching YouTube, your most reliable experience will be using the Chrome browser. If you’re willing to install Chrome or already have it installed, I’d try that next.

I’m assuming the download/upload stats that you showed earlier are from the computer that has the problem?

 

[Lons]

Mike
Try pressing control / alt / delete keys simultaneously and it will open a blue screen and list of tasks, click on TASK MANAGER and scroll down the list of processes open, it shows how much resources are being used by each app. If you see anything suspicious you could disable it but I'd suggest you take a screen shot and google research the prog details first if you don't know. You can also look through the other tabs which will show performance, app history, running processes etc. Interesting and useful information. Start up especially is worth checking. You can see I've disabled several in mine. That means they are dormant and only load when I click on the icon to open them.
You can close task manager just by clicking the X in the top right without doing any harm, just don't make changes unless you're sure of course.

The other thing to look at is which antivirus program you're running, some can be very invasive and memory / processor hungry.

 

[RogerS]

It could be your internet connection playing up. Who are you with ? What router do you have ?

 

[Robert]

Have you tried a local video file played from your hard drive? That would show if it is internet connection problems.

Running badly then crashing - just crashing the player or the whole system?

What graphics card is it? They do go wrong sometimes. Is intense CAD work running ok?

 

[Robert]

Your download ping seems really slow in that speedtest you posted.

mine-


May not be the problem but seems wrong maybe.

 

[Mike G]

In YouTube, hit the cog, hit Quality and let me know what the highest number you see is and which option is selected.

If you’re watching YouTube, your most reliable experience will be using the Chrome browser. If you’re willing to install Chrome or already have it installed, I’d try that next.

I’m assuming the download/upload stats that you showed earlier are from the computer that has the problem?

Thanks for the suggestions, Windows. There's no cog on my screen, but I adjusted the playback quality / refresh rate thing a few days ago, down to 50-whatevers. That made no difference. I don't think it can be a browser issue, as theproblem persists when changing to Opera. And yes, those figures are from my computer.

 

[Mike G]

Have you tried a local video file played from your hard drive? That would show if it is internet connection problems.

Running badly then crashing - just crashing the player or the whole system?

What graphics card is it? They do go wrong sometimes. Is intense CAD work running ok?

I don't have any videos stored on my computer.
When it crashes, it is crashing the browser, not the computer.
All my drawing work is 2D, so puts no strain on any graphics card. My graphics card is an Intel R HD Graphics 530, and the driver is 26.20.100.7263 dated 2019

 

[Mike G]

Mike
Try pressing control / alt / delete keys simultaneously and it will open a blue screen and list of tasks, click on TASK MANAGER and scroll down the list of processes open, it shows how much resources are being used by each app. If you see anything suspicious you could disable it but I'd suggest you take a screen shot and google research the prog details first if you don't know. You can also look through the other tabs which will show performance, app history, running processes etc. Interesting and useful information. Start up especially is worth checking. You can see I've disabled several in mine. That means they are dormant and only load when I click on the icon to open them.
You can close task manager just by clicking the X in the top right without doing any harm, just don't make changes unless you're sure of course.

The other thing to look at is which antivirus program you're running, some can be very invasive and memory / processor hungry.

The problem is, I wouldn't know what "suspicious" looked like. I could do an awful lot of damage very quickly by fiddling with the contents of the Task Manager when I haven't a clue what I'm doing.

I use Avast anti virus.

 

[Mike G]

It could be your internet connection playing up. Who are you with ? What router do you have ?

I'm with Gigaclear, on a fibre-optic cable, and with their standard Linksys router. I have unplugged it and plugged it back in a few minutes later to re-set it, and that made no difference.

 

[Mike G]

Your download ping seems really slow in that speedtest you posted.

May not be the problem but seems wrong maybe.

It seems that the slower the "ping", the better. It's some sort of measure of lag, whatever that is.

 

[wallace]

Maybe try turning back your computer to a previous restore point

 

[Mike G]

Maybe try turning back your computer to a previous restore point

I had no idea such a thing was possible......which obviously means I have no idea how to do it!

-

As an aside, I have also found that Facebook isn't running properly. It isn't something I go on often, so I've only just noticed.

 

[Lurker]

Have you tried switching it off and on again?
( that exhausts my entire knowledge of the subject)

 

[AJB Temple]

The PC is close to the router, but connected wirelessly, yes? Lorraine's laptop works fine so it's not a Virgin problem. Just to eliminate any issue with your wireless card, I would plug the computer into the router with an ethernet cable. One is usually supplied with the router. Turn the wi fi off on the PC.

If direct link does not fix it, then I think you must download the instructions for the system diagnostics routines off the internet and get the computer to check the health of the components inside.

 

[Lons]

The problem is, I wouldn't know what "suspicious" looked like. I could do an awful lot of damage very quickly by fiddling with the contents of the Task Manager when I haven't a clue what I'm doing.

I use Avast anti virus.

You don't need to do any damage Mike if you open it and just scroll down to look for anything that's using high resources under CPU and Memory headings. Use the slider bar on the right and you can't affect anything. Look also at the performance tab as the page, a live graph shows as well including your WiFi. The reason I mentioned start up is that there are often programs (apps) which strt up when you turn on your PC and run in the background even when you never use them.
If you see anything using a lot of resources, take a screenshot and post it up and some on here might be able to help.

One other thing sometimes overlooked is to check how full your main C drive is as if you don't have much space free it will noticeably slow down your PC and cause buffering.

I also use the free version of Avast without too many issues

 

[Robert]

So... you don't have a graphics card. Intel 530 is a part of the main cpu chip. Not a problem for most normal use and certainly capable of playing 4k 60hz videos.

The fact that it isn't makes me think overheating. 2 likely causes - the fins on the cpu cooler are blocked with fluff or more likely one or more of the pegs that hold it onto the top of the cpu are broken. Open the case and check the cooler is secure and dust free. New cooler is not too expensive if pegs are broken.

btw... you can record some video on a phone then plug the phone into the computer and transfer the file to the drive for playback testing.

 

[Windows]

Here’s more info than you need, but if you want to understand the recommendation to try Chrome, here you go:

Both Opera and Firefox are minority browsers. Chrome and Safari are the only mainstream browsers. Edge is Chrome with a moustache and glasses.

This is not a value judgement - it’s just the reality of market share which affects which browsers website developers test their sites with. Most developers simply prioritise testing and bug fixes on one of the mainstream browsers. Those that add a minority browser to the testing mix will add Firefox, never Opera (to a good approximation; the BBC and gov.uk are exceptions to every rule).

Google, as the provider of both YouTube and Chrome browser, has little strategic interest in keeping YouTube working with minority browsers. Google tests YouTube with Firefox, but any bugs are likely to be treated as “them” bugs rather than “us” bugs. This is not the case with bugs that appear with YouTube & Chrome browser. Not only does Chrome have the largest market share by a long way, but when YouTube doesn’t work with Chrome browser, that’s a Google-only problem and it’s going to get fixed quickly.

All of the browsers under discussion handle video differently even Edge whose guts are otherwise almost identical to Chrome.

When a browser requests video from a server, there is a negotiation process that happens as the browser and server attempt to agree on file format, encoding, and bit rate.

Because each browser and operating system combination has access to different video codecs, and different hardware in your machine may be able to accelerate decoding the video in different ways, the negotiation process is quite complex. However, at a high level we can say that there’s a pretty good chance that Chrome browsers are likely to be served different files than, say, Firefox browsers.

Being served a different file than the majority of users, doesn’t just expose you to a problem with a corrupt file that may only be apparent to a small number of users, but it also exposes you to infrastructure problems that may only be apparent to a small number of users. When we talk about contacting “a server”, this is a gross simplification of what’s happening. There are usually multiple machines involved and the statistically plausible result is that Chrome browsers contact different servers than Firefox browsers.

All of which is to say that technical & business complexity combines to make YouTube on Chrome browser more reliable than on any other browser, so it’s usually worthwhile and low effort to try Chrome to see if it fixes your problem.

This line of thought also extends to other web sites because Chrome is the browser with the largest market share.

The stats you posted shouldn’t pose any problems for watching video. You can eliminate some variables by deselecting Auto and selecting 720 or less for quality in YouTube, but sounds like you’ve already tried that.

 

[Deejay]

Morning Mike

I have suddenly developed a problem on my PC when it comes to playing videos

Which operating system do you use? Microsoft recently released an update for Windows 11. These updates can (and do) cause problems. You can check the update history.

If you are on Windows 11 type 'update history' (no quotes) in the search box.

This should open a settings dialogue box. Click on 'open'

You should see something like the jpg below. You can expand the quality updates by clicking the up arrow. If anything was updated around the time your problem appeared you may be able to restore your machine to a state before then.

Cheers

Dave

 

[Dr.Al]

If you want to completely get round any internet connection or browser issues, use something like jdownloader2 to download the youtube video to your laptop and try playing it from the local copy (either with Windows built-in media player or, for a safer bet, with VLC).

 

[Mike G]

Morning Mike

I have suddenly developed a problem on my PC when it comes to playing videos

Which operating system do you use? Microsoft recently released an update for Windows 11. These updates can (and do) cause problems. You can check the update history.

If you are on Windows 11 type 'update history' (no quotes) in the search box.

This should open a settings dialogue box. Click on 'open'

You should see something like the jpg below. You can expand the quality updates by clicking the up arrow. If anything was updated around the time your problem appeared you may be able to restore your machine to a state before then.

Cheers

Dave

I'm on W10, and there was an update on the 11th of last month. I suspect my problem arose after that date, but it's not impossible, I suppose, that it's been going on that long. It feels more like 10 days or a fortnight.