What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

[Boomyal]

When you start a YouTube video you see two things happening at the bottom of the screen. One is a grayed moving line that appears as if the video is downloading. The other is a red line that moves across the screen as the video is playing. Once the first grayed line has completed, then you can grab the leading edge of the red line and move it forward (or backward) changing the progress of the video.

Here is my question. Even after the grayed line has completely loaded, the speed at which the video is played can be affected by internet speed or possibly by the number of people who have logged on to YouTube or even that particular video. If that video had downloaded into RAM, viewer load or internet speed should not affect the speed at which the video plays. What is actually occurring here? Obviously, the video has not downloaded to ram but to somewhere else.

 

[kfa4303]

Re: What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

Hi Boom. Yeah, there are lots of factors that control how fast a youtube vid loads. It has a lot to do with the popularity of the vid and the server it's stored on, which is why despite the fact that it "looks" fully loaded it can still drag and stall. I don't know of any way around it aside from getting the vid more popular which seems to send it to a faster server. Of course, thanks to plans like SOPA the gov actually want to give your internet provider the right to intentionally slow down/bottle neck certain websites that they don't like. The idea is that if they make youtube/netflix and other bandwidth-heavy sites artificially slow they will discourage you from using them, or direct you to other sites they prefer. I'm not sure what they do in Canada, but I'm sure there is something similar up there, if not worse :/

 

[calvinator]

Re: What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

Yes, the gray line is the YouTube player caching content to your computer's hard drive. The player will manage swapping contents from your hard drive to your PC's RAM.

If you are experiencing slowdowns, you might have too many other programs running. Check your Taskmanager to see what is running. Don't be surprised if there is stuff running you were not expecting -- for example automatic updater programs.

If you are running the vid in fullscreen, your graphics card may be limiting you. Graphics cards have their own CPU and memory. Sometimes PC makers include a basic graphic card (low performance) to keep the PC costs down.

Lastly, when watching a video, right click on the video and choose settings. There should be a setting in one of the tabs to increase the amount of storage the player can use on your computer. That means more video content can be cached locally.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

Yabut, Kfa, what is actually going on when it is 'loading' up? Where is it loading to? .....and btw, I am in Vancouver USA, in the gloriously (not) soggy state of Washington.:grumpy:

 

[bruceb58]

Re: What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

Youtube uses flash typically. As it loads, its saving the file into a temp cache folder. Its usually hard to find as it doesn't have an extension on it.

The file is an FLV file. Are you trying to save the file so you can view later? If so, use the following instructions to get them:

http://grafikdesign.wordpress.com/2...v-file-flash-video-from-firefox-cache-folder/

 

[Boomyal]

Re: What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

No Bruce, I am not trying to save it. Just curious as to why it looks like it is downloading to somewhere but when completed they sometimes play slow and or haltingly. If one of these had downloaded to any memory function on my computer, net load would not affect the speed of playback.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

I get the same problem. Not sure why. It almost seems like it starts a new file again.

 

[generator12]

Re: What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

Strange. I've never seen that. If the download gets out ahead of my real-time location in the video, it plays continuously.

 

[Solittle]

Re: What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

A big piece of uTube performance is your ISP's download speed. Until recently I had AT&T DSL service with mips usually between a whopping 1.5 and 3.0. uTube would play 8 to 12 seconds before halting to catch up. Trying to play anything from uTube was a waste of time. I finally switched to Comcast. My download speed went from less than 3.0 to around 32.0. and I now watch anything I want at the highest resolution without any interruption. To check your actual download and upload speed go to: Speedtest.net by Ookla - The Global Broadband Speed Test.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

Strange. I've never seen that. If the download gets out ahead of my real-time location in the video, it plays continuously.

Well described, generator. That is exactly what is happening. The apparent download bar can be completely finished, having taken an inordinate amount of time to get there, and then the real time bar will still often run slow or haltingly. Especially when things are running slow, I will pause the video and let it finish 'downloading'. Then I will restart the vid and it still runs slow and haltingly. This also occurs on videos other than YouTube. That was just one example but they all can act the same.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

If it is running haltingly as well as stopping and starting, it has to do with the ISP you are using, there is a reason, they call it "Streaming" video.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

If it is running haltingly as well as stopping and starting, it has to do with the ISP you are using, there is a reason, they call it "Streaming" video.

MT, I'm wondering if you get my distinction. When you open/start a vid, there are two different bars at the bottom of the video. One appears to be the downloading of the video. The speed at which that happens is definitely dependent on the speed of the server. It could happen rapidly or it could be slow and/or halting. Once that is complete, the real time bar begins to move as the video is displayed.

This is where my question comes in. Once the 'download' is complete, it seems that the real time bar should progress with no slow down or interruption. This is not happening. The playback, after download, is as halting and slow as the download was. This should not be the case if the download function is writing to ones computer. It must be downloading to somewhere else.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: What is actually happening when you play the likes of a YouTube?

Have you experienced this with multiple browsers?

I have always wondered if it was a Flash setting or possible video driver as well that gets affected by Flash.