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Poor youtube playback - UPC

  • 14-08-2011 6:31pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,299 ✭✭✭PixelTrawler


    I have a 20 meg line which in general works great except for youtube.

    I get a lot of stutter, especially in 720/1080 videos. Every other video service runs great.

    Whats odd is if I use a VPN such as expat shield, the problem goes away. I can stream youtube high res videos.

    I checked the window 7 network resource monitor and I can see chrome downloading at about 4-500k/s but as soon as I drop out of expat shield, it drops back to about 100k/s and the video stutters.

    So it doesnt appear to be my connection speed. So is UPC rate limiting youtube as part of network management - anyone else getting this? (on a VPN connection they can't tell what you are accessing and so can't traffic manage)


«1

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 262 ✭✭Awful_Bliss


    I'm getting the same mate. I'm with UPC and recently got a letter to say my speed's been upped to 25mb (even though I didn't ask for that). I won't go into the tech specs but yeah - Youtube stalls every so often.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,299 ✭✭✭PixelTrawler


    I'm getting the same mate. I'm with UPC and recently got a letter to say my speed's been upped to 25mb (even though I didn't ask for that). I won't go into the tech specs but yeah - Youtube stalls every so often.

    got the same letter too...


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,862 ✭✭✭flamegrill


    Youtube has been fine for me but this morning I went to watch a video and it was rubbish. It's been the same all day.

    Might be a problem with UPC and Google's peering... I'm sure they'll sort it.


  • Posts: 0 ✭✭✭ Paola Proud Squad


    Im on 50Mb and it's just the same. Sometimes, videos take so long to load, they're unwatchable!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,005 ✭✭✭CorkMan


    50MB here too and the same. It happens the odd time, it happened about a year ago too for a bit. In the past couple of days it works sometimes, but then stutters other times.

    Soon it will be gone for a good while.


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 23,556 ✭✭✭✭Sir Digby Chicken Caesar


    same here, 50 meg
    some videos load fine, others are just unwatchable

    1080p/720p seem fine most of the time but anything below that can take an age to load


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 18,559 Mod ✭✭✭✭slave1




  • Registered Users Posts: 246 ✭✭rh5555


    +1 25Mbit connection. We would need confirmation from users using other providers to see if it's a UPC or Youtube issue. I have no other speed issues at all and UPC is usually great for me.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,040 ✭✭✭yuloni


    This post has been deleted.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,622 ✭✭✭Thor


    I always blamed flash!!

    I'm on UPC 100Mb and have the same issues with YouTube, But i always passed if off as Flash player sucking.

    Because if i downloaded the video from YouTube with IDM, It downloads extremely fast. So i always assumed it was flash.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,975 ✭✭✭iMuse


    I had the same problem but it was with Smart. Turned out to be a problem on their end as even google.com would struggle to load sometimes. If enough people complain to them maybe they will look into it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,299 ✭✭✭PixelTrawler


    For me its intermittent, I watched two long docs on photography at 720p, no issues, then the next vid just stalled...

    I don't get this erratic performance on other sites and I don't see it at work for example, youtube never stalls...

    Its either management or peering...


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,299 ✭✭✭PixelTrawler



    1080p/720p seem fine most of the time but anything below that can take an age to load

    Now thats odd... can't be your line speed there


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 23,556 ✭✭✭✭Sir Digby Chicken Caesar


    Solyad wrote: »
    Now thats odd... can't be your line speed there

    aye, it's not always though. it seems to come and go.. there can be a couple of hours where no videos will buffer at all or will buffer incredibly slowly but when it's working fine it's usually only working fine for hd vids. anything below 480p is a pain.


  • Registered Users Posts: 54 ✭✭mrquiteaguy


    I am with Upc 20mb on a netbook and i have noticed since i switched from Firefox to Opera,
    Youtube videos stutter a hell of a lot less for me.
    Obviously being on a netbook i cant play 720p but i have tried 480p and apart from a few scan lines,its not bad.
    Opera have a few youtube extensions like Extendtube which removes ads from the Youtube page and player.For that alone its worth a try. :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,299 ✭✭✭PixelTrawler


    Good tip... I run chrome with adblock myself... might be worth trying...

    Edit: Tried opera & extend tube - so far promising. I'll need to give it a few days as sometimes chrome is fine too


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,299 ✭✭✭PixelTrawler


    Update on this... its been really solid the last few days. 720p streams working well all weekend.

    Anyone else notice an improvement recently


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,463 ✭✭✭Trevor451


    Solyad wrote: »
    Update on this... its been really solid the last few days. 720p streams working well all weekend.

    Anyone else notice an improvement recently

    Yep. It must have been due to youtubes servers.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,016 ✭✭✭✭vibe666


    if you think about it, youtube must have thousands of servers globally, hosting billions of video's through hundreds of connections to the net, all working together to bring the people what they want to watch, when they want to watch it, along with millions of video's that will only ever be watched a few times, and i imagine that it's next to impossible to make sure all the right video's are available to all the right people in the right places at the right time without some of them getting caught buffering either due to not being immediately available to someone who wants it on a fast server with a good net connection that isn't over-utilised.

    the solution? tabbed browsing. :)

    oh, and get yourself a nice browser like firefox or chrome and an addon or two like "Stop Autoplay for YouTube" or "SmartVideo For YouTube" that will allow you to customise how your video's are buffered and/or automatically choose your preferred resolution and notify you when a video is buffered and other options to minimise your viewing disruption.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,235 ✭✭✭lucernarian


    I would suspect much of the issues UPC customers had with Youtube involved the fact that UPC don't actually peer with Google in the INEX, the internet data "exchange" for Ireland.

    https://www.inex.ie/technical/peeringmatrix

    Youtube is hosted on google's servers by the looks of tracerts I've done from other ISPs to google. When a UPC customer has to send data to some other company/place to then send it on to google's servers (and vice versa), there's more of an opportunity for slowdowns and problems to crop up.

    I don't know of any problem reports involving Youtube with other companies recently. It does look like peering with google would have prevented any issues. UPC really could improve on their peering within Ireland by the looks of the matrix I linked above.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,040 ✭✭✭yuloni


    This post has been deleted.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9,235 ✭✭✭lucernarian


    Bad form of eircom too, I didn't spot that. I've tried Vodafone DSL, O2 and someone I know with Magnet and none of them had issues with Youtube lately.


  • Registered Users Posts: 590 ✭✭✭blaz


    All the above mentioned ISPs have private peering with Google in Dublin.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5 wallym


    I'm on 50mb and cant watch youtube, was on vodafone and even with less than 1mb( faulty exchange according to them!) it was fine, expected a lot more from UPC. Finish this contract and then try next service provider... a real pain!


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,016 ✭✭✭✭vibe666


    wallym wrote: »
    I'm on 50mb and cant watch youtube, was on vodafone and even with less than 1mb( faulty exchange according to them!) it was fine, expected a lot more from UPC. Finish this contract and then try next service provider... a real pain!
    you'd rather go through the hassle of upping sticks to another provider than actually contacting someone who might be able to do something about it and seeing if it's something simple that can be fixed? :confused:


  • Registered Users Posts: 507 ✭✭✭mark17j


    Youtube working fine here for me on UPC, no slow ups even on 720p


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,568 ✭✭✭ethernet


    My 3 Mbps Eircom connection performed better for YouTube than this 25 Mbps UPC connection! Very hit and miss.


  • Registered Users Posts: 507 ✭✭✭mark17j


    ethernet wrote: »
    My 3 Mbps Eircom connection performed better for YouTube than this 25 Mbps UPC connection! Very hit and miss.
    How can you load 720P vids on 3mb eircom ? must take forever.
    720p vids load in seconds for me on UPC.


  • Registered Users Posts: 299 ✭✭CGI_3


    Switched to UPC from Vodafone just last week. Thought it was a no brainer. 25mb vs 8mb for the same price.

    Regretting it now. Youtube completely unwatchable, constantly buffering.

    Have tried with Chrome. No better.

    Had absolutely no problems whatsoever with vodafone...


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  • Registered Users Posts: 507 ✭✭✭mark17j


    CGI_3 wrote: »
    Switched to UPC from Vodafone just last week. Thought it was a no brainer. 25mb vs 8mb for the same price.

    Regretting it now. Youtube completely unwatchable, constantly buffering.

    Have tried with Chrome. No better.

    Had absolutely no problems whatsoever with vodafone...
    what's your set up? are u using wireless? if so, you may need to switch channels,if you're connected via Ethernet and experiencing these slow ups, u obviously have a fault on the line, check your power levels! I have 25mb in Dublin and use wireless. and it's great, 1080p vids load up fast with no buffering stoppages whatsoever.


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