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Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make and break online video

arstechnica.com

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Re: Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make and break online video

#41

Post by est »

JoshuaRedmond wrote: post #6
_frog wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of issues with the new player. Even if you've buffered the video ahead, when you try to skip to a buffered segment the video starts loading again. On top of that I've had lots of issues where changing the video resolution just flat out doesn't work and greys out the option.

There seems to be quite a few issues with video resolution. I had one video suddenly switch from 1080p full-screen down to 144p[1] in full-screen... [1] - Apparently they added this quite recently http://www.ghacks.net/2013/04/06/youtube-introduces-ultra-lo...

Yeah that's annoying as hell.

You know you have fucked up player when congestion control http requests spam more than video stream itself.

Re: Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make and break online video

#42

Post by skore »

_frog wrote: post #3
epa wrote: post #2

While it may be true that there are some outstanding ISP issues that lead to slow internet, I think the more pressing issue is the behaviour of the new(ish) youtube player acting erratic. For instance, you cannot fully load a video anymore, it will only load a portion as you continue watching. If you wish to rewind the video, for some reason youtube will want you to rebuffer the entire from where you have rewinded to…

There's a lot of issues with the new player. Even if you've buffered the video ahead, when you try to skip to a buffered segment the video starts loading again. On top of that I've had lots of issues where changing the video resolution just flat out doesn't work and greys out the option.

> Even if you've buffered the video ahead, when you try to skip to a buffered segment the video starts loading again.

It makes no logical sense for the player to reload something that was already loaded since that would handily double their traffic (if only in this situation).

Which makes me think they don't actually buffer anymore. The bar just shows a standard, imaginary amount of buffering by default and nobody really cares.

Re: Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make and break online video

#43

Post by forsaken »

justinmk wrote: post #34
zanny wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The public (ie, local or state government). Like the roads. Like the sewers. Like (some) power lines. Like the phone and coax lines (depending on time period, they have passed between private and public owners, but were always state subsidized in their deployment).

The "public" doesn't own anything. You can demonstrate that by trying to sell your share of the thing you supposedly own.

Just because you own something doesn't mean its a liquid asset..

Re: Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make and break online video

#44

Post by kibibu »

justinmk wrote: post #34
zanny wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The public (ie, local or state government). Like the roads. Like the sewers. Like (some) power lines. Like the phone and coax lines (depending on time period, they have passed between private and public owners, but were always state subsidized in their deployment).

The "public" doesn't own anything. You can demonstrate that by trying to sell your share of the thing you supposedly own.

I'm not allowed to sell my own body parts, does this mean they're not mine?

Re: Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make and break online video

#45

Post by Qantourisc »

The internet used to be ran by engineers. Now it's ran by suits ...

The former does what needs to be done, and all pitch in to move traffic. Suits on the other hand only see $$$.

As for the suits: either your are overselling your bandwidth and you don't have enough money to make the necessary changes REGARDLESS of where the traffic is going/coming from. Or your just being greedy !

To fight this, I think it's best to get review ISP by their real speed. Then getting this information out to the public. So people can select the best ISP, and natural selection of the fittest(fairest ISP) will occur.

Re: Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make and break online video

#46

Post by Qantourisc »

nivla wrote: post #14

So its basically ISPs acting as CDNs, infact the best one money can buy. Does this mean no one will every be a true competitor to Youtube or match its performance unless they pay all the local ISPs?

ISP's have always delivered content/bytes. They just stopped treating all bytes equal.

Re: Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make and break online video

#47

Post by muyuu »

nivla wrote: post #14

So its basically ISPs acting as CDNs, infact the best one money can buy. Does this mean no one will every be a true competitor to Youtube or match its performance unless they pay all the local ISPs?

Potentially.

Once net neutrality is broken, the market is also broken.

Re: Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make and break online video

#48

Post by zanny »

wyager wrote: post #32
zanny wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The public (ie, local or state government). Like the roads. Like the sewers. Like (some) power lines. Like the phone and coax lines (depending on time period, they have passed between private and public owners, but were always state subsidized in their deployment).

I'd rather deal with some shitty ISPs and some good ones than be forced to use a single shitty government ISP for the rest of my life.

Not a government ISP, you can have private routing centers. Just public wire in the dirt, so that one company can't own the only access to ones home and make it impossible to compete.

Re: Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make and break online video

#49

Post by homeomorphic »

x0054 wrote: post #17

If you have a Mac, try a free program called YouView. Google YouView Mac. It gives you YouTube experience, but uses the MP4 files YouTube hosts for the mobile platforms. I never have a problem with YouView. Some times it's slow, but at least you can download the entire movie before watching. Also, it uses a lot less resources, 5-10% CPU vs 30%+ if played via browser. This means better battery life. I think something…

youtube-dl (http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/) is a nice cross-platform solution. It also works with vimeo and a bunch of other services.

Re: Why YouTube buffers: The secret deals that make and break online video

#50

Post by leke »

I thought this idea was actually quite good, although sometimes the buffering issue is there. About 50% of videos I've watched, I've tuned of within 1 minute because it wasn't what I expected. The old system would have buffered about 10 minutes worth by then. The new system only buffers about 15 seconds. This is a huge bandwidth saving when you think of it on a mass scale.
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