Has Youtube been slower over the last few months?

Pawnless Endgame · 22 Jan 2011 at 12:51

I did search GD first, found nothing as such as I though I'd ask if others are finding Youtube slower at streaming then it used to be. It's Saturday lunchtime, not regarded as peak time and America is still asleep. Yet I am streaming a 480p video, it stalls straight away, so I pause it to allow pre-loading and it takes 10 minutes to pre-load the first 40 seconds. Bandwidth does vary between Youtube channels, some better than others, like as if it's specific to the channel as opposed to a server. Stalling affects most videos during peak time and about 1-in-4 videos off-peak, and I've drawn to conclusion that it's a lot worse than this time last year. I'm on Virgin (formerly NTL) 10mbit using OpenDNS as my domain name system.

Is anyone else in the same boat?

P.S. I intermittently hear sound lagging from the video too but that might be a separate issue.

G-MAN2004 · 22 Jan 2011 at 12:57

Not for me, but I've noticed Gmail is ridiculously slow lately. Whenever I send anything it says 'waiting' and then 'still waiting' for ages. Even on my iPhone, it's so slow I just give up.

Pug · 22 Jan 2011 at 13:00

i assumed it was my O2 broadband, but yeah at times its been completely unuseable for me. That said i think i do have issues as other things drop off too...

Pawnless Endgame · 22 Jan 2011 at 13:23

Thanks guys. So it's not just me then.

Gmail's not too bad at my end, but I know what you mean G-Man. I occasionally get the "still working" message.

Andr3w · 22 Jan 2011 at 13:25

Yeh videos seem to load much slower

gillywibble · 22 Jan 2011 at 13:26

Definite slow buffering recently.

Cosimo · 22 Jan 2011 at 13:45

It's not been slower for me.

meghatronic · 22 Jan 2011 at 13:51

Buffering lots.

Duke · 22 Jan 2011 at 13:52

It has more recently but seems to vary from month to month. I'm not sure if its VM or YouTube itself.

LordSplodge · 22 Jan 2011 at 14:28

I bet it is traffic shaping by ISPs. I noticed that iPlayer went through a period of failing even though the BBCs own test said I could stream HD. YouTube as well has been through a go slow recently.

O2 "Broadband" here. I've told them I am not happy about how they manage traffic and will be voting with my feet once my contract has expired.

<Sarcasm> Poor little ISPs sold us unlimited Internet and now they can't handle it... </Sarcasm>

Dr.EM · 22 Jan 2011 at 14:33

Yeah, does seem to have been for me.

Kutter · 22 Jan 2011 at 14:44

Been slow here too with lots of buffering.

Gammawolf · 22 Jan 2011 at 14:53

Havn't noticed anything at my house, 1080 youtube buffers with negligible waiting, haven't noticed anything on iPlayer either, been watching a good hour or two every day for the past week.

Unfortunately 4K videos at original res do take a bit of buffering

Jokester · 22 Jan 2011 at 16:04

Yup, needs to buffer tons before vids play for me, bloody annoying it is.

magick · 22 Jan 2011 at 22:22

Is youtube slow today?

Anyone experiencing slowdowns on youtube today?

AceTK · 22 Jan 2011 at 22:27

Who is your ISP?

Only SKY and BE Internet dont shape traffic at peak times.

magick · 22 Jan 2011 at 22:29

AceTK said:
Who is your ISP?

Only SKY and BE Internet dont shape traffic at peak times.

talktalk and it's been slow since 5pm. and what do you mean by 'dont shape traffic at peak times'?

Cosimo · 22 Jan 2011 at 22:30

I was using ealier today and it was fine.

Clum · 22 Jan 2011 at 22:31

Been stupidly slow for me on Virgin 50mb for the last 3 days. Good 5 in wait for a 360p vid to buffer!

petriodet · 22 Jan 2011 at 22:34

it's fine for me using a couple of minutes ago.