Poor YouTube streaming.

Pete.Dakota · 15 May 2011 at 18:18

Recently upgraded to 30mb broadband with VM, from 10mb. Naturally everything is a lot faster. Except YouTube, which is slower. 9/10 it will pull down at 3 or 4mb/s and then grind to a halt (using network meter), sometimes it will download at around 300kb/s. I can sometimes change the quality and that speeds things up, assuming it's accessing a different file from YT.

Is this a SuperHub port issue?

Efour · 15 May 2011 at 18:57

is it like it all the time or just Evenings/weekends ?

least u don't live here

Pete.Dakota · 15 May 2011 at 20:11

All the time.

Stupot_ · 15 May 2011 at 20:18

Always bad for me with VM. Usually can't watch anything above 360p.

Steves1982 · 15 May 2011 at 21:03

Same here, anything at 720p and above is terrible.

Pete.Dakota · 17 May 2011 at 01:00

Bit of research shows it could be an issue with the firmware on the Superhub (i.e., Virgin's fault). Seems to be a well know in issue on their support forums.

sharkkk · 17 May 2011 at 01:07

Tastes like traffic shaping

Pete.Dakota · 17 May 2011 at 01:54

sharkkk said:
Tastes like traffic shaping

Elaborate?

sharkkk · 17 May 2011 at 01:59

VM are quite fond of their 'traffic management' policies, y'know, for the good of the users. But apparently these policies tend to be active a lot more of the time that VM let on (they say it's just 'peak' times that the management is in place)

Or maybe I talk to too many paranoid people

Pete.Dakota · 17 May 2011 at 18:32

I'm not too sure it is management. It's pretty much all the time and it's only some YouTube videos.

For instance one video won't buffer above 2 or 3mb/s regardless of quality, then another video will peak up at 15/16 and buffer without problem.

3dcandy · 17 May 2011 at 18:56

youtube itself seems to have changed ever since the watch later thingy was added to the player...now some vids just work badly/stream slowly!

Steves1982 · 18 May 2011 at 09:04

Just upgraded to 50Mb with the superhub and now 1080p works perfectly on Youtube.

May have been an issue with my old router.

Doctor McNinja · 18 May 2011 at 21:11

I'm having the same problem. I'm on 50mb using the VMGN300 modem. Youtube is awfully slow. If I want to watch a ten minute video in 720p it takes between ten a twenty minutes to load. On any other website though, HD videos stream without interruption. The frustrating thing is, it seams that it's just my PC that's affected. My mom's wireless laptop can stream 720p from youtube.

I've tried installing all the available updates through Windows Update, my graphics card has the latest drivers, I've cleared caches and updated Flash but still... the same bloody problem!

[EDIT] I've just double the speed on my moms laptop. It's in the crapper just like my PC but again, any other non-youtube HD video streams without a hiccup. I've tried connecting directly to the modem to see whether my router was to blame but it makes no difference how I'm connected to the 'net or what computer I'm using. Either there's something wrong on VM's end that only effects youtube (24/7 traffic shaping) or youtube itself is to blame.

[EDIT] I've also tried reverting back to the default dns service as I've heard some people who use OpenDNS (like myself) have had the same problem as me. It made no difference.

[EDIT] It seams as though youtube is working again. Some of the video player behaviour has changed so perhaps it was related to youtube updating.

Doctor McNinja · 19 May 2011 at 20:25

Well, what do you know? It's back to being slow as a sedated sloth slowly slinking slyly through something that begins with with "s".