YouTube Loading Speeds

[Jason]

I've been running into a large problem lately. This problem may not seem large to you guys but I spend quite a bit of time on YouTube each day. Lately (within the past couple of months) YouTube's loading speeds have been very slow. Many videos take a while to load on my PC even when I turn down the quality. I can't seem to figure out what the problem is. I currently have a Dell Inspiron 15R and it is a very good performing laptop and is generally very fast. I have Verizon FIOS Home Internet and it is generally very fast. Even if my laptop is the only thing connected to the internet many videos take a while to load. Is there anything I could do to my PC to help resolve this problem? Is there anything I could do to my browser to help increase loading speeds? By the way, I use Google Chrome. Has anyone else experenced a similar problem?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Minty]

I've had the same problem for a while now. Tends to kick in sometime late at night. Initial guess would be Verizon is throttling the speed of YouTube videos. The same video that loads in mere seconds on my friends Xfinity connection has to be left to buffer at 240p for me to even be able to watch it in one go.

It's probably not even your computer or the crappy router Verizon provides. Even during these YouTube slowdowns Vimeo and other streaming sites load in full HD extremely quickly, for me. It's likely not the browser, either. Does it to me with FF, Chrome, Rockmelt, Opera, even IE and Safari load YouTube videos slowly and everything else quickly(Er...if you could call anything Safari does "quick")

 

[Jason]

I've had the same problem for a while now. Tends to kick in sometime late at night. Initial guess would be Verizon is throttling the speed of YouTube videos. The same video that loads in mere seconds on my friends Xfinity connection has to be left to buffer at 240p for me to even be able to watch it in one go.

It's probably not even your computer or the crappy router Verizon provides. Even during these YouTube slowdowns Vimeo and other streaming sites load in full HD extremely quickly, for me. It's likely not the browser, either. Does it to me with FF, Chrome, Rockmelt, Opera, even IE and Safari load YouTube videos slowly and everything else quickly(Er...if you could call anything Safari does "quick")

Exactly. This problem also occurs on my iPhone. It seems like it has something to do with youtube's part.

 

[Bobert power]

I've had the same problem for a while now. Tends to kick in sometime late at night. Initial guess would be Verizon is throttling the speed of YouTube videos. The same video that loads in mere seconds on my friends Xfinity connection has to be left to buffer at 240p for me to even be able to watch it in one go.

It's probably not even your computer or the crappy router Verizon provides. Even during these YouTube slowdowns Vimeo and other streaming sites load in full HD extremely quickly, for me. It's likely not the browser, either. Does it to me with FF, Chrome, Rockmelt, Opera, even IE and Safari load YouTube videos slowly and everything else quickly(Er...if you could call anything Safari does "quick")

This!
My Xfinity internet, followed by browsing the PS3 Youtube app at around 7:00 PM, my YT starts to not buffer at all!
I BLAME THE ADS!!!!

 

[TB]

I did some looking a few years ago and, not surprisingly, found no indication that Qwest/CentruyLink was throttling Youtube but it would occasionally take forever to buffer while other sites and Netflix loaded instantly.

It's almost assuredly not a setting or anything you can change and it's also something you'll never definitively prove that they are doing on their end. Sadly it's something you're either going to have to live with, change ISP's to one that doesn't throttle youtube or raise a big enough stink with enough people to get your current ISP to change its policy.