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Okay so this problem started for me about a week ago.
Everyday at about 4:30PM, my connection to the YouTube servers drops from about 230 - 250 mbps to under 50 mbps and videos start buffering. At times it even drops to under 10 mbps, at which point the videos just stop playing completely. At about 8:30PM, just like clockwork, the speed returns to the normal 230 - 250 mbps, and I have no more problems after that.
The results are exactly the same with Ethernet or WiFi, on every computer I own, and on every browser I try, with and without different extensions.
My first thought was that this is a network slow down with my ISP, which is Charter Spectrum. But when I run a speedtest on my internet connection while YouTube is running slow, the results are about 330 - 350 mbps. Which is above my 300 mbps plan, but slightly below the typical 370 mbps I normally get. So my connection speed shouldn't be causing the problem.
I suppose Charter Spectrum could be throttling my YouTube speed. They have gotten in trouble for doing things like that before. But I can't find any credible evidence that they have throttled any website traffic in the last 5 years. So I kinda doubt the issue is with them.
That leaves YouTube as the likely culprit. The fact that the slow down occurs only between 4:30PM and 8:30PM PST makes it seem like it must be deliberate. It's not just a random slowdown.
Has anyone else experenced a YouTube problem like this? Does anyone have any thoughts as to what might be causing this? Thanks in advance.
It does sound like a timed throttle because of high demand for youtube at that time is my guess. Does a lower setting of video quality help? Does YT display a 'why is youtube slow' type message?
It does sound like a timed throttle because of high demand for youtube at that time is my guess. Does a lower setting of video quality help? Does YT display a 'why is youtube slow' type message?
1. Yes, that's my feeling as well. It's got to be timed throttling. So that brings the question, who is throttling it. YouTube or Charter Spectrum. My feeling it's YouTube. But I can't find any evidence online that either YouTube or Charter Spectrum throttles the speed of YouTube videos.
2. Well yes, lower resolution videos are not affected by the slowdown as much. But it is affecting all qualities. I am noticing the problem when watching videos on my laptops set at 1080p as well as on my desktop at 4K. I have posted on this forum in the past about problems I had watching 4K 60fps videos. But that problem had mostly been resolved. Before this started, I was watching 4K 60fps videos with very little problems. And I still can before 4:30 and after 8:30. Last night after the slowdown by about 10:00PM my YouTube speed was wavering between 300 and 340 mbps, and all qualities of videos were playing with only an occasional frame drop.
3. The YouTube message is the one and only generic message I have ever seen. "Are you experiencing interruptions? Find out why." The link goes to the YouTube Video Quality Report. Predictably it shows that video consumption is very high during the slow down period. I suppose I have to keep an open mind that it could just be increasing demand for streaming video and network congestion with my ISP. Though it still seems more like timed throttling to me.
One troubleshooting solution I have found suggested is to try using a VPN at least temporarily to test for throttling. Does anyone know a good free VPN that will work with my Macs?
I download much of whatever I watch with yt-dlp and view it later once it's finished. That way it doesn't matter if the video takes 10 seconds to acquire or 10 minutes or 5 hours to acquire. And always the best quality.
I download much of whatever I watch with yt-dlp and view it later once it's finished. That way it doesn't matter if the video takes 10 seconds to acquire or 10 minutes or 5 hours to acquire. And always the best quality.
Does that download videos in 4K? Most video downloaders won't download anything over 1080p.
I have had some luck with 4K Video Downloader+. But then I have a second problem. I don't have any software that will play 4K videos well. VLC and Quicktime both choke on them. The only good way I have found to watch 4K videos is in a browser. But even if I could overcome that, there is a third problem. I watch a lot of YouTube. Probably about 500GB of videos a day. Trying to download that much video, would cause major disk storage issues.
Though it would be nice to be able to download every single video. One YouTube channel I watch, deletes most the videos almost as fast as he uploads them. I guess it must be to avoid copyright issues. So all I see is notifications for deleted videos. Which is very irritating. It sure would be nice to have them all download automatically.
It will download whatever format you choose and also which is served up by the video host. For example, you can pass the -F switch for yt-dlp to query the available formats, without downloading anything.
That particular video seems to have availability in 8K even. The first column of numbers denotes the format as presented by youtube. Then instruct yt-dlp to download the desired format:
But pay attention to the ACODEC column that says "video only". Since the 4K video selected in this example is video only, we'll need to grab an audio track as well:
yt-dlp will automatically merge the two components into a single mp4 file when finished. Normally, with youtube's common formats (18 and 22) you won't need to pass any audio format code.
I'm curious to know what hardware and software configuration you're running that desktop video players are struggling but a web browser isn't. I've had to manually enable GPU acceleration in my browser, whereas mpv just uses the dedicated GPU without any configuration required.
It will download whatever format you choose and also which is served up by the video host. For example, you can pass the -F switch for yt-dlp to query the available formats, without downloading anything.
That particular video seems to have availability in 8K even. The first column of numbers denotes the format as presented by youtube. Then instruct yt-dlp to download the desired format:
But pay attention to the ACODEC column that says "video only". Since the 4K video selected in this example is video only, we'll need to grab an audio track as well:
yt-dlp will automatically merge the two components into a single mp4 file when finished. Normally, with youtube's common formats (18 and 22) you won't need to pass any audio format code.
I'm curious to know what hardware and software configuration you're running that desktop video players are struggling but a web browser isn't. I've had to manually enable GPU acceleration in my browser, whereas mpv just uses the dedicated GPU without any configuration required.
2008 Mac Pro Tower,
2 x 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
32GB of 800MHz DDR2 ECC fully buffered DIMM
GeForce GTX770 2GB GDDR5
Running macOS 10.15.7 Catalina (unsupported)
It's old, but it's very capable of playing 4K video, with the right software and enough download speed. Since I can watch 4K videos in most browsers when the connection speed is good enough, I think my main problem is internet speed, not hardware limitations. I'm not anxious to buy new hardware before I resolve this issue. Though I have been looking at some compatible video cards with 4GB or 6GB of memory and wondering if that might improve the video performance.
Latest Reputation Received Weird YouTube slowdown. 02-10-2024 05:47 AM please explain yt-dlp
yt-dlp is a terminal application. You issue commands to it via command line.
From the man page:
Quote:
yt-dlp(1) yt-dlp(1)
NAME
yt-dlp - A youtube-dl fork with additional features and patches
SYNOPSIS
yt-dlp [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
DESCRIPTION
yt-dlp is a youtube-dl (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive youtube-dlc
(https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping
up to date with the original project
Yt-dlp is great but YouTube throttles it from time to time.
There is a bit of learning to use yt-dlp, but once you know how to use it, it's very convenient and of course free.
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