Youtube Barely Works

[DemonI81]

I've had my Droid now for about a month and I've realized, YouTube is horrible.
Whether I'm running on the 3G or on my home wireless, YouTube videos take forever to buffer, then when they finally start playing, so little has buffered and they continue to load so slowly, after 30 seconds of video it stops and will not continue loading.
I've tried pausing the video as soon as it starts to play, to let it fully buffer, but it will not continue to load/buffer while the video is paused.

I've used my friends' phones (Sprint, AT&T) and they have none of these problems. Is this a problem with the phone, the service, or something else I'm missing?
Why wont the videos fully load when paused?
Isn't this a google phone? Doesn't google own YouTube? Why would the service be great on other phones but horrible on a google phone?

It makes no sense. Hopefully there's just something I'm missing and this can be easily fixed.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, everything I've said is pertaining more to the HQ version of videos, not so much the standard ones.

 

[turbo325ii]

I just tried my youtube and it works great. Im not really sure how to help you though sorry...

 

[DemonI81]

I keep trying different videos to see if it's just the videos I've been watching, it's not.
It's the HQ ones. They're taking 1 minute plus to even start playing, then only 10-30 seconds of the video is buffered.
As I said, if I pause it, it does not continue to load, I left one paused last night for 10 minutes (a 1 minute video) and it never loaded any further until I pressed play again, then it began loading very slowly.

The speed is a minor issue, the video not continuing to load when paused is a major issue. I've never made it though more than ~40seconds of an HQ video on YouTube on my Droid yet because of this.
Also, if I don't pause it before it hits the end of what's loaded so far, the video becomes unplayable. It will no longer load at all and if I seek back, it moves the red buffered line back with the time line indicator and will not play.

 

[Backnblack]

Not seeing that here on 3G or Wifi.....

 

[cuskit]

You are not alone. I'm also experiencing the same issues. Normal play is fine, HQ is where the problems start. Hoping someone has an answer here. My local VZW store rep told me it's an issue with overloaded bandwidth. Hello?

cuskit

 

[DemonI81]

Not seeing that here on 3G or Wifi.....

Are you hitting the menu key and selecting High Quality?
Does your video continue to load when paused?

I don't have to have HQ youtube videos normally, but with the resolution of the Droid screen, the normal quality ones are too small to even see and so grainy it's pointless to watch them.

EDIT: This actually caused me some embarrassment last night. I'm with all my friends, showing off my new phone, talking about how great it is, then one of my friends took out his Palm something from Sprint. He was loading full HQ videos on YouTube before mine even buffered enough to start playing. I HATE Sprint so this really irked me.

You are not alone. I'm also experiencing the same issues. Normal play is fine, HQ is where the problems start. Hoping someone has an answer here. My local VZW store rep told me it's an issue with overloaded bandwidth. Hello?

cuskit

Glad to hear I'm not alone... in a way. In another way I wish I was and it was something that could easily be fixed.
Overloaded bandwidth? I guess that reasoning would explain the slow loading, but still, why doesn't the video continue to load while paused?
I've had a 2 minute video (HQ) paused for several minutes now, I paused it right when it began playing. The loading bar has not changed. I just hit play, the loading bar did not move for a second or so, then began creeping along.

Now that I think about it, it loads just as slow with my WiFi, since that's what I'm using right now I'm sure of it, so it can't have anything to do with Verizon's bandwidth, and youtube videos will load on my PC in seconds, I just fully loaded the same video in ~20seconds on my PC.

No matter how slow it loads, the main problem seems to be the way the video is being handled by the app.

 

[Olivia]

Uggh. I'll have to check mine and see if it does the same. I hate the fact that you always have to choose high quality. I wish there was a settting where you could choose high quality all the time. My iPhone over 3g did not have that option at all. The only way it would play high quality was over wifi, but I jailbroke it and downloaded an app called Unrestrictor, and it played high quality YouTube bids all the time.

 

[Backnblack]

I wish there was a settting where you could choose high quality all the time

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-hacks/9975-make-youtube-default-high-quality.html

 

[Martin030908]

HQ videos take me a little while to load but well worth it when they do! The default HQ setting needs root.....

 

[DemonI81]

Well, I found a solution that works for me.
I downloaded the Dolphin web browser, which is free. It allows you to download/save YouTube videos in an mp4 file that actually plays on the Droid (I've had a hard time encoding my own for the Droid, they never seem to work). It downloads fast and then I can save the video if I want or delete after watching.

I'd love to see the YouTube app have a setting to default to HQ without having to root and even more I'd love to see it buffer/load the entire video when paused. Until then I'll just watch them this way.

 

[Lafond]

Anyone else have an issue with sound not matching up with the video in HQ?

Loading is usually OK on 3g unless it's a long video, depending on the time of day, it will only skip a little bit.

 

[vvillegas]

I'm having the same problem. When I load a HQ video, the video stops after 30sec. If, by miracle the video loads, the sound is out of sync. Anyone have any ideas as to why this might be?

 

[masterxchief]

I have the same issue as the OP.

 

[kmasum]

i am very happy with my motorola droid but when comes to play youtube video its a piece of crap.. loading time is horrible doesnt matter 3g or wifi....i thought android will come up with a app which plays fast n good quality youtube video but i was wrong notting close to youtube in iphone. i am giving this youtube app -1 out of 5 star.. hope 2.1 version fix this problem.

 

[Hypnotic]

Could be weak signal in your area? Maybe it could be something with the application. Still the phone is fairly new and will receive updates so keep that in mind.