Thread: YOUTUBE VIDEOS- Ideal internet speed

What is the ideal internet speed for watching youtube videos?

Is there any kind of settings required to make it perfect?
i am using a tata wimax connection of 384kbps and i am facing considerable buffering?
earlier on airtel wired connection of 384 kbps the buffering was relatively less.(after pausing for 20-40 secs a video of 40 min used to work flawlessly)

Does using a router effect video streaming??
i also tried using a SpeedBit Video Accelerator,it dint effect much


Any suggestions

384kbps is not that much speed to start with and you would get some pauses as you watch a you tube video..

Tata wimax has 512kbps and 1mbps connection as well.. I am using a 1mbps connection and if I open a video from You tube I still have to pause it and let it load for a min or so... not that my speed is slow... the speed I am getting is 95% of the promised 1mbps so its not bad... its normal for a video to buffer for some time as its not just your connection speed that matters as youtube servers might not be able to upload at your max speed and may be over drawn on bandwidth at the time you are watching the video so it might actually be loading at a speed of just 100kbps or so... never know..

Using an internet connection to view a youtube might sound simple but its a lot more complicated and the viewing experience can be affected by "n" number of factors...

Do a speed test and see if you are getting the full 384kbps or not and if not complain to tata and they will fix it for you.

Stuttering (or buffering) occurs even at high speeds. I get buffering at 1.8 mbps also.

The best way is to let it download completely and then watch. Use a browser such as Firefox with add-on such as FlashGot. This will reduce buffering slightly.

I also think that BSNL probably hates youtube. Even on idle connection it takes too long to do basic stuff on youtube.

i have an internet speed of 2mbps and i still have to buffer some videos depending on lenght or wether hq/hd is on or off.

When watching video online it uses same amount of bandwidth as that of the file size.......... so better idea is download video and then watch...

Originally Posted by just4kix

Stuttering (or buffering) occurs even at high speeds. I get buffering at 1.8 mbps also.

The best way is to let it download completely and then watch. Use a browser such as Firefox with add-on such as FlashGot. This will reduce buffering slightly.

actually for Youtube in Firefox, the relevant add-on is "Download helper"
DownloadHelper - Media download Firefox extension

Try SpeedBit Video Accelerator.

Originally Posted by just4kix

Stuttering (or buffering) occurs even at high speeds. I get buffering at 1.8 mbps also.

The best way is to let it download completely and then watch. .

Yes just4kix said correctly I also have 2 mbps connection of BSNL (around 1.5-2 mbps)
I also face lots of buffering problem in youtube so download first and see it. That's best way.

I have been watching youtube videos without any interruption . but , the problem started since last week. there is a lot of buffering .
I am using tata broadband 384kbps . Please let me know if u guyz are also facing the same problem . I was just wondering if the the problem is with tata only?

Well when I had 2 MBps connection,I was able to watch videos without any pause.

But on all lower speeds you-tube viewing is not that smooth.

I am on 512 Kbps connection and i can see most of the video's except HD.. without any buffering. BSNL is pritty good with youtube according to me.

buffering is the common issue with BSNL.. i dont play the video before it completely loads up...

also do check settings of your flash player.. click on cache to be used and make it unlimited..

the best thing to do to here would be to change the settings in your media player to actually create buffering for 60sec. then u would get a no buffering for the rest of the video while watching it. just the initail 60 secs. i use this method on my 256K ul and dont usually have buffering while actually viewing the video. i have seen videos of 40 mins at time with this method.
anything else is a dream because while in USA, we had an 25mbps connection. even there we had some bufferng for the videos.

that must have been due to latency not bandwidth

thanks i will try...


btw are there any way that u can download the videos to your hard drive to view them later on..

thanks i will try...


btw are there any way that u can download the videos to your hard drive to view them later on..

Originally Posted by webajmer

btw are there any way that u can download the videos to your hard drive to view them later on..

There are many ways to download videos from Youtube or other video hosting/streaming websites. The easiest is to use Yahoo Downloader.

Yahoo Downloader link: http://www.yahoodownloader.com/

512 Kbps or more is a ideal speed for youtube, but the reason you get buffering issues is due to the quality of the video. if the video is very clear (good resoultion) , then you will have to buffer even on a hi speed connection. You can search for some videos of old songs etc which are not that hi resoultion and see that they play smoothly without buffering, where are new music video with good resolution take time to buffer.

Stuttering (or buffering) occurs even at high speeds. I get buffering at 1.8 mbps also.The best way is to let it download completely and then watch. Use a browser such as Firefox with add-on such as FlashGot. This will reduce buffering slightly

if u dont wnt 2 upgrade ur net connection simply pause the video n let it buffer all the way then watch.....bcos if u it watch while bufferin it is going to lag n u gettin frustated....so bettr wait n watch

I also do not have any problems on BSNL Broadband with 512 speed. Unless you are watching YouTube videos on HD, it seems sufficient.