Is youtube manipulating the time videos take to load

[bugler]

I was watching a video about Stanley Mayers and it was loading very slow and stopping every few seconds.

I thought that it might be coincidence or not so I displayed a holocaust propangada video and it loaded quite fast.

The same happend with a video of youtube user Hydrogen Tap. The video didn't load so at the same time I displayed a video about "cool facts about Israel". Again the 2nd video was fast loading and the first one very slow.

Again a third time with a different Hydrogen Tap video and a different holocaust propaganda video.

can it be coincidence three times in a row with different videos.

[Joit]

I got the same Problem with some Videos,
but i am guessing more, they did place them on slower Servers
or there are to much Peoples watching them at the same Time.
In case i dload them first, because i dont have problems anymore with them.
But i ask myself anyway what sense Youtube still has,
because there get so much Videos removed or have a Copyright claim
from any Companys on it, that Youtube is not reliable anymore.

[ibpointless2]

I was watching a video about Stanley Mayers and it was loading very slow and stopping every few seconds.

I thought that it might be coincidence or not so I displayed a holocaust propangada video and it loaded quite fast.

The same happend with a video of youtube user Hydrogen Tap. The video didn't load so at the same time I displayed a video about "cool facts about Israel". Again the 2nd video was fast loading and the first one very slow.

Again a third time with a different Hydrogen Tap video and a different holocaust propaganda video.

can it be coincidence three times in a row with different videos.

I don’t think so. Depending where you are and what time it is their could be some lag in the connections to the servers. And if your videos are not in the top 100 most watched they put you in the slower servers. There could aways be something going on that day with the servers like one got shut down and the traffic had to get pushed to another thus slowing videos down. There is many reasons, but I don’t think youtube cares about alternative energy videos its the videos about “Fred” that they care about or any other video that makes them money so they put all the other videos on the back burner.

[nilrehob]

I have the same problem with "interesting" videos
the way i solve it is by using DownloadHelper - Media download Firefox extension
once it starts downloading i close the youtube-tab
then if the download is still slow i hit the pause-button for the download and start it again a few seconds after,
then it usually takes off

/Hob

[mk1]

I would have a look at the video quality , i also have problems with some video in HD , my machine is not made for it . Usually 360 pixel works well , but not 720 or 480 .

[future pather]

I'm almost positive they really do this from my experience, but I think it has more to do with whether someone is a "youtube partner" - they can activate ads on their vids which compensate both youtube and the partner - or not.

I got really frustrated as a youtube uploader and this is one of the reasons. I never paid to promote any of my vids (doing so will cause it to come up whenever someone searches for certain terms on youtube) and it seems I had very very low chances of becoming a highly viewed channel without doing so.

And I swear it did seem some of my most thought provoking vids took super long to load at times. That means anyone who did try to view them probably gave up on doing so.

Yes they absolutely manipulate video traffic if you ask me and I think the motivation is money more than anything. They use their system to keep feeding people to the vids that are making money off ads. Surprise surprise surprise lol.

[dR-Green]

Some videos are slower than others, but I haven't noticed any particular pattern to it. Even one that is streaming slow can speed up if you refresh the page, or establish a new connection.

Beyond that, my trick is to NOT install Flash for Firefox, and instead use IE Tab whenever I CHOOSE to use Flash, thus avoiding having animated adverts taking over my screen on every web site. If I want to keep the file, once the video has finished streaming the .flv can be found in the Temporary Internet Files folder. If you want the .mp4 add "&fmt=18" or "&fmt=22" at the end of the youtube url. Instead of an .flv you will now find the .mp4 in your temp internet files folder.

Failing all that, use JDownloader. It decrypts the page and lists all the available files relating to that video without needing to open any browser at all, all you need to work it are urls.

http://jdownloader.org/

[mk1]

I agree the Youtube is controlled , no doughs about it .

2 years ago you could go to youtube , and see the most viewed video from all the country , all the top video were form a conspiracy type all regions of the planet , all the country's on you tube . Then one day they they all vanished still there but could no longer be accessed and promoted by the site by views .

That worked for some times then the last update they changed the video rating system so that no one could get stars and exposure that comes from it .

Basically to some extent you are free to put everything you like there and they have the right to manage your exposure , And yes some video get edited , or removed on complaint from others , convenient isn't it .

Anyway it really changed over the last 3 years , its going the right direction .

[future pather]

It seems like they take money to drive traffic behind the scenes because even some partners and big music vids with ads load crazy slow.

You basically have to manipulate by tricks to even get some to load at all.

[future pather]

They're probably the artists who didn't pay the record label mob or whoever.

(Not saying all the successful artist do.)

[WeThePeople]

They have to input criteria to the load balancing server network they utilize.

That is the simple answer,
if you think they are using preferential server techniques, your probably right...

Because without "Rules & Exceptions" entries,
ALL videos would get the same load balancing !

So they are simply "outing" themsleves as being preferential by nature.