There is probably nothing more annoying when you are trying to watch a video on the internet and there is a break in the action to allow your computer to catch up, so you have to watch the buffering count climb up to 100% before you’re good to go again.
If you are suffering from a slow internet connection speed and would rather watch some movie action without any buffering going on you might want to consider your download options so you can watch the action without interruptions. For example, there are many TV packages out there that offer great broadband services (visit website to learn more) that can help to improve your download quality, alongside providing you with TV services.
Slow connection
If you are struggling to move beyond a 56K for whatever reason then you are going to experience a slow connection which will regularly interrupt your enjoyment of watching the YouTube video you have chosen to view. It is often better when you have a slow connection problem to wait for the buffering to complete before you click on play so you don’t get any downtime while watching the content.
You might have a problem with that though with some of the current content on YouTube, as they are no longer buffering all the video when you click the pause button and if that is the case, the buffering simply stops and won’t restart until you press play again, meaning you are right back where you started and waiting for your slow connection to play catch-up.
Better technology
YouTube recently switched to the new Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP technology which is conveniently referred to as DASH, which works by segmenting media streams into blocks. This new whizz-bang technology is a great feature for most people with a fast internet connection but if you are on the slow-highway to nowhere with your speeds then it is not going to help you get around the problem.
Downloader tool
One sure-fire way around the problem of watching content with a slow internet speed is to use the YouTube Converter & Downloader. Using the YTD lets you download videos and watch them off-line where and when you want to. This could be a great idea for saving some videos on your tablet and letting the kids get some entertainment on long car journeys and it can also help some teachers to download appropriate educational content at home if the school does not allow downloads on site, so they can bring them into the classroom the following day.
Other ways to watch
If you still want to try and watch online then you could try a few adjustments to get around the problem of a slow connection. One way to try and avoid constant buffering would be to select a lower video quality in your settings which you will find from the gear icon down on the right side of the video player.
You could also try adjusting the video player size which is set on Auto by default and you might even consider choosing shorter videos to watch, but do you really want to restrict yourself in that way?
Provided you follow the rules on content then downloading your YouTube videos to watch off-line could be the answer to your problem with a slow internet connection.
Make sure you remember to respect intellectual property.
[Read also: 8 Essential YouTube Tips Anyone Can Use]
My internet usually works well, but every now and then it acts up for about a week or so. When that happens it is so annoying and I do get a lot of buffering when watching videos.
Sometimes I like to pause a video that automatically starts playing like on a news site because I want to read the article not watch the video. In that case I would just assume that it doesn’t keep downloading because I am not going to watch it anyway.
Other times, when I hit pause I would prefer that it does continue downloading because I am going to watch it.
I guess it can’t read our minds, or do what we want all the time.
This is one of the flaws YouTube should improve on. It’d be great if they allowed an option of whether or not, to automatically continue downloading when its videos are paused.
I have a dawdling Internet connection, so I often go with the download option. It doesn’t take long to download a YouTube video, depending on its size of course. Certainly no longer than it takes to buffer all of the video.
I used such YouTube video downloaders when I had a slow connection. Now that I have upgraded my connection I realize what I used to miss.
The real potential of YouTube comes out only with a faster connection but for those with slow connections, this post advises the best 🙂
Even though YouTube provides a decent option for slow connections, it is recommended to upgrade to a fast connection if you can afford it. It is definitely worth the extra time and trouble saved.