Participating Frequently

Question

Flash Video Stops Buffering and Never Continues

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
December 24, 2010
14 replies
162912 views

I recently have been experiencing trouble watching a full Flash video from a variety or sources. The video will buffer about 30sec to 3minutes of data and stop. The video plays perfectly up to the point where the buffering stopped, but will not continue. If I try to refresh the browser page, the video no longer loads, I just get the scrolling wheel in the center of the video screen.

This happens on Firefox v3.6.13 (32-bit), IE v8.0.7600.16385 (32-bit I think) & Chrome v8.0.552.224. I am using Flash version 10,1,102,64 for Firefox and IE, and Flash v10,1,103,20 for Chrome.

My Operating Systems is Windows 7 64-bit. I have tried uninstalling Flash and reinstalling it several times. I have disabled Hardware Accelleration and turned off AVG from any web protection. I have cleared my cache files and said several prayers! Every once in a while a video will fully buffer and play, but I cannot figure out a pattern to it. Most of the videos I watch are either YouTube or Photography tutorials on sites like Photoshopuser.com, planetphotoshop.com or Vimeo.

I've done lots of searching and haven't really found anyone else with this exact issue, but similar ones. I've tried everything I can think of and am pretty much at my wits end right now. I'm not a technical novice but this one has me stumped. Any assistance that can be provided is appreciated.

Thanks,

dave

This topic has been closed for replies.

sfrvn1966

Participant

I know this is a very old thread, but I have had this problem for weeks. Nothing in the previous posts fixed my problem.

I offer what I did that corrected the problem. Is it the long-sought solution... or just a coincidence? You be the judge.

In Firefox go to:

1. Tools/Options/Privacy

2. Check the box: "Do not tell sites anything about my tracking preferences."

3. Re-load the web page containing the video and enjoy the show.

4. Thank me later.. :-)

T

Tricky Satish

Participant

I faced this problem for a long time and after a lot searching finally found solution

Run "msconfig" and in general tab tick on normal start-up.

then in services tab enable all services.

Then restart system and it will work surely.

S

Star Frost

Participant

Yeah... except all of the reasons not to do that, like security and efficiency.... What if I don't want DropBox or QuickBooks or all of my Adobe Cloud nonsense to load every time I boot up but cant just go uninstalling / reinstalling it when I want to? I may still be using a 32-bit OS but I sure as heck cant afford anything better so please Adobe, work with me here!

E

evolextra

Participant

Guys, i have the same problem. Flash video stops after buffer full. According to Task Manager Flash process eat 100Mb and stops. If its HD video it is 30 sec, if 480p video ~10 min. Flash, antivirus, plugins, browser installing/uninstalling didn't help. Its happens sometimes in every browser i have. Reboot helps sometimes. Windows 7 64.

A

Anonymous

Only solution I found is to chnage the playback settings to you have a slow connection. Downside: No HD vids.

B

bikebrains

Participant

I am a heavy user of Youtube. I have an HP quadprocessor, 64mb Windows 7. All of my software is current. My ISP is AT+T who has stated that they do not "throttle" or limit download amount except for the understood limits placed on purchased bit rate. I pay for an up to 6Mb download rate yet I rarely see anything over 5Mb when using the AT&T Speed Test tool. Speedtest.net just told me my download rate is 4.24Mb. Bottline: I have enough bandwidth to support at least 480p. I am not going to buy more bandwith because the current limitations and performance problems point to either the data download rate limits being controlled by Google/Youtube or a software problem within Flash. I get HD quality videos from sources other than Youtube so, at the moment, my uneducated finger points at Youtube and Adobe.

I realize that bandwidth is expensive and advertising revenue is limited. Therefore, I am willing to pay Gooble/Youtube a small monthly fee for guaranteed bandwidth. I suggest a three rates, one for 480p, a higher rate for 720p and the highest for 1080p. Bandwidth for 360p would remain free. One should not expect Rolls-Royce quality at a Yugo price.

Back to the buffering problem. My PC has over 600GB of free space, plenty of room to buffer a large video. The software should be changed so that we can buffer a large video and then watch it without interuption. Flash can look at the free space on a PC and then decide whether to use a small default buffer or a larger buffer based on percentage of free space. I hope the people at Adobe realize that there is considerable dissatisfaction within the user community.

A

Anonymous

I can no longer watch any Youtube video. It plays for a second, freezes for up to 10 seconds, plays maybe 3 seconds, then the problem begins. It will not buffer the vid. If it buffers at all, it's only a second or two's worth. That means playback always exceeds buffering. Sometimes it just sits there, doing nothing. Sometimes it buffers a second's worth, then stops for minutes on end. This buffering problme has been getting worse and worse. Every update to FLASH has mad eit worse. IE, my current computer never had this problem. Now it does, on every video.. Ditto my laptop. My previous computer gained this problem when I updated to FLASH 10. Everything was fine when I got my current one. But slowly but steadily over the past 2 years, the problem has gotten worse and worse. First an occasional video. Then a very slow buffering. Now videos are unwatchable. Every update exploits this bug more and more, not less and less. Sometimes it affects any vid using FLASH (IE KEEK). But it's only occassionally outside of Youtube. Youtube is affected completely by this no buffering problem. Firefox (every version) or IE, it's always the same thing. Always getting worse, not better.

B

BonniesDharma2012

Participant

Ok all, this issue with Flash in browsers has been driving me nuts. I had MP4 videos that were playing just fine using JW Player up until about 2-3 weeks ago, then all of a sudden they stopped buffering. One thing I did find was that uninstalling Quicktime and Flash altogether resulted in IE9 falling back to WMP plugin to play MP4, but the buffering issue still existed on the client side. Also, Firefox will not play MP4s without Flash, even with the WMP Firefox Plugin AddOn.

I resolved it on my own (as a test) by configuring IE9 to look at my site to be a Trusted site, then changing the configuration of Trusted Sites in IE9 to a Custom Setting where to:

"Display video and animation on a webpage that does not require an external player"

...was changed to Enabled.

Then, I was able to actually click through the scrub bar to points forward in the video. However, once I re-installed Flash, IE9 insists on using Flash to play the MP4s, and I cannot control it.

BUT, and this is a big BUTT here, lol, I was not satisfied because I cannot control client browser behavior. What I also found out in my research is that there is a new protocol which evolved from Silverlight applications, where servers enable throttling on videos. This is so that if a user pauses a video (expecting it to load and come back to it later), the video only buffers to a certain point. The intent of this new feature (in IIS from what I can tell) is to assist users from inappropriately using bandwidth for which they might not actually view... blah blah blah.

I also switched ISPs. I found out that AT&T is notorious for throttling, but I don't know if it had anything to do with my buffering issues, because when I switched to Comcast, the buffering issues resolved themselves. I did provide myself with a test group and had a 50/50 response on the buffering issue. Therefore, my next step is to look into the GZIP functionality of my Web host which is on Linux using Apache. I initiated the .htaccess decompress method of "SetEnvIf Request_URI .* no-gzip=1", but that did not resolve the issue. Therefore, I might switch Web hosts.

That is all I got for now.

Any other new solutions?

P.S. On a side note, I am going to keep AT&T along with Comcast in order to test my Web hosting until I figure this out. I do not think it is any one particular issue, I think it is a culmination. The problem is that not all users have their browsers and ISP connections set up to match my Web site's functionality. Therefore, my biggest endeavor right now is to determine the best possible video bit rate encoding technique to reach the largest target audience.

NOTE: The buffering issue was resolved when using AT&T with IE9 accessing WMP plugin with my site as a trusted site. So perhaps it is not a Web server issue afterall. Perhaps it is the way the browsers and Antivirus software (I use Microsoft Security Essentials) handle Flash plugins. This makes sense considering Firefox just went up to version 17.0, and I have been getting several Windows Updates (that I never bothered to explore). Has anyone tried IE10? There was also something I read about how Adblocking plugins cause problems, but disabling Adblock had no affect on my buffering issues.

B

BonniesDharma2012

Participant

BTW, I found that link about the Silveright throttling:

http://www.microsoft.com/belux/interactive/newsletter/08-05/articles/mediatechnologies.aspx

I dunno, but maybe it has some similar technology that the Antivirus software cannot keep up with or something.

To quote that article:

======================

IIS 7 Media Pack

One new feature added in the free IIS 7 Media Pack for Windows Server 2008 is Bit Rate Throttling. This fixes the problem with traditional progressive download of users pulling down a video file much faster than needed. For example, a user with a fast connection might try to play back an hour-long 500 Kbps file over a 5000 Kbps connection. They may only watch the first six minutes of the file before they move on to something else, but in that six minutes, the entire hour of the video has been transmitted, costing extra bandwidth for content that'll never be watched.

With Bit Rate Throttling, progressive download includes an initial burst down to the client at high speed to enable immediate playback, but then ratchets down to send bits at the peak data rate of the file, preserving bandwidth while continuing to provide a high-quality experience.

======================

So maybe some servers are using that bit rate throttle, and Antivirus software is not up to match it? I say that due to IE9 allowing me to access the scrub bar only when I added my site to the Trusted sites zone. That is why I feel it might be an issue with Antivirus software.

Thoughts?

S

schützenkönig

Known Participant

https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/index/02792e79-a050-4c3f-9321-02aac2121223

fast switch between facebook and a just opened new tab youtube.

thanks.

Happy Xmas.

A

Anonymous

did you ever fix this? i had same problem and use firfox 3.6 i found that the update was for flash 11 and it only works on 4.0 so i uninslalled and reinstalled falsh 10 and that fixed it. hope this helps.

S

schützenkönig

Known Participant

Hi, thanks for your reply

I did resolve the issue by uninstalling and re-installing noscript

S

schützenkönig

Known Participant

Hi people!

may be an flash issue...

https://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/forum/#!msg/youtube/Sbejm2zuXJY/vpxWX5DU2wkJ

here there are a lot of posts regarding this issue (from january). today YT developers fixed the issue with expanded window, ok, but this buffering issue in pause mode remain unfixed, and they say that until flash 11.1 there are none issues.

after a few month I guess that this is an flash issue on some systems, please look here on YT forum.

thanks.

B

bikebrains

Participant

I think I can be of some help. Hardware: HP P6770T, Intel i3-2100, RAM 6GB, no video card, 64 bit OS, OS: Windows 7 current as of 11/13/2011, Security: Norton Internet Security 2011, Software: Flash Player 11,1,102,55, Firefox 8.0, IE9, JAVA 6.0.290. I use Firefox primary browser. Youtube video involved in problem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOoCrCeHxpI . Video length: 2 hours, 15 minutes. Problem: while watching the video using Firefox, the download would stop after 45 minutes. I then switched to using IE9 and I did not get the problem. As for a posssible red herring, both browsers have 1GB of cache, I rarely use IE9 so its cache was nearly empty. The Firefox cache had 4.2 MB of data. Bottom line: with the above hardware and software the problem only hits Firefox. PS: Uninstall obsolete versions of JAVA and, after the uninstall process is complete, delete any orphaned files related to the obsolete versions. I have experienced software problems caused by the presence of obsolete JAVA files.

S

schützenkönig

Known Participant

Hi.

Very interestng this topic.

Since a few days (AFTER upgrading to 11.1.102.63) I notice an issue with all YT videos.

the grey bar (downloading status bar) works only during the playback.

If I press Pause, the donwload process (i.e. the grey bar) stops itself. it

restarts only when I press Play again.

this happens ONLY with 480p resolution!!

by selecting other resolutions (240, 360, 720, 1080p) the download process in

Pause mode went fine!

I'd like to understand this odd behaviour with the download process only at

480p or in Auto mode.

I hope that even if I will press Pause at 480p the video will still

continuing in the download process as it did in the past with build 102.62..

thanks.

please let me know if I should to take some settings.

(the video lenght should be bigger than 30 seconds).

best,

S

SasanB

Participant

We have been having issues with Youtube videos stopping in the middle of buffering. We have seen this happen from all browsers. This is in a corporate setting. We verified that it does not happen on Windows XP machines or Windows 2003 server machines. It consistently happens on Windows Vista and 7 machines.

We narrowed it down to our Sonicwall 3060 Enhanced firewall. The Intrusion Prevention option on the firewall is causing the problem. When we check the firewall at the moment the video buffering stops, the firewall Intrusion Detection feature drops the TCP connection. Disabling Intrusion Prevention resolves the issue. We are working with Sonicwall to determine if this can be fixed

Y

ypablo

Participant

Dav

This thread is quite old now but it may be still be very helpfulI for someone who like me (and Dav) experienced problems watching Flash videos.

After many days of struggling, trying and fighting with Flash videos finally I solved this problem. At least it works for me on my PC (Windows 7 64-bit).

Basically I removed my PC Tool Firewall Free Edition and went back to Windows Firewall. PC Tool Firewall started blocking Flash movies after one unfortunate update. Sad becaue it was quite good piece of software.

Hope it is helpfull.

A

Anonymous

Hi, Sometimes buffering may be due to the fact that the your internet connection is slow. For that you could check with your ISP.

You could also try pausing the video until it finishes downloading.

Also you may want to check to make sure you don't have too many windows open at the same time.

Have you checked here on the Adobe test site? You should see the Flash logo animate and the version will also be displayed. Test with each browser.

http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

Go to Tools, Internet Options, and under the Security Tab, make sure that it is set to Medium for the Internet Zone.

Thanks,

eidnolb

P.S. I think you said you use AVG. The AVG addons in the browser have been known to conflict. It's not the Anti-Virus itself, which is the Resident Shield. Now you may also want to Disable the LinkScanner since it is known to conflict also.

D

dav_millerAuthor

Participating Frequently

eidnolb, Thanks so much for replying.

Hi, Sometimes buffering may be due to the fact that the your internet connection is slow. For that you could check with your ISP.

I have a 10Mb connection and speed isnt the issue. The problem is that the buffering stops entirely and won't continue.

You could also try pausing the video until it finishes downloading.

Whether I pause the video, or let it run, the progress bar only goes so far and then stops. Maybe buffering is the wrong term to use, but the video only loads a portion and never the full thing.

Also you may want to check to make sure you don't have too many windows open at the same time.

I've ran tests by restarting my computer and only running a video that stops, so I only have one browser window open on the computer and it still happens.

Have you checked here on the Adobe test site? You should see the Flash logo animate and the version will also be displayed. Test with each browser.

http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

The logo shows properly on all my browsers, I've uninstalled and reinstalled Flash multiple times with the same result. It's not that flash does not work, it is that most videos only play 30 seconds to a minute.

Go to Tools, Internet Options, and under the Security Tab, make sure that it is set to Medium for the Internet Zone.

P.S. I think you said you use AVG. The AVG addons in the browser have been known to conflict. It's not the Anti-Virus itself, which is the Resident Shield. Now you may also want to Disable the LinkScanner since it is known to conflict also.

My Security settings are Medium and I have disabled AVG completely (as a test) with the same result.

I have read through most of the posts here and tried the suggestions, but none of them have worked so far. I am not experiencing an install problem, Flash installs just fine. I don't get any errors when the buffering stops, it just stops and won't continure. In fact, if I try to replay or restart the video after it stops, it won't play at all and the circular icon in the center of the screen just turns. This doesn't happen if I haven't reached the end of the buffering or if I change resolution (360P to 480P). I have noticed that the lower resolution settings buffers more video than the higher resolution, which leads me to believe this is releated to bandwidth or size, but I cannot see any system limitations I have on either of these. I can download files or view web pages without issue and I regularly see 400-500kbps download speeds.

I do appreciate the response and hope you have another suggestion.

Thanks again.

-dave

A

Anonymous

Good Morning, Thanks for your reply. Perhaps we need to take a look at the Flash files.

Go to C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash Open Flash and post back the files listed; the NPSWF files will need a right click and then click on Properties to obtain the version numbers.

Using IE, go to Tools, Manage addons. Under "Show"(very light text), make sure Shockwave Flash Object is listed, enabled and let me know that and what version it is. It should be listed under All addons and Run without permission.

Using FF, look in plugins for Shockwave Flash (SWF) to make sure it is enabled.

Always keep in mind that Flash Player is a browser addon and anything installed into the browsers has an affect. Since you are having this issue with all of the browsers, then perhaps there may be a common conflict.

Also you said you turned off the hardware acceleration. Also it is suggested to update the graphic and video drivers to the latest versions. You may want to check on that. How did you turn it off and is it still off?

Thanks,

eidnolb

Show more replies

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded