General Question

FLgator1289's avatar

Videos are streaming SO slowly on my computer. How do I make it less choppy?

Asked by FLgator1289 (99points) September 27th, 2010

Sometimes, Youtube or streaming Netflix videos run smooth as butter, but other times – like right now – they run very choppy or slow (or both).

Any way to fix this, or is it as simple as a bad internet connection? Why does it run fast sometimes and slow other times? Even if I let it buffer for a few minutes, video will still run choppy.

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8 Answers

Blueroses's avatar

experienced’s answer
fixed the issue for me.

john65pennington's avatar

If you run an antivirus scan at the same time, you will receive this effect. i noticed it today for the first time. i paused the scan and the Youtube video went back to normal. you might check this out.

jerv's avatar

@john65pennington Correct; CPU usage can have a drastic effect on framerates, especially if your CPU isn’t powerful to begin with.

Also, are you the only computer on our connection? I have a multi-computer household, so I often get my bandwidth cut way down thanks to the other people in the apartment. If you have cable (as opposed to DSL) then you get the same effect with your entire neighborhood.

Brian1946's avatar

Here’s a link to an answer in another thread.

If your OS is Windows, then press and hold down Ctrl and Alt, then press Delete, and then release all three keys to open your Windows Task Manager.

At the bottom of the TM you should see a block labeled “CPU Usage”. If it reads 100% or spikes to 100%, then you don’t have enough CPU time available for smooth streaming.

Zyx's avatar

Go to task manager like @Brian1946 said but disregard your CPU and increase the priority of your browser. It’ll give you a warning which is complete bullshit as long as you don’t use it on anything you don’t understand. Your browser you understand so do it. This will tell your computer this process is more important and it solves most speed problems for most programs as long as you don’t expect your programs on the background to be fast.

pizzaman's avatar

Go to a “make my computer faster” website.

jerv's avatar

@pizzaman Those are almost always scams.

camisole's avatar

its usually an internet connection problem. try to measure your download rate – it should be well over 1 Mbps for smooth streaming video, if it isnt you need to switch your ISP

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