I have a 20mbps connection and while it certainly isn't anywhere near the fastest in the world, it should certainly be more than adequate for streaming 1080p videos without any hiccups. Over the last few months I've noticed that YouTube videos are performing dreadfully for me. Even at 480p and 720p, they're stopping and starting. Sometimes I just have to give up and let it load fully before attempting to watch it. 

At first I thought it might be the case that Google had reduced the available bandwidth available to YouTube. But now after reading a lot of discussions on forums (including Google's own help forum) involving a ton of people who have been experiencing exactly the same, I'm beginning to suspect that the real culprit might be my ISP (in this case, Time Warner Cable). It's certainly within their power to limit my download speed when connected to certain sites, and it's certainly plausible that they are now taking measures to deal with the explosion in bandwidth use over the last couple of years. Why pay to upgrade their networks, when they can simply restrict bandwidth to the popular sites which are sucking the most bandwidth? YouTube would be first on the chopping block, obviously. But I've also noticed more buffering in Netflix, and sometimes Spotify too. 

Someone on a Google forum said that they completely fixed the problem by setting up a VPN, which enables them to connect to YouTube without their ISP knowing what site they're using. Not sure how this works to be honest. 

Another thing I've noticed is that when I use Spotify on my iPhone, it will stream music perfectly for about 15 minutes, then it will just stop. The connection is still strong, and I can download web pages and use Facebook,  but I can't use Spotify again until I put it into airplane mode for a while and reconnect. I'm grandfathered into an unlimited download deal, and I suspect that my phone company (AT&T) is doing what it can to stifle the liberal data use of pesky customers like me.

Thoughts? 

Yes, I noticed it tonight when I tried to download some Reaper drum tutorials off Youtube.

I normally download at 300kbs steady ... tonight I was throttled down to 50kbps.

One thing I noticed last week was we could only stream one movie a night. When we'd try to watch a second one, it would be so slow we would get kicked.

Something is going on.

I've been getting some strange things like that as well. Down to 23kb/s here

I don't know why they don't just charge an extra few dollars to people who go over a certain limit. It doesn't seem fair that someone like me, who watches the occasional show on Netflix and a few YouTube videos, should be penalized because of the people who spend every evening streaming movies non-stop while having 20 Torrents on the go. 

Ya, I was watching Sheep In Bikinis last night and it kept starting and stopping and rewinding and starting...
(Or was that me?)

I don't know what the reason is, but I've had tons of issues w/ YouTube for a few months. 

The page will load, the video will start, then after 2 or 3 seconds, it'll all go blank and the video will start over again. 

I also have issues w/ videos that just won't load - all I get is a black screen. 

Or then, if the video is longer than 2 or 3 minutes, it'll play for a while and stop halfway through, and there's just no way to get to see the rest - it won't even buffer past a certain time.

Couple that w/ all the publicity, the messed up suggested links that have nothing to do w/ what you are watching, and that's enough to make me avoid YT as much as possible.

We tried to watch an episode of a series we have been in to lately on Amazon Prime tonight, wouldn't work. Went in to eternal buffer state.

So here I am.

They better get it fixed soon eh?

I remember reading a few years ago that the internet as it exists is not big enough to handle the coming explosion in data usage. I wonder if we're just beginning to feel the effects of it now. Basically, all these new kids with their Gangnam Style crap should be kicked off my lawn the net so that us old farts can enjoy our obviously more important browsing with a bit more headroom. 

sharke

I don't know why they don't just charge an extra few dollars to people who go over a certain limit. It doesn't seem fair that someone like me, who watches the occasional show on Netflix and a few YouTube videos, should be penalized because of the people who spend every evening streaming movies non-stop while having 20 Torrents on the go.

That never works.

For example ... when the guy was here hooking us up, he tried diligently to talk me in to the 1Mb plan. He said their network was so fast that 1Mb would be more than enough on their network to stream Netflix on one TV, surf the net on a PC, and use Vonage, all at the same time.

Of course, being around the block a few times, I didn't believe him, and told him I would be a heavy user and insisted he set me up with a 3Mb plan. Still slow by today's comparison, but fast for out here in the sticks, and faster than anything I've ever had.

Worked great for a couple months ... then slower, then slower, then slower. Called and complained because we were totally down 10 times. They said someone from the U.K. was doing a DoS attack on one of the three users on my section of the network and it shut the entire network down.

I don't consider myself a heavy user. I watch 2, maybe 3 standard definition shows a night on Amazon Prime, and during the day I just hang out here on the forum, and watch maybe 10 youtube video's a week. Long story short ... I paid extra for a faster connection because I considered that being a heavy user and I'm still getting crap service now, just like I would have got with the 1Mb connection. And I paid a year in advance ... and have it in writing that they will never throttle my connection down.

sharke

I remember reading a few years ago that the internet as it exists is not big enough to handle the coming explosion in data usage.

I dunno about that ... they are offering something called Google Fiber here in Kansas City now. It's a 1,000Mb/s connection for $120 a month.

At first they were charging a $300 fee to hook it up, but it says they have waived that now.

http://fiber.google.com/about/