How do I make youtube videos run more smoothly?

How can I make my videos on youtube and other sites run more smoothly?

• They seem to be "skipping" all the time.The audio is perfect but it is very annoying trying to watch something when this is happening.

• Answer:

  Several times every day YouTube shuts down some of their servers to update stuff. Be patient if YouTube is slow, stuck or mangled. Transmissions from YouTube to your computer are done in multiple tiny packets of data and flash at a time. That's why sometimes you may get any of these scenarios: bits and pieces of text/thumbnails in weird places; sluggish loading/buffering; the spinning circle going on forever; or the player being blank. This problem could fix itself within a few hours or by the next day. If your YouTube continues to behave slow, stuck or strange, it's very possible that your directories of "temporary internet files" and RAM (sometimes known as "cache") are close to the maximum and just cannot take anymore, the end result being any of the above scenarios or videos that: A) come to a complete freeze; B) start/stop/start/stop in a choppy way; or C) never even make it onto your screen. "Temporary internet files" are tiny bits of webpages that get permanently put on your hard-drive. They will remain forever on your computer, gradually plugging it up like hair stuck in a sink drain, until you finally get rid of them once and for all. Thus, exit out of YouTube, then clear your "cache" of all its "temporary internet files", "cookies" and "history". It is best if you shutdown and reboot afterwards. You'll be amazed at how "fresh" and "new" your YouTube will be. Note 1: if you are using Google Web Accelerator or a utility similar to that: Dump it, burn it, trash it, disable it, uninstall it. Do all that you can to get as far away from it as possible. GWA and those various accelerators conflict with YouTube. Clicking on "Don't Accelerate This Website" won't help you at all. Also, many "Messenger" programs wreak havoc with YouTube. Note 2: longer videos only require "Flash" and "Shockwave" in order to play smooth. Other than that, avoid all the sales pitches that some Yahooers may be shilling, because they are really disguised salespeople & peddlers. Their answers have nothing to do with your question, and their wares may actually worsen your problem. Besides, what kind of idiotic answer is: "Despite the fact that you can't watch or access videos properly, buy our downloader." [my paraphrase] Note 3: a very odd fix that once worked for me was altering the URL from "www.youtube.com" to simply "youtube.com" (or you could even try "ca.youtube.com"). Note 4: depending on how your YouTube account is set up, your personal "video playblack quality" (or "VPQ") could be set to "dynamically" or "fast", thus making YouTube videos play at higher quality. This in turn eats up lots of bandwidth, memory and "cache". If you are "logged on" to YouTube as you're reading this, you can verify your VPQ from right here within Yahoo!Answers by clicking my link below, which will bring you directly to "YOUR VERY OWN" playback setting: http://www.youtube.com/account#playback/quality Otherwise, if you must "sign in" first, click on the 4th black option which will be on the left side called "Playback Setup". Note 5: nothing about playing YouTube has changed in the past year. If anything, the newer Flash players are causing many YouTubers plenty of grief -- especially all 8 variations of version 10. It is insane that there is a 10.0.525, 10.1.218, 10.2.26, 10.2.54, 10.12.10, 10.12.36, 10.15.3 and 10.22.87. Many updates are usually good for only one thing: software conflicts. Myself, I have never strayed away from 9.47, and many "flashers" swear by 9.45. Think of those two Flashes as Windows XP compared to Vista. Please look at another "Best Answer" of mine and what the Asker wrote afterward: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081125075929AABZpVS If that seems interesting to you, here is the appropriate link: http://www.oldapps.com/flash_player.php?old_flash_player=14 I hope that my information proves to be quite helpful for you. Internet Explorer 6: → Tools → Internet Options → Delete Cookies → OK → Delete Files → OK → Clear History → Yes → OK Internet Explorer 7: → Tools → Internet Options → Delete... → Delete files → Yes → Delete cookies → OK → Delete history → OK → Close (browsing history window) → OK Mozilla Firefox → Tools → Clear Private Data [x] Browsing History [x] Download History [x] Saved Form and Search History [x] Cache [x] Cookies → Clear Private Data Now