Endless buffering in flash video stream .. possible causes?

Question

I want to watch a flash video stream. While it works for some sites (like youTube), it doesn't work for others (like hgtv.com). When I access the site and want to start a video, I get an endless "buffering .." and no network traffic at all. Looks like some connection is not working properly .. What are things I can try to figure out what's wrong?

Here are my current versions:

• FireFox 3.5.3 on WinXP (also happens on IE8 on Vista)
• FlashPlayer 10,0,32,18 (also happens with older versions).

I suspect that it may be that we're not allowed to watch HGTV in Germany (as I get an error message to that effect for some episodes), but that's just a guess. I hope there are some other things I can try.

Answer 1

I get the same thing if I try to watch (most of) the BBC videos, they are locked to the UK. A website can check your IP address.

If this is the case, the only option would be using a proxy-server in the area that is allowed.

BTW, I can't watch from hgtv.com either (Netherlands).

Answer 2

Do you have any kind of pan-browser adblocking or web filtering enabled which might stop an ad from loading, and therefore stopping the video you want from starting?

Answer 3

I get this from time to time - it is just network problems either at your end or theirs. It is nothing to worry about and nothing you can change.

I randomly get it when browsing Youtube and Dailymotion, especially on very popular items (such as things from digg), and if I try a while later, it plays very fast and smooth.

It is out of your control :(

Answer 4

In my experience, Adblock can become a bit overzealous and prevent flash from accessing sites you want. You can select disable on this page only and reload the page, and suddenly it works. Good luck!

Answer 5

Try a different browser, such as Opera or IE or Safari or Chrome. If you don't get the delay in that browser, you know the problem lies in FF or one of its add-ons, and you can debug from there by uninstalling all addons then reinstalling one at a time until you find the culprit.

Answer 6

I am going to assume that there is no fun DNS issues and/or independent filters since you've not stated that you are using any higher-lever blocking/filtering - i.e. OpenDNS, router software, etc. - which may be a part of the problem if the settings are not done right and/or the site uses a different domain for serving up the actual videos.

Based on the above, and the other comments you've left relating to other answers, its probably one of two things:

1. Your ISP sucks.
2. The site's connection/server/whatever sucks

And since some video sites seem to work fine, and others not so much, I'm leaning towards the latter.