Bizarre & INFURIATING youtube problem

[leoblob]

99.9% of the videos I watch on youtube play perfectly. However, there is a small handful where the video starts fine, but after like the first second of playback, the video shrinks to a smaller horizontal size (compressed side-to-side) but otherwise keeps playing OK.

If I make one of these troublesome videos the very first one I play after launching Firefox, the odds are higher that it will play OK, but still no guarantees.

Other computers in my house have almost the same problem, except they are OK on one or two of the "problem" videos, but bad on others (which play completely OK on mine).

This all only started happening in the last month or so. Before that, these videos played perfectly every time.

I posted a youtube comment under one of these videos and one person said it played fine on his computer, but another said he had the same problem I'm having.

I guess there's nothing I can do here (since that other person has the same problem), but anyone have an idea on what's going on here? It's making me crazy.

[goofyGAguy]

Just a shot in the dark here, have you tried removing and re-installing the Adobe Flash player?

[tfflivemb2]

That sounds like an odd problem. Can you point to one of the videos that you had this problem on? Maybe we can find a commonality in it.

[leoblob]

I have uninstalled and re-installed various versions of Flash. Also, I have the same problem whether I use FF or IE.

Various videos involved:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C38bzKUtDqM - this one plays correctly about 90% of the time, but when it's wrong, it shrinks at the sides and top & bottom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtVlR_kDPvY -this one plays correctly about 75% of the time... shrinkage only on the sides.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL3Logj4U60 -plays correctly almost never... shrinkage only on the sides.

[goofyGAguy]

Well, I just tried to watch that horrible Sheryl Crow video, and I got the vertical black bars on both sides. So I would say the problem is on their end.

Edit: I was referring to the last video above. Just watched the first one and got a black bar only on top. Very strange.

[leoblob]

just out of curiousity, what OS are you running?

[goofyGAguy]

just out of curiousity, what OS are you running?

If this was directed at me, I'm using Windows XP SP2.

[GomJabbar]

I just watched all three (it's been a slow night). All three pretty much played fine. I never saw any shinkage at the sides.

The first one appeared letterboxed with black bars on the top and bottom. I would attribute this to the aspect ratio it was recorded at.

The second one had part of the video letterboxed the same way (the recording of Paul Potts on the British version of American Idol). I did notice some faint black lines on the left side of this video.

The third one played without any bars or lines, but the quality was probably the worst of the three.

I watched them in Opera 9.27 in Windows XP SP2 with Adobe Flash Player version WIN 9.0.28.0.

[iamdmc]

No problems here

Try this:
Right-click the youtube video, then click settings. In the first "tab" unclick "enable hardware acceleration"

With this box clicked, I was unable to see anything in full-screen (as it turns out, flash took it upon itself to zoom in so much on the video as soon as it came into fullscreen that you could usually only see one color, or a few pixels... odd)

GL

[tfflivemb2]

All three played fine on my T61, running XP SP2, IE 7.

I'll try it later with several other machines and see if I see a difference.

[leoblob]

No problems here

Try this:
Right-click the youtube video, then click settings. In the first "tab" unclick "enable hardware acceleration"

With this box clicked, I was unable to see anything in full-screen (as it turns out, flash took it upon itself to zoom in so much on the video as soon as it came into fullscreen that you could usually only see one color, or a few pixels... odd)

GL

I don't have any of these choices when I right click on the video ... ?? (I am running WIN2K, could that possibly be a factor?).

As for the last video, yes the quality is very low. That's the way it was recorded (not intentionally )

EDIT: OK, I found the tabs (I had to let it take me to Adobe's site) but the box for hardware acceleration won't let me un-check it.)

[iamdmc]

Best to uninstall all versions of flash, then reinstall from the adobe site.

GL

[leoblob]

OK, uninstalled Flash, installed latest version, figured out how to uncheck hardware acceleration... still have the problem

[TTY]

I suggest installing Service Pack 4 for Windows 2000 if you haven't done that yet. After having installed it, you can turn on "Automatic Updates", Windows will then download all additional Windows updates. Also get the latest video driver for the graphics chip from Lenovo's support site.

Edit: It came to my mind that the Automatic Update function only checks once every 24 hours for updates. This would mean to have to wait up to 24 hours after activating the feature to get these additional updates. To get these updates immediately, you could go to Windows Update or Microsoft Update. I don't remember how it is in Windows 2000, Windows Update might be available through klicking "Start", if you don't find it there, try clicking "(All) Programs".

[leoblob]

SP4 and all updates are installed (I generally keep things in very good shape).

Since this problem happens in various degrees on all three desktop computers in my house, (as well as other peoples' computers), I have to assume it's a Flash or Youtube problem.

[GomJabbar]

I just tried this on the same T42 with Windows Vista. If I watch the video as it comes up on the You Tube page, there is no problem. If I click on either of the two buttons on the lower right, the sides immediately shink down. I can restore it to normal by reloading the page.

[leoblob]

I have the same reaction from those buttons, too.

Right now, I'm looking at everything the bad files might have in common (source, size, compression method, date compressed, etc.) and there are some definite trends, but nothing that fits 100%.

I'm also going to try re-doing some of the files to see if I can prepare them in a different way that might work.

At this point, I'm less irritated and more curious, since this still seems to be a mystery to people who know a LOT more about this kind of thing than I do (I'm referring to the good people on this board )

[tfflivemb2]

I just tried this on the same T42 with Windows Vista. If I watch the video as it comes up on the You Tube page, there is no problem. If I click on either of the two buttons on the lower right, the sides immediately shink down. I can restore it to normal by reloading the page.

OK, I tested this on my wife's X20 and it exhibited the same response that Gomjabber had, when pressing the 1st of those two buttons. I then went back and tested this on my T61 and found that it does the same. The only way to get the full video back is to reload/refresh the page.

[LondonConsultant]

Yep, it's a resizing bug with the current YouTube player.

One workaround for uploaders is to remove the offending button (ie the button that resizes to the originally-streamed sized), leaving just the full-screen button. For example:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Th4mXXBNV38

[leoblob]

I found another work-around that has significant side benefits. You can force YouTube to play in "high quality" mode if you add

&fmt=18

after the URL of the video. Compare:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8WLGaq9ncJs (potentially squeezed)

with

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8WLGaq9ncJs&fmt=18 (not squeezed).

Also, if you do this with a video that's already pretty good quality, it will play back with even better video and sound. I have one that now plays in stereo using this mode, and others where the video quality is borderline amazing

[vanaya]

That is an AWESOME trick, plugging in the last piece of code!!

JHEM, do a search for "RailRoad Snow Plow" and watch, I think you will enjoy.

edit: I meant JDHurst, I confused my avatars in my head.