As mentioned several times, in Italy internet connections are not at all fast and many, at home, suffer from this slowness especially when they have to watch streaming videos. I understand that with my slow low-cost connection I cannot ask to see a film streamed immediately and, in case I have to wait for at least a third to be loaded and then I can see it all without interruptions but at least the short YouTube videos would like to see them quickly.
The most hateful thing that happens when you browse YouTube and search for videos or if you want to listen to music, is that viewing and listening is interrupted numerous times and you can see why the playback goes faster than the upload.
We must then wait for the video, the red bar in the background indicating buffering, to be long enough so that we can then watch the YouTube streaming all together, without interruption .
Since my poor internet provider does not help me, I found a solution that guarantees me a higher quality, speeding up the loading or buffering (see here how to calculate the buffering speed with Youtube video test)
READ ALSO: Increase video streaming speed to the maximum
Using Firefox or Chrome as a browser you can get more control of the video thanks to an extension that instead I recommend everyone to use, whether the connection is slow, or if you have Fastweb or similar: SmartVideo for Youtube .
- SmartVideo MyTube extension for Chrome
- Install SmartVideo MyTube for Firefox (no longer exists)
Smartvideo provides an easy way to get better control of loading a YouTube video because it provides options for intelligent buffer, looping (repeating videos), and that also works for all YouTube videos embedded in other websites.
Practically, after installing this extension on Firefox or Chrome, placing the mouse near the Play button of a video, new options appear on the page.
These allow you to decide whether to activate the automatic Smart Buffering function or to decide within when to start playing the video, based on how much percentage of the video has been loaded.
Smartvideo is useful for everyone, even for those who upload videos quickly, so as to view them, even in high HD quality, without ever interrupting.
Going to the options of the Chrome extension or the Firefox add-one, I recommend activating the " start buffering as soon as page loads " so the video begins to load immediately, as you open the page, even if you do not press the Play button.
I also recommend activating the " Start Playing When Buffered " option if you see videos with frequent interruptions and put between 20% and 30% as a percentage.
It means that the video will start automatically after a sufficient percentage has been uploaded to then be able to view it all consecutively.
Those with fast internet connection, on the other hand, can activate the automatic Smart Buffer.
If you modify the global settings of Smartvideo, the options chosen apply to all Youtube videos while if you modify the same from the menu that appears below near the play, (which you can also disable) then they apply only to that single video.
The same goes for the loop option that enables automatic video repetition.
Another extension to use to optimize Youtube HD videos and slow upload videos is H264fy, which makes Youtube lighter.
For those who use Windows, with any browser, there is a trick to open a Youtube video very quickly even in high quality, without buffering waits, which works amazingly and which I really recommend trying.
