WHY CAN'T I WATCH VIDEO CLIPS?????? hellllp........

[shoveltrash]

i know i've posted about this before, but it's rapidly becoming a source of SERIOUS aggravation .  i can upload videos, but i cannot WATCH them  .  NONE.  every clip just goes in fits & stops & starts - giving me a staccato series of still photos instead of streaming video.   audio works just fine (issywizz's Erik Herbermann clips worked well  as a result).  not the vid!

i really want to SEE!!!!
this was made especially poignant when i saw that Vicky/Epona had posted new video clips of Antsje.......and i can't see them .

i don't think it's my connection, altho i can't be sure.  i was able to upload my own short video clips to youtube (see my "extreme cowboy racing" thread), without problems.


*WAILS*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Andy]

Are you trying to watch them embedded? If so have you tried double clicking to watch direct on youtube to see if it helps?

[shoveltrash]

i've tried that, it does do marginally better, depending on the time of day (early early mornings are best).
thanks for answering Andy
i've long suspected that i simply need to upgrade to a newer 'puter

[Claire]

i've long suspected that i simply need to upgrade to a newer 'puter

probably.

what have you got, how old is it, what's it's spec?

[Claire]

thought - can you ask a friend to fetch his/her laptop over and plug it into your broadband and try from there?  that'll give you an indication of whether it's your broadband or your computer ...and then try the opposite exercise, if you're using a laptop, at your friend's house

also, if you're on XP your PC can't be THAT old.

you might just need a bigger hard drive.

[Andy]

As per claire, i'd suspect it might be your broadband/cable rather than the actual computer. Video streaming from YouTube and the like doesn't need much in the way of memory/processor power.. hence why it works so well on the Iphone.. I suspect you might have some issues with your internet connection.. or maybe firewall or something.

Try going to Http://www.speedtest.net and post what numbers you get, as that might give us some better idea what is going on.

[shoveltrash]

ok, per the speed test (VERY COOL! thank you!!!)
download 1.41 Mb/s
upload 0.35 Mb/s
ping 35 ms
(2nd try, 1.73 & 0.26, ping 45)

have NO IDEA what this means, nor the significance!

more info:  download speed
mp3 file (5MB) 29sec
video clip (35MB) 3 min
Movie (800MB) 76 min
the graph bar shows my 'result' as approx as 1/6 the ISP average

upload speed:
email attachment (1MB) 23 sec
photo gallery (8MB) 3min
video clip (35MB) 13min
my result on this is 1/2 the ISP average.

computer info:
2002 Windows XP
Intel Pentium III processor
1.10GHz, 512 MB of RAM

translation for all this??????

(i'm even having a hard time posting on EE now, there is a serious lag time betw what i type and WHEN i type it!)


oh!  just noticed the linking ability
http://www.speedtest.net/rank/1166337202.png
http://www.speedtest.net/rank/1166337202.png
(hope it works!)

should i think about changing servers? 
ACK!

Andy, i will be FOREVER IN YOUR DEBT if you can make sense of this enough to provide guidance

ps - Claire borrowing a computer is an excellent idea!  i just may do that , in the interim.

[Andy]

Well your speed at 1.7mb isn't the fastest in the world, but should be ok for looking at stuff on youtube (my speed at work is about 1.75 too, although at home it's about 19.0).

Out of interest do you know what speed you are supposed to be paying for?

The next thing i'd look out for would be your hard drive light. If this seems to be on constantly when doing stuff that would suggest either you need more memory or something else is wrong (maybe a program running in the background using up resources).

Have you run any spy bot cleaning software? If not download spybot S&D from here

Run this and see what pops up, get it to clean anything it finds.

[Claire]

and you could probably do with more RAM and a bigger hard drive.

my OS is the same as yours.  i'm a shade distant from the centre of life to have hugely impressive broadband speeds (andy's in the centre of newcastle, i'm in the sticks) and whilst vids are a shade slow to load and sometimes sticky, i don't have the problems you do.

upgrading my RAM helped a lot, as I had insufficient for the processes i was running.

if it's a pc you're using, that's not too expensive to sort.  if you're using a laptop, a new one may be the answer.

[shoveltrash]

yes, i think the RAM & hard drive are small (it's an old laptop).
however i do still think there are connection problems with my ISP

Out of interest do you know what speed you are supposed to be paying for?

no idea!  i'm off to my ISP's home page to find out! (www.roadrunner.com)

Have you run any spy bot cleaning software? If not download spybot S&D from here

Run this and see what pops up, get it to clean anything it finds.

there are several programs there, not sure which one?  do they all do the same thing?  i have to get 'permission' for this from my SO.......since it's technically not "MY" computer .

thank you both, so so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Claire]

over here, we can get a free laptop with mobile broadband, the price being the length of the contract for the mobile broadband dongle.  that might be worth investigating, then you've got your own laptop and a clear start with a clean up to date computer...

[shoveltrash]

what a deal!  i haven't heard of anything like that here, but then i have not truly been shopping for a computer.....might be time to start, altho i REALLY wanted a Vogue instead .

i found out that with my current ISP contract, the fastest speed i can get is 7168kbps download and 384kbps upload.  i can upgrade to Up to 10 Mbps download speed and 512 Kbps upload speed for more money, just not sure if i should at this point?   (it is an additional $9.95/month).
advice? 
they instructed me to  delete all cookies and history, which i did, but has made no difference .

btw, what's a "dongle"? (sounds pornographic! )

[Claire]

btw, what's a "dongle"? (sounds pornographic! )

a dongle looks like a usb flash drive, but a bit thicker, and is the thing that you plug into your laptop and get the internet on...

this in america by t-mobile:
http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/Cell-Phone-Detail.aspx?cell-phone=T-Mobile-webConnect-USB-Laptop-Stick

they clearly agree that the american market won't take the name "dongle"

in the UK:

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-broadband/

which is the one i've got (i already had the laptop)

so check whether they cover you and that might be the way forward..

[Andy]

Firstly the link i posted.. all those downloads are mirrors of the same file so just try any of them The program you want is Spybot Search and Destroy, it's the best free spy cleaner around.

Secondly 7168kbps is 7mb, you're currently getting 1.7mb so there seems to be some kind of issue there. The problem is they always quote "upto" X mb so it's their get out of jail card.. I would not pay any more for 10mb, as i doubt it would change your speed much. I would definatly try giving the computer a good clean with spybot first then go from there.

[Andy]

One thing i thought off.. i assume if it's a laptop you have wireless internet? Have you tried connecting the laptop directly to the router/modem box with an ethernet cable and checking the speed again?