Video on YouTube loads on wifi, but almost never loads on 3G

[FrothFrenzy]

Hi,

Ever since I've bought my Xperia X8 about a year ago, I've been having trouble loading Youtube videos (or any other videos for that matter), while connected to a 3G network. However, the videos work flawlessly when run via wireless networks.

It's as if there is a certain chance that a video loading over 3G would run. At times it loads smoothly, and at some other times it doesn't run at all - it just gets stuck at the loading screen. It doesn't seem to matter if the video is short or long, low or HQ quality, popular or unknown. For example, yesterday I successfully opened a 30-minute video, while today it failed to open a 10-second video. Really, it's like the phone has a mind of its own

Naturally, this is not some kind of a terminal problem. I can handle running videos over wifi only, but that option is not always available and that can be an annoyance.

I was wondering if anyone else had any experience with this and what the fix could be. Is it the download speed issue, or perhaps something else? The ROM is stock (2.1.), just as is everything else in the phone.

Thank you for your time.

 

[gibbs1984]

Could be the speed of your data connection, download the Speedtest app and test what speeds you get.

 

[nickdalzell]

with my 3G it takes almost forever to START, but once it does it plays through without buffering.

 

[FrothFrenzy]

Could be the speed of your data connection, download the Speedtest app and test what speeds you get.

Here we go...

Ping: Averaged at around 75ms.
Download speed: Averaged at around 750kbps.
Upload speed: Averaged at around 700kbps.

I ran three tests in total, and at times there were huge oscilations, especially at the upload speed.

Can you make something out of this? To me it seems that it is a good enough speed to run videos off YouTube, but I could be wrong.

 

[FrothFrenzy]

with my 3G it takes almost forever to START, but once it does it plays through without buffering.

Yes, at times that happens as well. Forever to start, but once it does it loads the rest of the video without problems, sometimes even in HQ.

 

[ExtremeNerd]

Here we go...

Ping: Averaged at around 75ms.
Download speed: Averaged at around 750kbps.
Upload speed: Averaged at around 700kbps.

I ran three tests in total, and at times there were huge oscilations, especially at the upload speed.

Can you make something out of this? To me it seems that it is a good enough speed to run videos off YouTube, but I could be wrong.

You just have a slow connection. HD videos are HUGE and take a ton of data to load properly. This is a carrier problem, not a phone problem. Sorry

 

[mikedt]

You just have a slow connection. HD videos are HUGE and take a ton of data to load properly. This is a carrier problem, not a phone problem. Sorry

Yeh I think that's what it is as well. I'm sure Youtube requires a minimum of 1 meg to work properly.

How much bandwidth does a youtube video take up? - Yahoo! Answers
How much bandwidth does a youtube video take up?
I have a 1.5MB T1 connection at work. When I watch a youtube video it maxes out our bandwidth at 1.5MB per second,

Probably only things the OP can do is contact their carrier about it, or change carrier.

 

[nickdalzell]

Try loading YouTube in the web browser at m.youtube.com, and lose the app--the app sucks

 

[FrothFrenzy]

You just have a slow connection. HD videos are HUGE and take a ton of data to load properly. This is a carrier problem, not a phone problem. Sorry

Yeh I think that's what it is as well. I'm sure Youtube requires a minimum of 1 meg to work properly.

Probably only things the OP can do is contact their carrier about it, or change carrier.

Seems you two were right. Today I've tested the bandwith on ten different locations, and each time the download speed averaged at about 3500kbps or more, Youtube videos actually loaded normally, and almost instantly. On the other hand, every time the bandwith was lower, virtually all videos failed to open.

So, it's a connection thing. You have no idea how many times I pondered on this Thanks for the heads-up. Problem solved.

Try loading YouTube in the web browser at m.youtube.com, and lose the app--the app sucks

I did try that, and the problem persisted. Same thing happens. But you are right - the app does suck