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Youtube videos stutter for a second every 30 or so seconds?

  • 26 replies
  • 8 have this problem
  • 12 views
  • Last reply by 28dayslate

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I will watch a video on YouTube (any video) and the PICTURE will pause a second while the audio continues uninterrupted (no matter the quality I put it on). It happens every 20-50 seconds (even while not in full screen). I have adobe flash player installed.

I will watch a video on YouTube (any video) and the PICTURE will pause a second while the audio continues uninterrupted (no matter the quality I put it on). It happens every 20-50 seconds (even while not in full screen). I have adobe flash player installed.

Modified by 28dayslate

All Replies (20)

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HI 28dayslate, I understand that when you watch videos on youtube that the picture stutters, but the audio continues. This happens in the flash player only?

Some problems with Flash video playback can be resolved by disabling hardware acceleration in your Flash Player settings. (See this article for more information on using the Flash plugin in Firefox).

To disable hardware acceleration in Flash Player:

  1. Go to this Adobe Flash Player Help page.
  2. Right-click on the Flash Player logo on that page.
  3. Click on Settings in the context menu. The Adobe Flash Player Settings screen will open.
  4. Click on the icon at the bottom-left of the Adobe Flash Player Settings window to open the Display panel.

    The image "fpSettings1.PNG" does not exist.
  5. Remove the check mark from Enable hardware acceleration.
  6. Click Close to close the Adobe Flash Player Settings Window.
  7. Restart Firefox.

This Flash Player Help - Display Settings page has more information on Flash Player hardware acceleration, if you're interested.

If this is also happening in VLC, try to disable or change the plugin to "always ask" to isolate which player that is causing the issue.

Does this solve the problem? Let us know.

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It could also be the speed of your web, or other things like downloads.

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That didn't help me. Also I get 30mbps download. My internet speed is fine. It just stutters and I feel like it's Firefox or it's Adobe.

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Start one of the videos. After a moment, press the Pause button. After 20 seconds, press Play. How is it?

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FredMcD said

Start one of the videos. After a moment, press the Pause button. After 20 seconds, press Play. How is it?

Still does it sadly

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When you pause a clip, the clip stops, but the download keeps going. That is why I asked you to use Pause.

If you have problems with current Shockwave Flash plugin versions then check this:

  • see if there are updates for your graphics drive drivers

https://support.mozilla.org/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration

  • disable protected mode in the Flash plugin (Flash 11.3+ on Windows Vista and later)

https://forums.adobe.com/message/4468493#TemporaryWorkaround

  • disable hardware acceleration in the Flash plugin

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/891337 See also:

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FredMcD said

When you pause a clip, the clip stops, but the download keeps going. That is why I asked you to use Pause. If you have problems with current Shockwave Flash plugin versions then check this:
  • see if there are updates for your graphics drive drivers
https://support.mozilla.org/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration
  • disable protected mode in the Flash plugin (Flash 11.3+ on Windows Vista and later)
https://forums.adobe.com/message/4468493#TemporaryWorkaround
  • disable hardware acceleration in the Flash plugin
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/891337 See also:

Modified by 28dayslate

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FredMcD said

When you pause a clip, the clip stops, but the download keeps going. That is why I asked you to use Pause. If you have problems with current Shockwave Flash plugin versions then check this:
  • see if there are updates for your graphics drive drivers
https://support.mozilla.org/kb/upgrade-graphics-drivers-use-hardware-acceleration
  • disable protected mode in the Flash plugin (Flash 11.3+ on Windows Vista and later)
https://forums.adobe.com/message/4468493#TemporaryWorkaround
  • disable hardware acceleration in the Flash plugin
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/891337 See also:

I did all above and the video still freezes for a split second. The audio continues as normal.

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You can disable Flash Protected Mode by setting the dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode preference to true in about:config and restarting Firefox It doesn't work yet on Windows 8

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FredMcD said

You can disable Flash Protected Mode by setting the dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode preference to true in about:config and restarting Firefox It doesn't work yet on Windows 8

I have Windows 8.1 and using Flash version 16,0,0,305. I went into the notepad of the cfg file and made it ProtectedMode=0. So that doesn't help me?

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I've called the big guys to help you. Good luck.

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I searched everywhere for people who have the same problem but mine is just too unique I guess

Modified by 28dayslate

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The split second, do you have an ad blocker?

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guigs2 said

The split second, do you have an ad blocker?

I do have ad blocker. I disabled it but I still get the pause

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Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.

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cor-el said

Boot the computer in Windows Safe mode with network support (press F8 on the boot screen) as a test to see if that helps.

nope. This doesn't help. I restarted into safemode with networking and this time the Youtube video doesn't play at all. "Error occurred"

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You can remove all data stored in Firefox from a specific domain via "Forget About This Site" in the right-click context menu of an history entry ("History > Show All History" or "View > Sidebar > History") or via the about:permissions page.

Using "Forget About This Site" will remove all data stored in Firefox from that domain like bookmarks, cookies, passwords, cache, history, and exceptions, so be cautious and if you have a password or other data from that domain that you do not want to lose then make sure to backup this data or make a note.

You can't recover from this 'forget' unless you have a backup of the involved files.

It doesn't have any lasting effect, so if you revisit such a 'forgotten' website then data from that website will be saved once again.


Do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer. Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.

Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

See also:

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Is there seriously no answer to this? I have my computer up to date. Every software is up to date and every add on. I don't understand. I EVEN REFRESHED AND RESTORED my laptop and it still has the problem. What's the deal?

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Hi 28dayslate, So far we have tried the html5 player, disabling hardware acceleration in Firefox and Flash, disabled protected mode, scanned for viruses, removed history and cookies and all associated content in the cache for this website. And we found that there was an error wit starting in Safe mode.

Have you updated your video and graphics card drivers? Upgrade your graphics drivers to use hardware acceleration and WebGL

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