[Bug]: Buffering is slower in Freetube than on youtube.com, mostly on new videos

[AnonymousHex]

Guidelines

• I have encountered this bug in the latest release of FreeTube.
• I have searched the issue tracker for a bug report that matches the one I want to file, without success.
• I have searched the documentation for information that matches the description of the bug I want to file, without success.

Describe the bug

1. Open any video, newer the better (under 1 day old).
2. Within the first 5-10 seconds, the video will run out of buffer, and will require some amount of paused time to buffer enough.
3. After allowing time to buffer more of the video, no more buffering is neeed for the rest of the video.
4. Watching the same video on youtube.com will play without interruption and buffer more data initially.

Older videos seem to buffer more quickly than new videos, however new videos buffer much quicker on youtube.com.

Expected Behavior

Identical buffering behavior to that of youtube.com without the need for any pausing or waiting. Freetube should buffer more aggressively at the beginning.

Issue Labels

content not loading, inconsistent behavior

FreeTube Version

v0.17.0-nightly-1727 Beta

Operating System Version

Windows 7 64bit Pro

Installation Method

.zip

Primary API used

Local API

Last Known Working FreeTube Version (If Any)

N/A

Additional Information

The behavior when running out of buffer is identical to that described here.

Not every video does this, but it happens with a large enough percentage to be noticeable. Internet download speed is not an issue. Videos that have this problem will buffer fine on youtube.com.

Nightly Build

• I have encountered this bug in the latest nightly build.

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

This is a known issue see #1835 (comment)

We have to wait for an upstream patch

[RootBeerFan]

This is a known issue see #1835 (comment)

We have to wait for an upstream patch

Do you know when this will be actively worked on? I'm on 0.17 and the issue still persists.

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

This is a known issue see #1835 (comment)

We have to wait for an upstream patch

Do you know when this will be actively worked on? I'm on 0.17 and the issue still persists.

This isnt up to us to fix. I needs to be fixed upstream.

[RootBeerFan]

This is a known issue see #1835 (comment)
We have to wait for an upstream patch

Do you know when this will be actively worked on? I'm on 0.17 and the issue still persists.

This isnt up to us to fix. I needs to be fixed upstream.

Upstream in this case refers to Electron?
Already thanks for your reply!

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

This is a known issue see #1835 (comment)
We have to wait for an upstream patch

Do you know when this will be actively worked on? I'm on 0.17 and the issue still persists.

This isnt up to us to fix. I needs to be fixed upstream.

Upstream in this case refers to Electron?
Already thanks for your reply!

IIRC its node-ytdl-core that needs to patch this

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

Is this still an issue for u on new videos with v0.17.1?

[RootBeerFan]

Is this still an issue for u on new videos with v0.17.1?

I'm not the original author but I can say that it still happens in the first 1-5seconds but after that the buffering is just fine.
I compared the same source video between my Ubuntu Mint laptop with FT 0.17.1 and my Windows 10 PC with FT 0.17.0.
The Windows 10 PC had 3 major stutters within the first 25 seconds compared to just 1 minor stutter on FT 0.17.1.

Edit: I also tested with my second Ubuntu Mint laptop which is a bit more powerful regarding I/O to be sure. It showed the same stutter but around 5 seconds after the start of the video. It's also version 0.17.1 and all three FT installations have yewtube as invidious backend set up.

Hope this helps

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically closed because there has been no response to our request for more information from the original author. With only the information that is currently in the issue, we don't have enough information to take action. Please reach out if you have or find the answers we need so that we can investigate further.

[cohesive-flight]

I'm also experiencing this same issue on v0.17.1 Beta and v0.17.1-nightly-2104 Beta.

[RootBeerFan]

@efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc because this seems to be an active issue I would appreciate it if you'd reopen this case. I added my experience as well, its quite unfortunate that this has been closed just because the OP hasn't replied yet.

Also, I switched to fiber based internet recently and comparison to almost all other traffic relatet apps on ether my Linux or Windows machines, only the Freetube client doesn't show any improvement at all. If I open ether Youtube directly, or any Invidious instance all streams get buffered very quickly. Only the Freetube client still is hassling a lot to buffer at all. For me that seems like a fixed buffer size or inbound stream value is set because all other reasons don't make any sense to me. I can download with more than 500mbit/s but Freetube downloads like I am still using a 6mbit/s connection on a netbook with 2gb ram.

If I can help with collecting more information about the issue, please feel free to reach out to me, I'd be glad to help.

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

Oh sorry about that, somehow missed your comment otherwise it wouldnt let it autoclose

[zh54tg234f]

this issue exist since ages , its really annoying when you use a slow vpn / have an unstable connection. a buffer ahead as much as possible would be nice as optional feature (opt in - since people might use cell services and dont have this issue)

regarding the video type buffering speed - i noticed that age restricted videos / unpleasant videos (age / ad restricted) have this issue extremely but this also happens on invidious. so nothing related to freetube, but the default way of buffering is flawed.

[jnihil]

I am running the AppImage v0.18.0 Beta version of Freetube on Debian 11 and have the very slow buffering issues on videos which have a smaller view count. Popular videos don't seem to have this issue. I workaround the buffering by pressing the Back button on the top of the Freetube screen when the slow buffering starts, and then hitting the Forward button successfully buffers the stream.

[Konglomneshued]

Yeah, I'm having extremely slow buffering. I can't watch any videos, every two seconds or so it buffers again.

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open 28 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment or this will be closed in 7 days.

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

Hi all we have migrated away from the dependency that presumably caused this issue. Could u test out the latest nightly build to confirm this issue is resolved?

[jnihil]

I'm testing the v0.18.0-nightly-2635 Beta build Appimage for Linux/amd64.
The buffering seems significantly better as a whole, but for many older videos Freetube still experiences the same buffering problem:

• Long wait for the video to start due to buffering
• Plays for a few seconds, runs out of buffered video and pauses while waiting for buffer to fill
• Plays for a few more seconds but repeats the pause/buffer cycle over and over

Reloading the page fixes this, and the entire video will playback without any pauses. The same page plays back without such issues in Firefox and Chrome.

This is an example of such a page with buffering issue: https://youtu.be/qG-vNzcn96k

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

I'm testing the v0.18.0-nightly-2635 Beta build Appimage for Linux/amd64. The buffering seems significantly better as a whole, but for many older videos Freetube still experiences the same buffering problem:

* Long wait for the video to start due to buffering

* Plays for a few seconds, runs out of buffered video and pauses while waiting for buffer to fill

* Plays for a few more seconds but repeats the pause/buffer cycle over and over

Reloading the page fixes this, and the entire video will playback without any pauses. The same page plays back without such issues in Firefox and Chrome.

This is an example of such a page with buffering issue: https://youtu.be/qG-vNzcn96k

Tested the video u provided but im unfortunately unable to reproduce this

[efb4f5ff-1298-471a-8973-3d47447115dc]

@jnihil In the General Settings of FT what is your preferred API backend set to? Also is the Proxy Videos Through Invidious setting enabled under the Player Settings?

[jnihil]

Preferred local backend is Local API, and Proxy Videos Through Invidious was disabled. I just enabled the Proxy Videos Through Invidious setting which seems to have stopped the buffering issue for older/less-popular videos. I'll do more testing this evening with this setting and report back.

[jnihil]

I tested quite a large selection of videos and the playback on v0.18.0-nightly-2635 Beta build has been flawless with no more buffering issues. Many thanks for the efforts!!

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically closed because there has been no response to our request for more information from the original author. With only the information that is currently in the issue, we don't have enough information to take action. Please reach out if you have or find the answers we need so that we can investigate further.