Last updated on January 23rd, 2024 at 02:31 am
Why does Buffering Occur?
Buffering occurs because your video player can’t download the video stream ahead of what you’ve watched.
If you’ve finished watching the first minute of a streaming video, at least a good portion of it ahead must have been downloaded for the video to play continously and smoothly.
If this doesn’t happen, then the video you’re watching will start buffering.
The buffering may take a few seconds or could go on for minutes, making it an irritating affair. especially if you want to watch something important, like a live show.
Here are ways you can stop buffering when streaming Internet video or at least minimize it.
Internet Connection
Usually, buffering when streaming occurs because the Internet connection is not fast enough to accept the incoming video stream.
If you’re on a fast Internet connection and yet the problem occurs, here are some quick fixes that might work.
Check Your Internet Speed
Do a speedtest and determine your Internet speed. If you’re on a fast Internet connection and the test shows a signioficantly lower speed, here’s what you can do.
Reset your modem and router. Then check your speed. If your speed doesn’t improve, then you would have contact your internet service provider and make a complaint. They might do a port reset to resolve the problem.
Use Lower Streaming Quality
Assuming your Internet speed is alright, you may want to lower streaming quality.
Video streaming services offer a host of video quality options. YouTube for instance offers video playback quality as low as 144p right up to 1080p .
If the video streaming service offers options then choose a lower video quality to see if it solves the buffering problem.
Internet Browser and Downloads
Is your Internet browser working on overdrive? Do you have multiple tabs open while trrying to stream video.
Close the tabs and relaunch your browser to see if it fixes the problem.Do you have a file download in progress?
If so, pause the download and try streaming the video.
Are others using the same Internet connection? What are they using it for? Just to browse the Internet or to watch streaming videos?
If it’s the latter, then it’s understandable that there would be buffering when streaming Internet video.
Also, if you’ve in a neighbourhood with high Internet usage during certain hours, you may want to avoid watching streaming videos during ‘peak’hours and wait for a suitable time.
Pause the Streaming Video
All of us like to watch videos uninterrupted without pauses. Sometimes when we’re facing buffering problems, we need to pause the video and wait.
Most of the time, this would solve the problem. You wait for the video player to catch up with the stream that’s being downloaded.
