Why do some YouTube videos stop playing after a short time?

Question

Since sometime in October, 2013, I have noticed that more and more YouTube videos stop playing within a minute of starting. Most that stop do so in 15 or 16 seconds. The playing stops because the download stops. I watch this on a network activity monitor I always have running. Not all videos do this, but the problem is becoming more and more frequent. Some videos which played correctly for me in the recent past are now exhibiting this problem.
Other than installing the latest Firefox updates I have NOT changed the software on my machine. I run Linux by the way. I do not think this is a Linux problem because (1) it was all working before and (2) my son who runs both Mac OS X *and* Windows is also seeing the same problem. We both use Firefox as our browser on all our platforms.
I should also note that I am NOT seeing this problem with any of the other video websites I use, only when I go to YouTube. That leads me to believe that the problem is not in Firefox; if it were it should affect videos from all websites.
Additionally the problem occurs whether or not I log into YouTube.
I have not run Firefox in safe mode because all the extensions I use did not affect the download of Videos before, so I don't expect unchanged extensions to suddenly start causing problems.
So, anyone else see this problem? (There was another note which talked about the same problem but it was disabled.)
Also -- pardon my paranoia, but -- I need to ask: Since YouTube is owned by Google and Google has its own browser it wants you to use, Chrome, is it possible that Google is intentionally causing some YouTube videos to fail if it sees that they are being sent to Firefox?
(That is not so outlandish I think. Microsoft WAS at one point caught mangling web pages going to certain web browsers other than IE. And these days Google wants to dominate the Internet just as badly as Microsoft does, so why not pull dirty tricks too?)
If this keeps happening I am going to have to try Google's Chrome to see if it somehow manages to play YouTube videos correctly while Firefox does not. But I really do NOT want to install Chrome because I trust Google about as much as I trust Microsoft, which is to say Not At All.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hello,
There have been some issues with Flash 11 in the recent past. This could be a manifestation of that issue. Kindly check this response below to see if this helps you in viewing Flash videos.
Also, if you want to check if this is a flash problem and specifically on youtube, you can try the HTML5 version of Youtube. In this, there are no plugins involved, and the browser natively renders the videos. You can signup for the HTML5 trial by visiting http://youtube.com/html5. Please try that and check if the issue goes away.
Also, in this case, Google might not be doing anything sinister - they generally try to be standards compliant too. You can definitely try installing Google Chrome and test this issue, but we definitely would want you to continue to be a Firefox user :)
<hr>
Some problems with Flash video playback can be resolved by disabling hardware acceleration in your Flash Player settings. (See [[Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems|this article]] for more information on using the Flash plugin in Firefox).
To disable hardware acceleration in Flash Player:
#Go to this [http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/video-playback-issues.html#main_Solve_video_playback_issues Adobe Flash Player Help page].
#Right-click on the Flash Player logo on that page.
#Click on '''Settings''' in the context menu. The Adobe Flash Player Settings screen will open.
# Click on the icon at the bottom-left of the Adobe Flash Player Settings window to open the Display panel. <br/> <br/>[[Image:fpSettings1.PNG]] <br/>
# Remove the check mark from '''Enable hardware acceleration'''.
# Click '''Close''' to close the Adobe Flash Player Settings Window.
# Restart Firefox.
This [http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/help01.html Flash Player Help - Display Settings page] has more information on Flash Player hardware acceleration, if you're interested.
<hr>
Also, try this one too
Recent crashes of certain multimedia contents (this includes Youtube videos, certain flash games and other applications) in conjunction with Firefox are most probably caused by a recent Flash update and/or a malfunctioning browser plugin such as Real Player.
In order to remedy the problem, please perform the steps mentioned in these Knowledge Base articles:
* [[Flash Plugin - Keep it up to date and troubleshoot problems]]
* [[Flash 11.3 crashes]]
* [[Flash 11.3 doesn't load video in Firefox]]
Other, more technical information about these issues can be found under these Links:
* http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1018071?tstart=0
* http://blogs.adobe.com/asset/2012/06/inside-flash-player-protected-mode-for-firefox.html
Please tell us if this helped!