What is the fastest browser for watching HD youtube?

[pcgamer]

I am using IE8 at the moment for watching youtube vids which is fine but when i try to watch them in HD it take a long time to load even though my connection speed is good so i wanted to know what is the fastest browser for watching HD youtube videos?

 

[richc46]

It would be, in my opinion, Chrome.

http://www.google.com/chrome

 

[yowanvista]

Firefox would be a good choice

 

[manhunter2826]

Not sure if HTML5 makes a difference when it comes to speed but...
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.


...But I use FF still.

 

[tux]

Watching HD videos, the main bottleneck is your video plug-in, not your browser.

 

[not so gray matter]

Tux is right, you're going to have more problems with the video plug-in then the browser itself.

I typically download HD videos before I watch them, streaming them can get too unreliable. I'd research alternative video plug-ins than the norm. If you can't find any, switching between browsers may be your only option if they all don't use the same one.

 

[stevepoolstock]

Well keeping in mind that Google bought Youtube and therefore owns it, I'd say Chrome is the best choice.

I personally don't like Chrome that much. Other browsers should work well enough too.

 

[tux]

I can't see any relation here, RobinSchouten...?

 

[Snowdog]

This is pretty much all down to the Flash plugin, which will be the same in each browser.

Make sure your flash is fully up to date.

Things should get better later this year. Flash 10.1 is supposed to be a big improvement.

You could track down a flash 10.1 beta and you may see performance improvements.

Do note that some youtube video seem to be on slower servers.

FWIW, I just verified identical performance between Firefox/Chrome on Alice HD movie trailer.

Both loaded at max bandwidth, and both played smooth as silk using about 16% CPU.

 

[stevepoolstock]

I can't see any relation here, RobinSchouten...?

What I meant was that Google has done everything to make YouTube the most compatible with Chrome since both YouTube and Chrome are their products.

They obviously would try to give Chrome users the best experience with YouTube possible.

 

[Firestrider]

If you are using the HTML5 youtube player: YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. then Chrome is probably your best bet. Otherwise your experience will depend on the version of your Flash plugin and not your browser, however, I believe the ActiveX Flash plugin is more "optimized" than NPAPI Flash plugin.

 

[helmutcheese]

I am using IE8 at the moment for watching youtube vids which is fine but when i try to watch them in HD it take a long time to load even though my connection speed is good so i wanted to know what is the fastest browser for watching HD youtube videos?

The issue is at their end.

It does not affect all Videos only some and even non HQ/HD.

You can Google it and see the past month or so its gotten really bad.

I cannot load some of the non HQ ones at random times but load a 1080p one fine.

Ther is an App I see last week somewhere, it claims to sort this out and its free.