Hello everybody!
Today I will tell you why videos start lagging on a computer and how to fix this problem.
We will discuss both watching videos from the hard disk and watching them online in
your browser.
By
the word lagging I mean delays, freezes and jerks when playing videos, various artifacts
on the screen, sound stuttering and delays.
It can happen because of the computer’s weak hardware or because of its general performance.
First of all, computer performance is influenced by the condition and performance of its hardware
elements.
If you have an old and weak computer with an integrated graphics, weak processor and
1 Gb of system memory, it is no use trying to play 4K or 8K videos - it will not work.
Such computer needs an upgrade.
If you are sure that your computer performs well enough to play videos in good quality,
and there were no lags before, the first thing you should do is to check the temperature
of its graphics card and processor.
Their overheating reduces computer performance greatly.
I have already made a video about checking and reducing the temperature of a graphics
card, processor or hard disk.
I will give the link in the description:
After that, have a look at overall system performance.
If Windows is set up incorrectly, performance will get worse.
In a previous video, I’ve already spoken about some basic things to help you speed
up your computer, and how to set up your Windows for maximal performance.
You will find the link in the description:
Having checked the previous things, let’s go on to possible software problems that influence
video playback.
There are so many of them, but we will focus on the most widespread aspects.
1.
Video codecs absent or obsolete.
If the computer is missing the video codec used for compressing the video, or the codec
is out of date, videos can become lagging.
There are codec packages containing free codecs and utilities.
Among others, K-Lite Codec Pack Mega is certainly worth your attention.
You will find the link to the official website in the description:
Just download and install it.
1.
Graphics card drivers missing or obsolete.
Drivers can cause a graphics card to work incorrectly.
I mean when drivers are missing, or when they don’t match a particular device.
It can happen after replacing a graphics card or reinstalling Windows.
To update graphics cards drivers: • Go to Device Manager / Display adapters.
• Right-click on your graphics card and select Update Driver Software.
• Sometimes Windows cannot find and install the proper driver and insists on choosing
drivers for a standard VGA adapter.
• In this case, go to your graphics card manufacturer’s website to download and install
the latest drivers.
• To learn the model of your graphics card you should start a hardware-checking utility,
such as Aida.
It will give you all the information about your computer’s hardware.
3.
Videos may be lagging because there are too many processes running in the background mode
which generate 100% processor usage.
It happens when users install several antiviruses, dozens of unnecessary programs which only
waste the system memory, a lot of games that download stuff from the Internet and so on.
In this case, clean the computer from unnecessary software by deleting it.
Cleaning the registry and startup is also a good idea.
You will learn more in another video.
You will find the link in the description:
4.
Viruses.
Unfortunately, some users don’t monitor their computer security.
As a result, their operating system can be infected by viruses.
Sometimes, videos start lagging because the entire computer starts freezing seriously.
In this case, you should use some antivirus software.
In our channel, you can find a whole series of videos about cleaning the computer from
viruses.
You can watch them by following the link in the description:
I’d like to tell you more about the problems with watching online videos in your browser.
For example, on YouTube.
1.
Online videos will lag if you have a slow Internet connection.
You can check the speed of your connection at SpeedTest.net
If the speed test shows your connection is slower than the Internet provider promised,
and the provider proves there is no problem with access to the Internet,
watch our video about testing and boosting your Internet connection speed.
You will find the link in the description:
2.
If your connection speed is all right, but videos in your browser are lagging, or you
can’t play them at all, the problem can be in missing or obsolete version of the Flash
player.
To update it, install the latest version of Adobe Flash Player.
It is free.
You will find the link to the official website in the description:
3.
I’d like to say a couple of words about possible video lags in Chrome and other browsers
based on Chromium.
It happens because of a conflict between plugins that play Flash content.
The matter is that Chrome has got a built-in Flash player.
Later, it may start conflicting with a standalone player, and you can face playback problems.
To fix them: • Make sure you have the latest version
of your browser, as the Flash player is updated when Chrome is updated.
• Install the latest version if necessary.
After that: • Go to Chrome settings / Advanced / Systems
• and disable “Use hardware acceleration when available”
• Then close and restart the browser, and try playing video again.
If it doesn’t work: • Open this link in your browser:
chrome://flags
chrome://flags/#ignore-gpu-blacklist chrome://flags/#disable-accelerated-video-decode
• And enable experimental functions - “Override software rendering list”
“Hardware-accelerated video decode”
• Then restart the browser.
If it doesn’t help, try cleaning the browser cache and deleting cookies, watching videos
in another browser or in incognito mode.
I think you know how to do it.
However, I’ll show you how to clean the browser cache and delete cookies in one of
my next videos
The problems I have told you about are the most widespread.
But there can be a number of others.
Anyway, now you know about those that happen most of the time.
That is all for now.
If you found this video useful, click the Like button below and subscribe to our channel
to see more.
Thank you for watching.
Good luck.