Issue with video playback not working immediately

Bugs
1

Recently (as of a few days ago) When I try to do a watch together session with someone some videos just continously load and do not play until the other person loads the video and then it will play. I was wondering if there is something I can do on my end to fix this. I do use an adblocker but this doesn’t affect the playback at all (I have already tried disabling it and it did nothing to fix this. My browser of choice is Firefox, and I’ve never had this issue until a few days ago.

2

Thanks for your feedback! Can you explain this a bit more in detail? A short wait time 1 - 2 seconds is normal because the system makes sure that the video starts for everyone at the same time to play in-sync. Do I understand correctly that you have to wait for longer than that? If yes, what is the other person seeing during that time?

3

My video will not play at all and the other participant can see the video playing normally, while all I see is the loading screen.

4

Thanks for the info. I made some changes yesterday. Could you double check if you see any difference?

5

I am unfortunately still having this issue even now

6

Can you let me know which Firefox version you are using? If unsure, please check on https://www.whatismybrowser.com/ I will then try to reproduce this issue.

7

I am using the latest up to date version of Firefox

8

Could you double check if you are on version 96.0.2. Version 96.0.0 is know for some networking issues which might cause the problem you are experiencing. So far I was not able to reproduce the issue on my side, that’s why I’m asking for more information.

9

I am on version 96.0.2! Sorry for the extremely late response

10

And you still have this issue with every video you are trying to play?

11

Almost every video, Some videos play normally as they should, and some do not play until the other participant clicks the video anywhere between 1-3 times and then it plays.

12

Okay… so this is what happens:

  • Someone selects a video in the room.
  • The video does not load for you, you only see a spinning loading indicator.
  • The video loads and plays fine for everyone else in the room.
  • Someone else has to click on the video to make it play for you as well?

Is this correct?

Florian

13

Yes, that is correct!

14

I’ve also seen this, both on mobile (android 11) and web (chrome). Particularly when first joining a room it will just hang at a black screen. I end up quitting and rejoining several times to avoid ruining it for other viewers.

15

Thanks! Is the video playing at that moment from Youtube?

16

I believe so, although it seems like it’s guaranteed to happen if the video is currently paused.