I just placed a call to Sprint tech support concerning this very issue to see if they were working on the issue. NO! They are not working on the issue. The rep said that that it is a third party app and is not currently being fixed for the HTC Hero for Sprint @ this time. She advised me that videos can still be accessed thru the browser. I personally think that it's a bit careless to include an app that is not compatible with the phone, with the phone and I let her know this. She understood, but again, for all of us Hero owners, we do not have a YouTube app, just a fancy shell.
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stinky
Android Enthusiast
I have been testing my theory out the past few weeks. I was seeking to find out if signal had much to do with Youtube App working, or in our case, not working. I also think it might have to do with signal strength vs buffering time and/or memory.
I have tested thoroughly using WIFI vs 3G.
I selected a short list of videos that I watch. Mostly Monster Jam Clips, and compilations of monster truck related crashes and races, etc. My 2 year old loves these things, so we end up watching them quite a bit.
These videos range anywhere from 30 seconds to 6 minutes.
Using WIFI, and a strong signal, watching in High Quality, I found videos working almost all the time. I would say a good 90% of the movies work the first try. If I try to watch a "related video" after the movie ends, it drops down to about 50% chance of it working at that point. Upon re searching for a new movie, the percentage goes back up to 90%.
Using WIFI, weak signal. and HQ, results went down to about 50%. However, switching to low quality brought it up a bit, but not much. Probably 60% or so.
Using 3G only, High or low quality, the results are basically 0-25%. I notice that when I have stronger signal strength, the videos will play more often. But it is still very low success rate compared to having WIFI enabled.
I would suggest that everyone try to use WIFI as much as possible. Please try and test out these scenarios for yourselves and report if you find similar results. Not a perfect solution by any means, but a good work around until we can do better, or an update can fix it.
I have tested thoroughly using WIFI vs 3G.
I selected a short list of videos that I watch. Mostly Monster Jam Clips, and compilations of monster truck related crashes and races, etc. My 2 year old loves these things, so we end up watching them quite a bit.
These videos range anywhere from 30 seconds to 6 minutes.
Using WIFI, and a strong signal, watching in High Quality, I found videos working almost all the time. I would say a good 90% of the movies work the first try. If I try to watch a "related video" after the movie ends, it drops down to about 50% chance of it working at that point. Upon re searching for a new movie, the percentage goes back up to 90%.
Using WIFI, weak signal. and HQ, results went down to about 50%. However, switching to low quality brought it up a bit, but not much. Probably 60% or so.
Using 3G only, High or low quality, the results are basically 0-25%. I notice that when I have stronger signal strength, the videos will play more often. But it is still very low success rate compared to having WIFI enabled.
I would suggest that everyone try to use WIFI as much as possible. Please try and test out these scenarios for yourselves and report if you find similar results. Not a perfect solution by any means, but a good work around until we can do better, or an update can fix it.
poor_red_neck
Newbie
From what I've read on XDA developers its a bug in the actual youtube app that are in HTC 1.5 devices (Eris and Hero)
It is a problem with the buffer time out.
The reason it works over wifi is most landline broadband connections have a ping/latency of >100ms. Mine personally hovers at about 50ms.
3G on the other hand can be anywhere from 100 -> 300+ms!
This causes the video to fail.
So with wifi it's not timing out as often if you have fast broadband, and if you got the video to load via 3G its in the phone's cache so it will play again and again.
This seems like such a SIMPLE fix... I'd imagine the problem is that google won't release the youtube source code, and nobody wants or can de-compile it to change the timeout time.
It is a problem with the buffer time out.
The reason it works over wifi is most landline broadband connections have a ping/latency of >100ms. Mine personally hovers at about 50ms.
3G on the other hand can be anywhere from 100 -> 300+ms!
This causes the video to fail.
So with wifi it's not timing out as often if you have fast broadband, and if you got the video to load via 3G its in the phone's cache so it will play again and again.
This seems like such a SIMPLE fix... I'd imagine the problem is that google won't release the youtube source code, and nobody wants or can de-compile it to change the timeout time.
Lozer_Kid
Android Enthusiast
Well, I don't know about that... but on my Hero, YouTube doesn't work at all weather I turn on the 3G or WI-FI network on. I tried YouTube on the browser and every time I click on a video I get a message saying that it wasn't able to reach the server because it doesn't exist and I need to check I typed the right address... that happens on both the original browser and opera mini on my Hero. However, on the Dolphin browser, when I click on the video, it does open the link, but wont play the videos neither using the HTC Flash player or the YouTube App. I downloaded this app called Tube Downloader and when I try to preview (play) the videos, it just doesn't. It pisses me off... Ugghh... I really hope this gets fixed when 2.1 comes out!!!
NYCHitman1
Gun for Hire
Mine works occasionally but it doesn't matter to me since I don't use the app often anyways.
blampars
Well-Known Member
it happens to both rooted and non-rooted phones IF you're on the stock 1.5 or a rooted 1.5 ROM.
this problem has been fixed in any 2.1 rom i've been running.
Rwilliams0190
Lurker
I see that there hasnt been any activity on this thread lately. My Sprint Hero rarely plays YouTube videos using the YouTube app. When I go through YouTube.com using the web browser, videos play almost 100% of the time..just bookmark and there ya go. Fixed..kinda lol. Would be nice though if the app just worked how its supposed to
beardmore.k
Lurker
Ok listen up, this is the only solution I have found that works l. Instead of using the YouTube application go to YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.. YouTube works fine from this sight.
beardmore.k
Lurker
M.YouTube