NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Workaround for new YouTube "black window - no video" problem
Greetings. I've been getting reports of a recent problem affecting increasing numbers of systems when attempting to play YouTube videos *on the main YouTube pages for those videos*. The symptom is that audio plays, but the image area remains black. Research indicates that this issue began a few days ago and appears suddenly on affected systems. Most reports of this that I've seen suggest that this is a Flash-related problem possibly limited to Windows systems with particular display drivers. I have one report of a similar problem on a Google TV (Logitech Revue) system -- I have *not* been able to confirm this on my own LR unit so far. However, I do have one Win 7 system here myself that now has succumbed to the problem. Earlier in the day it was playing YT videos just fine, later they were all black on YouTube main video pages. I emphasize "main video pages" since embedded YT videos on other Web pages do not seem to be affected by this problem, again suggesting that the issue relates to the various YT players themselves. There *is* a workaround to restore main YT video pages functionality until Google fixes this (and they *are* actively working on it). The trick is to turn off the Flash hardware acceleration. Normally you would do this (on Windows) by right-clicking on the YT video display surface, choosing "Settings" (not "Global Settings") and then unchecking the "hardware acceleration" option. Unfortunately, when this (black video) problem is present, the "Settings" option is grayed out. The solution is to manipulate the settings on an embedded video page where the video is still appearing. Any should suffice (e.g.: http://j.mp/h23Tkz - my latest blog entry). Once you've turned off hardware acceleration there, the main YouTube video pages should display proper video again. Obviously, you don't want to leave hardware acceleration disabled indefinitely, so I recommend turning it back on at intervals so you'll know when this problem has been retired to the bug graveyard. I'd be interested in any reports that provide additional information about this situation. Thanks. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz Quora: http://www.quora.com/Lauren-Weinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com