dStreaming dEmo

Recently, the amazing @crimsonclad filmed a video in which she conducted an experiment in Buying STEEM with a Netcoins "Virtual ATM." Her video was uploaded to Dtube, as many people seem to be doing nowadays.

When I attempted to watch the video, it was a very good day for streaming from Dtube, as it only took 6 minutes & 19 seconds (6:19) to stream 2:12 worth of video. That may not sound like a good stream, but it is exceptionally fast for Dtube. Another video I attempted to watch recently only streamed a paltry 18 seconds of video after a wait time of 11 minutes, which is about one second of video every 37 seconds. That horrible wait-time is still much faster than Dtube streamed when the service launched, which was about 1 second of video for every 1 minute of wait time, and I am grateful for the recent improvements.

TWO ADDITIONAL FACTS:

• Other online video services such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Vevo all stream seamlessly for me, without much "buffering" or hesitation at all. What are they doing that Dtube isn't doing?
• I have spoken to Steemians from many parts of the world — various parts of Canada, all over the US, Europe, Africa, India, etc. — and all of them have the same problems watching Dtube, even with blazingly-fast, high-speed, broadband Internet connections. The only people who say, "I have no problem watching Dtube" are people who live in Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and other areas of Asia that are near the Pacific Ocean. Why is that the case? Is that where Dtube's servers are located, perhaps?

As proof of the issue, I propped my cellphone in front of my laptop and recorded a Dtube video streaming on my laptop's screen. For the sake of time, I snipped a 3:34 section from the middle of that recording, and have embedded it, below. I ask Dtube aficionados to please carefully watch the whole thing, and see how Dtube pauses, hesitates, freezes, and "buffers" for the majority of Steemians to whom I've spoken:

https://youtu.be/8XM0M9FrrQw
^{_{ABOVE VIDEO RECORDED FROM DTUBE STREAM: A Quick Look at Buying STEEM with a Netcoins "Virtual ATM"}}

Several fanatics of Dtube have offered suggestions, ranging from "Try it with Google's Chrome browser" to "Make sure you don't have many tabs open at one time" to "Reboot your computer before you watch Dtube" — none of which should be necessary. Those aren't requirements for YouTube, Vimeo, or Vevo, so why should they be required for Dtube? None of those suggestions work, anyway.

The only suggestion that seems to work was made by @emjoe who said Dtube streams better with the @partiko Android-app better than with any other method. Thank you for that suggestion, because it does seem to work better! Not perfectly, but better! But, again, we should not be relegated to only one choice if the service is working properly, should we?

Believe me, I want  Dtube to work when we try to watch videos, and I want Dtube to thrive along with all the other awesome apps on the STEEM blockchain!

MY RATIONALE for making this post is twofold:

• To let the developers of @dtube know that many people (not just me) are having problems using the service, and have since the beginning. We also cannot understand what YouTube, Vimeo, Vevo, et al. are doing to make streaming so smooth. Perhaps Dtube lacks the funds which the "big players" have for the hardware & software those other companies use? If so, that is understandable, and might be rectified in time?
• To let Dtube users know why more people aren't watching their videos, upvoting, and commenting on them. If there is some text for me to read in a post, I will read it and comment on it. But, if the Dtube video is the only "meaty" content in a post, I might — out of necessity — skip that post and go read something else. Fortunately, some folks like @xcountytravelers often put several paragraphs of lovely text beneath their Dtube videos, so that gives everyone something to enjoy.

I remain very grateful to people like @snook, @artemisnorth, and others who kindly include a link to YouTube at the bottom of most of their Dtube posts, for those who experience difficulty with Dtube. I can't tell you how much that is appreciated so we can still watch your videos! 💖


P.S. for @crimsonclad: I waited the 21-minutes required for your entire video to load and then it played beautifully, and I loved it! Thanks for doing that Netcoins test to show how easy it is for those near a Netcoins "ATM" location!  😃 I also hope you did not mind my using your video as an example of the way Dtube behaves for many of us here. 🤗