HD is really hitting my online participation. Suggestions sought.

Hi all. With the advent of HD, the resolution was praised and welcomed. However it began to affect my monthly download total, so that I began to get warnings from my ISP.

I used to watch a fair amount of YT, so I cut down. That helped, but in January of this year all ads also went to HD. After 10 days of greatly reduced viewing I still received the 100% notice. I cannot afford any increase in my budget because whatever is left after rent and sparse auto expenses is all I have for groceries. I am at wit's end to know how to change this.

Yes, I did go into YT settings and changed mine to that of a slow modem preference, but all that accomplished was that videos became audio only with a green screen for the visual part.

This really sux because I have to make a conscious decision to avoid sites with multiple ads. Avoid YT and other video sites, as well as sites with a lot of ads.

I would like suggestions on how to remain on the net. If I can't get a leg up on this problem, then I will have to leave the internet. Yes, I have taken up reading books again, but come on. I feel as though I'm being pushed back into the stone age nevertheless.

My browser is IE. Is there something in there whereby I can change things from HD to a lesser resolution and still give me a picture?

Forgive my ignorance about the finer electronic points. I welcome and thank you in advance for your suggestions.

On android there are ways to prevent ads. They tend to be more successful if you are rooted.

Opera used to have settings that would lower the resolution of photo's and minimise bandwith, I do not know if that could help.

IDK...but is there a way to filter out the popups?like your firewall or your antivirus program?
I don't seem to experience this problem.....my AV is AVG free....

I use firefox with an ad blocker and no script - it runs what I want. IE has an ad block add on but it also comes with an automatic whitelist you have to disable. Flashblocker is another tool I use on Firefox. I recommend a change in browsers, you can pretty much shut off ads on all video sites, no commercials ever unless they have a way of countering it. It also shuts off those animated ads on sidebars and blocks all pop ups. With Flashblock you get an arrow over the flash content to click if you want to allow it to download and play. I was hitting my limit almost every month but once I changed browsers, it dropped dramatically. If you use Netflix, I also recommend change the quality down to the .7gbh setting. Quality doesn't change much from a computer screen.

Just my 2 hundreths of a dollar.

If you browse YT while logged in they suggest this:

If you have a slow Internet connection, you can make the video load more quickly by using a lower quality setting.

Go to your Settings page
Select I have a slow connection. Never play higher-quality video
Click the Save button

Sounds like that is what you tried already... If it does not work for you then you probably have to pick the resolution manually every time you play a video (ugg) by clicking on the gear icon.

Maybe try another browser and see if the settings 'stick' in Chrome or Firefox.

Out of interest how much do you pay and what bandwith doyou get?

Limitied broadband dissapeared years ago here in UK, I pay the equivalant of around 10-12 dollars a month for truly unlimited broadband at around 10 gig.

So what kind of service are you getting? It sounds like you are paying for limited amount of data, is this dial-up? Is this on a cell phone or computer?

Thanks for your suggestions. I am using a new laptop after some evil mysterious force caused me to trip over my own shadow while carrying my morning coffee resulting in a drowned computer some four feet away. Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

This new machine comes with an antivirus program, but I haven't yet installed an anti spyware and stuff, so I'd better get to it. That flashblocker sounds like something I could try. I used to have firefox and loved it once upon a time.

I will consider all your suggestions. Thanks again!

I just got off the phone with my ISP. Those thieves were kind enough to up their prices while not sending me a bill in 2015 and applied additional charges of $276 to me, even though my bank has been doing auto transfers to them every month. My head is spinning. They are now charging $51/month for WIFI modem and internet, download max of 40Gb/month. Guess I am going shopping.

I have no devices other than an old fliptop phone and a laptop.

a reply to: nonspecific

Limited broadband is still the major thing in the states, we get one cable internet company for most of the county I live in - You can choose Cable, DSL, Directv type internet, and if you are really close to a bigger city you may be able to get Verizon Fios. One company for each available in my area unless you count dial up. The cable internet is the only choice I have - lower price, higher speed than DSL and Hughesnet/Directv, but it comes with a cap at 200gb for the entire home for the lowest costing plan. So, if I downloaded uncompressed movie files, music files and games, I go over my limit. When using steam for games, I have to watch download sizes toward the end of the month 20gb game plus patches easily will run me over my cap if I am within a few days of the end of the month. I upgraded my limit because of hitting the cap with 4 desktops and two laptops. Flashblocker was the solution at the lower cap along with adblock because it stopped any of the extra data downloading to my pc for display. Granted, they are usually small amounts of data but they add up, especially if you leave a web page up that refreshes ads. I haven't seen an ad or had anything play automatically for well over a year now and have never been happier about it.

a reply to: aboutface

wow, 40gb, that wouldn't even touch the amount of data I use a month on my Pc. Between business that my family runs to work I do on the side to gaming, movies and more, I would use that up in a week by myself - forget my wife and kids using the net at all. Flash block should definitely help along with adblock plus, those small amounts of data add up.

I just checked usage for today and my network is around 4 gb for the day as I type this - House of Cards did come out today after all, had to watch a few episodes

You are probably on a sat connection like HughesNet I assume? Your best option is to download something like adblock (although don't use it here as it is against the T&C shockingly ). When I was using Hughes I had an older plan before the Gen4 garbage rolled out. They kept urging me to upgrade to Gen4 but i had a 500mb daily allowance and unlimited allowance from 1am til 6 or 7am I forget which. When I did the math I found out I was far exceeding the amounts you could download with Gen 4 with the older plan so I always refused the upgrade. One day my modem quit working and the repair man and the company told me I had to upgrade to Gen4. Fortunately I was moving back to the city so I refused yet again but it was nothing more than a game they were playing to push the higher speeds of Gen4 for less overall usage which meant you hit your cap sooner.

Telecoms and broadband in this country unless you are in a major city have an insane monopoly. I was thinking about how companies like Bell were broken up over stuff like this only to have companies buying up smaller companies and creating mini monopolies.

TLDR: Download Firefox. Get adblock extension/app(whitelist ATS $$ ). Set up downloads during whatever period they allot you if any instead of peak times. Adblock gets rid of all the Youtube ads and you will just have to switch manually each vid to a lower resolution before they start DLing or find an app/extension that will allow this to happen automatically. I used to use a third party site and just download the YouTube vids in a smaller format and watch them that way.

a reply to: Blinkydoo

I'm north of the border from you. There is not much choice when it comes to providers. I got a phone-net-TV cable bundle package 4 years ago, and of all the deals they offer, so far mine is the least expensive, but if there's a smaller company out there in my area who wants me as a customer, I'll find it.

a reply to: NihilistSanta

I'm on cable. I will download those programs when this billing period is over. I started to do it earlier this evening, then noticed the size of the file, so I will have to put it off for the next 5 days. Thanks a lot for your input. Your reply was helpful.

originally posted by: aboutface
a reply to: NihilistSanta

I'm on cable. I will download those programs when this billing period is over. I started to do it earlier this evening, then noticed the size of the file, so I will have to put it off for the next 5 days. Thanks a lot for your input. Your reply was helpful.

Don't put this off. Go somewhere with free wifi. Enjoy a cup of Hot cocoa and end this once and for all.

a reply to: Iamthatbish

No free Wifi in my little town, but I will certainly ask around.

a reply to: aboutface

Are you watching things or downloading reading them for later? That's a huge difference. I save a lot offline...watch whatever I want whenever and can always go back to a video location file site with no issues. I save what I want.

This doesn't affect my family at all

Among the other suggestions, I seem to remember an add on for Firefox that allows the user to set default resolutions for you tube. I might be remembering incorrectly, because it was a while back, but I remember using it to make sure YT vids always loaded on the lowest resolution possible.

It's all about making little differences that, ideally, add up to saving a meaningful amount of bandwidth. 40gb is not a whole lot to work with, but with all the suggestions it might give you some more head room.

originally posted by: Serdgiam
Among the other suggestions, I seem to remember an add on for Firefox that allows the user to set default resolutions for you tube. I might be remembering incorrectly, because it was a while back, but I remember using it to make sure YT vids always loaded on the lowest resolution possible.

It's all about making little differences that, ideally, add up to saving a meaningful amount of bandwidth. 40gb is not a whole lot to work with, but with all the suggestions it might give you some more head room.

On that note turning off any auto updates will save precious bandwidth also.

Who is your internet through? I suggest finding a better provider. The recommendations for Firefox and Adblock Plus are a must for blocking ads on youtube.com.

Also if you can't get another provider, it would probably be a good idea to talk to a neighbor. Maybe the both of you can afford a more expensive plan together and share it via wifi or something.