From time to time, students report that they have trouble watching videos in their courses.  Several things can cause video playback issues:

  • A slow Internet connection
  • Too many browser tabs, windows, and other programs open
  • An Accumulation of browser cache/history

  • An outdated version of Adobe Flash Player

  • Unknown issues

The following information will help you navigate through these basic playback issues.


A Slow Internet Connection

If your slower Internet connection is causing a video to start and stop frequently, causing choppy playback, then try buffering the video (allowing a portion or all of the video to stream to your computer) before watching it.  To do this, click the video's play button, then the video's pause button.  The video will begin streaming to your computer.  Hover your mouse over the video box to see how much of the video has streamed to your computer.  When the grey bar reaches the right hand said of the bar, the entire video has streamed to your computer.  You can often start playing the video when about half of it has streamed, as it will continue streaming while you watch.  Check out the Moodle 102 how-to video on Video Clips to watch how to do this.


Too Many Browser Tabs, Windows and Other Programs Open

Another thing that can cause choppy playback is having too many browser tabs, windows and other programs open at the same time on your computer.  Try closing unneeded browser tabs and windows to free up memory space for your computer to play the video.  If this does not help, also try closing other programs running in the background.  If none of this works, you may need to clear your browser's cache/history (see the next section).


An Accumulation of Browser Cache/History

If you watch a lot of videos or visit many websites on the Internet, you Browser's Cache/History can get full, making it harder for a video to stream and play on your computer.  Try clearing your browser's cache/history to see if this fixes the problem.  We recommend that you follow these three steps when clearing your history:
  1. Clear your browser's cache/history.
  2. Close your browser entirely.
  3. Restart your computer.

Don't know how to clear your browser's history?  Click on the link for your browser below for browser-specific instructions:
Not sure what browser you are using?  Visit www.whatismybrowser.com. 


An Outdated Version of Adobe Flash Player

Students need to have a recent version of Adobe Flash Player to be able to view Vimeo videos. Occasionally, Adobe will update Flash Player, but it won't trigger an update on a particular computer.  If a student misses a couple of updates, it might cause problems with playing videos. 


To find out if you are running the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, check out www.whatismybrowser.com.  If your Flash Player is outdated, this website will also provide you with a link to where you can download and install an update. 


Unknown issues

If none of the suggestions above work, here are a few other things that the SU Tech Support agents have found helpful in resolving video playback problems:

  1. Try using a different browser.
  2. Try restarting your computer.
  3. Go do something else for a little while.  Then come back, reload the webpage with the video and see if it plays.


SU Online videos are hosted through two online companies: Vimeo and Google YouTube.  Both sites offer great support suggestions as well:


None of the above suggestions have fixed the video playback problem...

If you have tried the above suggestions and nothing has fixed the problem, please contact SU Tech Support by opening a new customer support ticket.  Be sure to include the following information in your ticket.  The more information you can give us, the better we will be able to help you:

  • The specific problem you are having
  • The location of the video in your course (unit and page)
  • Your browser and version
  • Your Flash Player version
  • Everything you have tried so far (for example: clearing the cache and restarting the computer)