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Disable YouTube HTML5 Video Player Google Chrome extension add-on make some HD video run smoother

Disable YouTube HTML5 video player
Disable Youtube™ HTML5 Player is an extension/add-on for Google Chrome which turns off the HTML5 video player in Google Chrome.

The Adobe Flash video player for YouTube would replace the HTML5 video player once you install Disable Youtube™ HTML5 Player extension in Google Chrome. This extension also works for Google Chromebooks which uses the Chrome browser as its operating system.

This add-on just runs in the background, and does not slow down Chrome when I use it with this add-on installed.

Using this add-on to request the YouTube flash video player stops stuttering video, and lag problems when I watch some newer HD 1080P 60 frames per second videos on YouTube in Google Chrome because the Adobe Flash video Player for Chrome does not cause video to stutter, or slow down when I use it to watch video on a Chromebook with an Intel Celeron CPU, or an older PC with an older single to dual core CPU with onboard video, or an older video card. The video frame rate seems more stable where it is above 30-35 frames per seconds, and it loads quickly, so is not any slowdown, or buffering problems.

The Adobe Flash Player plug-in also seems to use less CPU resources than the HTML5 player on my Chromebook and Chromebox when I check the CPU and RAM usage in the Task Manager which is built-into Chrome’s browser.

The Adobe Flash Player also lets you play videos at 144P resolution, so if you are using an older or slower computer, you can set videos to 144P in YouTube to let them play faster. Playing videos at 144P is also good if your internet connection is very slow like dial-up internet, or cheaper DSL and cable connections which sometimes are under 1 Mbps. Playing videos at lower settings will let you save data if you connect to the internet on a limited internet connection like those USB modems where you connect to the internet with a Cell phone data connection with a limit of 5GB of bandwidth before you have to pay overage fees.

Disable Youtube™ HTML5 Player is discontinued, so it is no longer available for download.

It is also only 40.39KB in size, so it uses very little storage space on your computer.

After you install this add-on, I recommend refreshing YouTube’s video pages in Chrome browser, so YouTube is using Adobe Flash video player instead of HTML5 video player before you installed this add-on.

I notice lower quality video like 360-720P and most 1080P 30 frames per second and below videos and below run pretty well on the HTML5 YouTube player on my Chromebook, so you can turn off Disable YouTube HTML5 Player extension by going to the menu buttons, clicking on More Tools, and lastly, Extensions, and unchecking the enable check box next to Disable YouTube HTML5 Player. Lastly, refresh YouTube’s website to get back the HTML5 player.

If you still experience slow down problems, you can try emptying your browsing data by clicking on the menu button with your mouse, and go to More Settings where you will find Clear Browsing Data which will let you clear all your browsing history and data at once.

Also, don’t move your mouse cursor over the YouTube video player when a video is playing. I notice sometimes when I move the cursor over the Window, I notice the player slows down a little.

You can also see if disabling Hardware Acceleration in Adobe Flash player will make videos faster. To disable hardware acceleration, you need to right click on a YouTube video, and click on Settings on the right click menu. Lastly, uncheck Enable Hardware Acceleration, and click close on the Settings Window. If video, or flash games performance is worse after disabling Hardware Acceleration, you should turn it back on by re-checking it in Adobe Flash settings.

The Flash version of the YouTube video player may have better audio quality than the newer HTML5 version since I read online that Flash video player sometimes sound better than the HTML5 version.

Closing tabs you are not using, uninstalling extensions, apps, and plug-ins which you do not need could make Chrome faster at playing video as well.

Using a wired broadband internet connection, or a faster Wi-Fi connection will make videos buffer less, and shorten slow down times.

Read my guide on making YouTube videos on Google Android run smoother, and faster which has a lot of tips which work for other operating systems, browsers, and devices which support YouTube.

4 comments… add one
  • Emily Dasilva December 16, 2020, 7:20 am

    the link is expired. You should take this down.

    • Johnson Yip December 27, 2020, 12:06 pm

      Thanks for telling me the link no longer works. I remove the link.

  • juhar March 29, 2021, 10:35 pm

    because to change video player type mkv to mp4

  • Uzzal Sikder February 17, 2022, 9:27 pm

    Youtube HTML5 Player Disable please is back chrome

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