The video keeps “buffering” — what does that mean?
Thanks to modern science, we’ve moved beyond the dark ages of the 1990’s and you no longer have to fully download a video before you start watching it. Instead, your computer downloads a short amount of video – the part just before where you are in the timeline. Think of that short period of time as a buffer against the video stopping; as long as the computer can download that short amount of video faster than you can watch the video, you’ll get smooth playback. An added bonus is that you don’t have to store any of the video on your hard drive.
Of course, if you don’t download video as fast as you’re watching it, or if you suddenly ask the computer to jump a few minutes ahead in the timeline, your computer won’t have a buffer to keep the video playing. In that case, it will pause and download more video – building a new buffer against frequent pauses, and as such it will let you know that it’s "buffering."
