Sprint's HTC Hero

I’ve been enjoying my HTC Hero immensely since I got it earlier this month, but having said that, it hasn’t been a completely problem-free ride. One complaint that’s cropped up so far is that I’ve been experiencing problems watching videos via the kickass YouTube application that the Hero ships with. At first, the app worked perfectly; I could stream all the videos of newlyweds dancing to the altar or Geordi requesting apple juice clips to my heart’s content in either standard or high res, via EVDO or WiFi. Everything ran great! Then, as of about a week ago, I started getting intermittent error messages stating “Sorry, this video cannot be played”, even on videos that had worked before (like my own). Initially I dismissed it as a problem with YouTube not being able to serve up the video stream but when a few hours (and then a few days) passed with the message still popping up, I decided to research and experiment a little to see if I could pinpoint the exact cause of the problem.

To date, this is what I’ve learned:

EVDO

- It’s very rare not to get the “Sorry, video cannot be played” message now.

- When a video does play, opening the menu and then selecting “Watch in high quality” leads to the failure message 100% of the time.

- Selecting the same video over and over sometimes works. For example, I repeatedly selected a Christmas themed LEGO movie featured on the main page of the YouTube app, resulting in the fail message. On the 9th try, it played without any problems. I then paused it and selected the “Watch in high quality” option and immediately got the fail message.

WiFi

- Most videos fail to play the first time, but I can generally get them to work after a couple attempts. Occasionally a video will load right off the bat. All in all, WiFi seems to be much more consistent than EVDO.

All EVDO testing was done with two or more EVDO signal bars in different parts of the country (thereby eliminating the possibility of local tower / backhaul congestion). WiFi tests were conducted via five different ISP’s – three in Ohio, and two in Florida.

I've gotten pretty used to seeing this now.

In researching this issue online, I’ve found that I’m not the only one having trouble with the YouTube app. The frustrating thing about it though is that two other friends with Sprint HTC Hero’s can watch any YouTube videos they want without any trouble whatsoever. Given that this doesn’t affect everyone, it would be difficult to pin the blame on Google / YouTube; likewise, some folks online have theorized that this is Sprint’s way of trying to cut bandwidth usage but that also doesn’t seem like a very plausible explanation because again, the problem does not affect all Hero users. Another important point to take into consideration is that it doesn’t seem to matter if your phone is modded or completely stock. My own Hero has not been rooted, so it’s running the stock Android 1.5 ROM that all new handsets are shipping out with (version 1.56.651.2). Some Hero owners have reported that removing the SD card, rebooting, and then replacing the SD card seems to clear up the YouTube problem. I tried this but it had no effect for me. Another user pointed out that (s)he has better luck when accessing videos in landscape mode vs. portrait mode. As with the previous tip, trying this made no difference with my phone’s symptoms. Still, other users have reported that using YouTube Mobile works, but that also fails for me regardless of whether I’m on WiFi or EVDO, or whether I select the YouTube app or HTC’s Flash Player when prompted. Suspecting that one of the Android Market apps that I’ve downloaded may be partly to blame, I did a complete factory reset of my Hero and made another attempt to watch YouTube videos while everything was in 100% stock condition. Sadly, this still had no affect.

I’m continuing to keep an eye on forums and message boards but it still looks like this is a widespread problem without much in the way of a fix just yet. The more people that report the problem though, the more likely it is that Sprint, HTC, and YouTube will take steps to investigate. Not being able to watch YouTube on my phone certainly isn’t a huge deal and even if the problem persists for a while, it won’t do much to sour my opinion of the Hero or Android in general. Who knows, maybe the impending Hero software update (Android OS 2.1) will be the magic fix. Until then, I’ll continue enjoying the other aspects of this kickass phone… which still beats the pants off the Palm Pre.

Update, 12.27.2009 – I spoke with one of the friends I mentioned up top that has a Hero but was not experiencing problems streaming from YouTube. It turns out that now he is in fact unable to watch anything via EVDO too, so this issue seems to be spreading. I personally believe it to be a software bug with the app itself, but I’ve started hearing unconfirmed rumors that Palm Pre users are also having problems with YouTube. Is this a coincidence, or is something afoot?

Update, 1.6.2010 – Cellular South user “RV” wrote in to let me know that he is experiencing the same YouTube problems on his Hero too. Between that and reports of this affecting VZ’s Eris users, my theory that this is either a server-side problem with YouTube or a software problem with the app itself seems more and more likely. I’m still leaning towards the problem stemming from a glitch in the app though.

Update, 1.7.2010 – I was able to confirm that YouTube videos will not work via EVDO on the brand new VZ Eris that another friend purchased today. At this point I don’t know anyone with a Hero or Eris that isn’t having at least partial failure when trying to stream video from YouTube.

Update, 1.10.2010 – As of today, I am running the custom MoDaCo ROM on my Hero and the YouTube app still doesn’t work (not that I thought it would).

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Do you have a Hero and want to share your experiences using the stock YouTube app with the rest of the Interwebs? Well, what are you waiting for?! Leave a comment, sucka!