Same here, stopping every few seconds, then buffering, at some point about 15s in, it simply went black and that was it. And I share your opinion on video play

Same here, stopping every few seconds, then buffering, at some point about 15s in, it simply went black and that was it. And I share your opinion on video playback alternatives - when a website serves me the video which isn't hosted on Youtube, I kind of groan inside, because of the bad experience of alternatives. Youtube just works, it loads fast and plays without interruptions.