How to Keep Streaming Services Buffered During Auto-Browse

If you rotate through web pages on a screen and also want a live stream or music playing, the two can get in each other's way. Rotating reloads pages, and browsers pause or unload tabs they think you're not using. A little setup keeps both running.

Why streams get interrupted

• Reloading: a rotation tool that loads each page fresh restarts any video on that page each time it comes round.
• Memory Saver: Chrome can unload background tabs to save memory, stopping playback.
• Autoplay rules: browsers block videos with sound from starting on their own until you've interacted with the site.
• "Are you still watching?" prompts: many services pause after a period with no interaction.
• Sleep: the computer or screen going to sleep.

Keep the stream out of the rotation

Don't include the stream page in the rotating folder. Put it in its own window instead:

1. Open the stream in a separate browser window.
2. Run the rotation in another window. AutoBrowser plays a bookmark folder in one tab, reloading each page as it comes round, so it should only hold the pages that need refreshing.
3. Arrange the windows side by side, or put the stream on a second screen.

Picture-in-picture also works for many video sites: the video floats above other windows while you browse.

Stop Chrome unloading the stream

Add the streaming site under Settings → Performance → Always keep these sites active. Chrome won't unload it to save memory.

Allow sound to autoplay

For a site you trust, click the icon to the left of the address, open Site settings, and set Sound to Allow. Interacting with the page once after opening it also lets playback start.

Prevent sleep

• Set the screen and computer never to sleep while the display is in use.
• On a laptop, keep it plugged in; power-saving modes can throttle playback.

Smooth playback on a busy computer

• Lower the stream quality if other pages are heavy.
• Keep the rotation interval sensible; reloading complex pages every few seconds uses a lot of processing and bandwidth.
• Use a wired connection for long-running displays.

About "still watching" prompts

These are the service's own design, often to save bandwidth when no one's watching. For an unattended screen, choose sources made for continuous playback, such as live channels, rather than on-demand episodes.

See building a monitoring dashboard and setting up a browser display.