Background video loads slow and not showing on mobile

I have a huge problem with how video is used in the background on websites, and that is how long takes to load and show the video. 
No matter if you are on a super fast connection it still takes 5+ seconds to show the embedded video for first time users, and at that time most users have left the website. It also doesnt matter if you have a small looped clip witch should take a second to download in the browser because of the embed time.  
On mobile it fails to load, even if it was working fine a couple of weeks ago. Right now the background video option is unusable because of this. 
Why cant users embed video from a server themselves instead of using vimeo/youtube? 

I am envy of the speed video backgrounds take on platforms like wp, webflow etc. 
Why is squarespace lagging behind on this, do you want us to switch platform? 

Is there a workaround trick for this? I have searched all over but still no luck .

Thanks for your replay, but its doesnt really help. 
I have cheked other squarespace sites that use video and they all have the same issue with slow loading times.  
I did a quick test with a 720p video that was less than 1mb (765kb) and it still takes 4-5 seconds before it loads. 
If i use a image as a background it loads straight away even if they are larger in size. 
So the problem is on the embedding part. 

For some this might not be a big deal, but for me it makes my site looks slow and unresponsive.

I agree this is a horrible problem. I have tried all of the above as per the other user. This seems very backwards and is very annoying. I am starting to regret using squarespace. Please find a solution to this

Yes!!  The video I link to my banner looks amazing on the desktop version of my website, but it doesn't load whatsoever on the mobile version.  Most people use their phones these days and I want my mobile site to look just as beautiful as the desktop version!  Help!

www.opalAF.com

On 3/13/2020 at 4:35 AM, srodrigues said:

Hi Nils, 

Squarespace has some great video design tips outlined in the help article below that you should make sure your video meets:

Adding background videos - Design tips

Bear in mind that video loading times will always depends on the internet connection. Also, as it is mentioned in the guide linked above, depending on the visitor's connection speed and browser version, background videos may not always display on mobile.

Video embeds as opposed to direct video uploads, usually help sites to load faster, enable visitors to share your videos, and provide multiple options for video hosting.

Finally, I'd like to point out that for any eventual issues you may experience with Squarespace's platform and/or to provide feedback about the product, contacting Squarespace Customer Support would be the best approach. As mentioned in the Forum Guidelines we don't track bug reports and feature requests in this forum. 

Hi @srodrigues, I'm quite sure Squarespace is quite aware that this is an area that needs work. Regardless of the connection speed and how well optimized videos are, they still take 3-4 seconds to start running. This should be happening immediately  😞

Hi everyone, 

I've logged your feedback for the appropriate team to review. While we can't guarantee any implementations, customer feedback is an important part of how we continue to improve our platform, so we appreciate your input. 

For now, I am closing this post; for any future feedback/feature requests and as mentioned previously, contacting Customer Support would be the best approach as we don't usually track that here.

Thanks!