Safari stops playing videos after certain time open

I quit using Safari because it would stop playing all streaming videos after a certain period of time. I should qualify that the audio would play but the video was black. I spent years going back to Safari, follow website and YouTube video suggestions. Nothing worked.

Then, I can't remember how I found it, I learned that sometimes when the hard drive goes to sleep something would happen to the video codec. This would cause videos not to play. I stopped my hard drive and screen from going to sleep. It worked. I can now enjoy using Safari again. This would also fix the problem if I restarted my computer.

I don't understand why this solution isn't talked about on websites.

I am having a similar issue. At first, I thought it was Youtube, but I've had the same issue on Rumble and Twitch. Also, I get logged out of them even though I'm not supposed to get logged out. This has been going on now for well over a year, and through multiple OS updates/upgrades. I've noticed that it seems to occur a little bit faster the more tabs I have open, but not by much. However, memory and storage should not be an issue as I have 16gb memory (not tons, but enough), and 150gb storage available. I have literally nothing on the system going into sleep mode including the displays.

I honestly like Safari, but if this continues, I will have to change browsers. It's annoying and time consuming.

This issue has been happening to me as well. I think it might even extend just a bit beyond video playback. When the issue arrises, I've also noticed that on a screen where I am supposed to choose my streaming provider, the normal icons used for the providers are just gray rectangles. Sometimes after a day or more with minimal Safari use, the issue goes away by itself without a Safari restart.