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Streaming issues
Alan B - 12/3/15 at 10:32 PM

Guys,

I don't get the best value out of my Amazon and Netflix accounts due to constant buffering interruptions making stuff virtually non-watchable. My internet connection is crappy to say the least.

Is there any way around it like saving it as a file and playing it back later? or any other ways around the problem (other than moving) ?

Thanks,

Alan

Ben_Copeland - 13/3/15 at 07:27 AM

Can you not change providers? Apologies I know little about US internet providers!

coozer - 13/3/15 at 11:13 AM

I upgraded my BT infinity to the 76mb fibre service, the box in the street is only 100m or so away and I regularly see 80 and sometimes in the middle of the night the best I've seen is 104!

The best mod since then is changing the tv box which has a 1gb net adapter, much better than the old box with a 100mb adapter.

What I do with the iPlayer is plan my viewing and if I see something I want to watch download it to view later.

What's your connection to the net like? What kinda plan you on?

Alan B - 13/3/15 at 01:57 PM

Trouble is we don't have a lot of provider choice.....we live about 30 mile south of the grand canyon so you can imagine it's pretty sparse and remote....oh well...

Thanks all

Chris_Xtreme - 13/3/15 at 05:07 PM

fraid I don't use either and the rules are often different for uk vs us netflix and amazon

did spot this tho on a quick google.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201422770

didn't see much about netflix download first.

you might also want to search for buffer time and see if you can increase it.

britishtrident - 13/3/15 at 05:53 PM

What device are you using ? although we have decent internet speed when we previously used a Sony Blueray for Netflix and Amazon and it stalled all the time.

Amazon's FireTV set-top box has a much larger buffer memory than other stb and it smart pre-caches films as you browse, we alsomhavev Rok1 stb it is OK but not near as good as the FireTv

Alan B - 13/3/15 at 10:42 PM

Thanks guys,

Some good pointers, clues, and suggestions.

I think we are using it through a Wii box. We will look at Fire tv.

Cheers, all.

Alan

Chris_Xtreme - 13/3/15 at 10:56 PM

Just remember that whatever the box, if the internet speed isn't enough, the buffer of whatever size could run out and stuttering will occur.

What speed do you get? speedtest.net will help you check.

ianhurley20 - 14/3/15 at 09:13 AM

They say you need 2.5mb but from experience you need 4mb download speed and it needs to be reliable at that amount for it to work. I currently run at 6.7mb and very occasionally get hang ups - but not often now.

Alan B - 14/3/15 at 04:34 PM

quote:
Originally posted by ianhurley20
They say you need 2.5mb but from experience you need 4mb download speed and it needs to be reliable at that amount for it to work. I currently run at 6.7mb and very occasionally get hang ups - but not often now.


I'm assuming you mean mb/s?...if so then my speed is woeful after testing it...around a tenth of yours.....

Looks like moving is the answer, which is going to happen soon anyway.

Thanks, everyone

Alan

Slimy38 - 14/3/15 at 05:00 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Alan B
Thanks guys,

Some good pointers, clues, and suggestions.

I think we are using it through a Wii box. We will look at Fire tv.

Cheers, all.

Alan


Dump the Wii, it might be able to provide streaming services but it's shockingly bad at it. I tried it once and it was awful, and I'm on a 40Mbit fibre.

Either look at one of the dedicated boxes, or at the very least pick up a PS3 and go through that. They're dirt cheap now the PS4 is out.

coozer - 14/3/15 at 05:11 PM

Just to add I use a MINIX 8H Plus for internet TV and the WiFi is aweful but I use them power boxes to get the Ethernet cable to the box which makes it much better!

Dale - 14/3/15 at 07:21 PM

I agree on the wifi, back before we upgraded to 25mb we were on 5meg dsl. Using a westerndigital streaming box via wifi it was terrible with buffering. I ran a cat five cable to the box and it was working with 0 issues., You may also have to set the QOS (quality of service) on your router to make sure the device/service is set to a high priority.
Dale