topic Re: Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc in Broadband

Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc

Stranger — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:27:01 GMT

Suffering a lot of buffering when watching streaming on TV so much so that I often have to come out of whatever I'm watching, turn the TV off and give it a couple of minutes before going back in.

Also the picture quality often deteriorates as I'm watching something.

These are things that've been happening for the past 3 or 4 weeks.

Any help appreciated.

Re: Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc

markhawkin — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 08:39:46 GMT

That sounds like a connection problem or at least insufficient download speed.

Try some speed tests (both wired and wireless if possible).

I guess you are on some sort of copper connection (ADSL or VDSL).

If the speed used to be better, most likely there is a fault somewhere.

Re: Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc

Stranger — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 08:36:29 GMT

Thankyou Mark, I'll try some speed tests. I'm fttc so yeah there's some copper cable involved.

Re: Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc

markhawkin — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 08:43:52 GMT

If you have a landline phone, listen for noise and if noisy report that as the fault.

When I had a copper connection, I once had a line fault (which showed as slower speeds and noisy phone calls) which was fixed by an Openreach engineer working down the line and remaking all the joints.

It was good for a long time after that.

Re: Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc

Stranger — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 09:02:34 GMT

Thanks Mark, I don't have a landline.

Speed tests done so far are showing just above the guaranteed average rates however, I'll try them throughout the day as it's noticeable between 6pm and 10pm when I'm watching YouTube.

Thanks for your help.

Re: Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc

markhawkin — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:27:58 GMT

The YouTube "stats for nerds" might provide some insight. Play a video then right click (on a computer).

Connection speed is the "burst peak" as it download chunks of video. Buffer health is the interesting one in your case as is dropped frames.

I don't think the Plusnet router will show you throughput unfortunately.

I'm wondering if something is doing some sort of "cloud sync" and filling up the upstream bandwidth (thus delaying the "I've got the data" messages for streams) but this kind of investigation can be tricky.

Re: Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc

Stranger — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:49:17 GMT

Hehe, I've often looked at YT stats for nerds and thought whaaaaat

I'll do as you suggest.

70% of speed checks have come back under my min guaranteed rate in the past 30 minutes.

Thanks again

Re: Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc

markhawkin — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:07:06 GMT

What are your minimum guaranteed (download) rate and typical upload?

Re: Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc

Stranger — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 22:31:13 GMT

D/l guarantee is 60.2 u/l around 15

Haven't had chance to try stats for nerds tonight, will do as soon as I get a minute.

Re: Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc

markhawkin — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 08:09:37 GMT

By VDSL (FTTC) standards that's fairly decent and should be able to sustain YouTube at "1080p" without problems.

Looking at data throughput on a PC while playing a 1080P YouTube video (I've a router that shows this) it's typically bursting to around 8Mb/s on a 10 second average (stats for nerds shows 66Mb/s bursts but I think those are very bried - it can be high as I've a full fibre connection). As a second data point, my Apple TV (YouTube app) is less bursty but seems to take 1 - 2 Mb/s.

All in all, your connection SHOULD be ok for YouTube.

I wonder about WiFi performance (assuming you are streaming on a WiFi connected device) and in particular a change of WiFi "environment". If you have an Android device available, WiFiman is a good way to investigate signal levels and clashes between base stations.

Re: Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc

Stranger — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 17:58:53 GMT

Cheers Mark, sorry for the late reply I've had a busy day.

Yes streaming via WiFi to my TV. I'll work through your WiFi man suggestion using my android phone and come back to you with my findings.

Thanks once again.

Re: Buffering, reduction in picture quality etc

Townman — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 00:23:43 GMT

Cut to the chase … inspect and share the router line stats. Try running the faults bot - see the link below.