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Unlimited Fibre, BBC IPlayer and ITV player streaming problems.

lexhamilton
Grafter
Posts: 47
Registered: ‎26-09-2010

Unlimited Fibre, BBC IPlayer and ITV player streaming problems.

With the recent change to unlimited fibre I thought buffering for these services would be a thing of the past - sadly not.
Can't make it through a single episode of a programme in standard definition or HD without buffering taking place.
It's actually worse than when I had my old ADSL 8meg service, more pauses and less consistency in the catchup services.
From all the stats I seem to get a good connection and decent speeds, but these streaming services have really taken a turn for the worse.
Anyone else having ongoing issues, or is it just my first world problem here?  😉
One question - would having the pro add-on make any difference at all?
7 REPLIES 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Unlimited Fibre, BBC IPlayer and ITV player streaming problems.

No problem here !
I have just watched nearly two and a half hours of Jools' Annual Hootenanny on BBC iPlayer, while simultaneously browsing and emailing, on my 6.6Mbps ADSL connection, and have had no buffering or stalling issues whatsoever.
No the "Pro" add-on would NOT make your connection any better for video streaming, if anything it has the potential to make it worse.
jamesanstee
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 558
Thanks: 27
Fixes: 3
Registered: ‎20-04-2012

Re: Unlimited Fibre, BBC IPlayer and ITV player streaming problems.

iPlayer has been buffering alot for me the last couple of weeks itv player 4oD and five on demand are fine. I found the buffering is worse on live streaming on iPlayer .
DaveyH
Champion
Posts: 1,946
Thanks: 453
Fixes: 12
Registered: ‎15-11-2012

Re: Unlimited Fibre, BBC IPlayer and ITV player streaming problems.

I use iplayer almost daily and have used it to watch both episodes of Sherlock and James May's Toy Stories today in HD and have had no problems
lexhamilton
Grafter
Posts: 47
Registered: ‎26-09-2010

Re: Unlimited Fibre, BBC IPlayer and ITV player streaming problems.

Thanks for the speedy response chaps - it's certainly more noticeable now on a faster connection.  The buffering isn't for long, but I've just never seen it happen with my slower ADSL service (like Purleigh's smooth streaming).
Just looks to be one of those things.  🙂
Cheers,

Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Unlimited Fibre, BBC IPlayer and ITV player streaming problems.

@'lexhamilton' - when you are having this problem, are you connected via WiFi using the Plusnet supplied router ?
I'm just wondering, because there have been reports on this forum that the Plusnet router used with fibre has worse WiFi performance than the router used with ADSL.
lexhamilton
Grafter
Posts: 47
Registered: ‎26-09-2010

Re: Unlimited Fibre, BBC IPlayer and ITV player streaming problems.

@purleigh - I'm not using the PlusNet supplied Technicolor router - have an Asus RT-N66U router connected to the BT Openreach fibre modem.
The performance of the router over wifi was pretty woeful (unless in the same room), but this Asus seems rock solid and very fast.
I'm starting to think that it may be time related, as I've been streaming HD all morning with no noticed buffering.  Perhaps evening is when everyone else gets watching and the network becomes more congested...
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Unlimited Fibre, BBC IPlayer and ITV player streaming problems.

I had wondered about exchange congestion, etc,  but the your BBC iPlayer test (in your first posting) would have shown a problem there.
Can you set hold of a long enough ethernet cable, or a pair of mains homeplug adaptors, to see whether bypassing the WiFi helps.
You could also try stepping though each of the WiFi channels, so see which one gives the best performance at the time when you are getting buffering, in case it is a neighbour of yours only using their WiFi in the evening on the same channel that you are currently on.