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Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

PhyllisTyne
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Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

I have never been very happy with the amount of buffering that goes on sometimes. On occasions its fine even in HD but at other times it buffers frequently even in SD. What might the problem be and what can I do about it? Surely the beeb feed isn't the problem - or is it?
Its doing it now with d/l speeeds of nearly 6k
PT
12 REPLIES 12
Gus
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Re: Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

IPlayer doesn't like wifi or mid range laptops, do you use either?  I use 2 year old laptop via wifi for offline program watching and get the same issues, but I don't have them on my gaming PC when watching the same programs.
Also there is a know bug with flash player 10.1 and higher with some laptops, which means you have to use an older version.  I have to use 10.0.45.2 to have less issues.
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ReedRichards
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Re: Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

I have a similar download speed but have never experienced any problems with BBC iPlayer - I cannot remember an instance of buffering mid-program.  Mostly I use a wired connection to my Netgear router but occasionally over wireless.  I don't use iPlayer a lot (once this week) so I guess I wouldn't know if things have suddenly taken a turn for the worse.
I have seen iPlayer running on other computers and you seem to need something over around 1.5 Mbps download speed to avoid buffering pauses. 
PhyllisTyne
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Re: Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

I have tried it using wireless and with homeplugs on a variety of devices - PS3, Wii, and Bush Freesat HD box. Even my main PC connected directly to the router does it sometimes. Its only an occasional problem but annoying as it is usually when the wife wants to watch something  Grin I'd just like to try an pinpoint the cause as whenever I test on getting the problem my speeds seem fine. The Wii suffers least but that maybe because its graphics require less bandwidth.
IPlayer HD content is more troubled with the problem but I might expect that.
Youtube, esp HD, to the main PC suffers as well at times but I put that down to youtube itself but maybe I have the problem.
I use a TG585V7
PT
w23
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Re: Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

Have you tried http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics?
Call me 'w23'
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PhyllisTyne
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Re: Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

yes and not usually any problem. completed just now at 6243 kbps, although no problem streaming at the moment!
dick:quote
PhyllisTyne
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Re: Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

How anal is that rule  Shocked
might be ok on a relatively quiet forum such as this but on busy ones there is a danger of another post appearing in the time it takes you to compose you own post and it subsequently not being clear who the response is directed at.
PT
Strat
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Re: Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

We do get quite busy on this forum from time to time PhyllisTyne Smiley
Doing a full quote of the previous post isn't necessary and most people find it's not a problem.
What generally happens if a post intervenes they will add @walker23 (for example) at the beginning of their post.
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w23
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Re: Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

@ Strat, I wholly agree with the 'full quote rule' as some forums get unreadable with ever-expanding responses but surely quoting a 'one line' post in full is within reason and less intrusive than many partial quotes of longer posts?
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Incidentally, this forum is one of the easiest to use, clearest and best moderated of all that I have ever used.
Smiley
@ Phyllis, since the iplayer diagnostics are supposed to diagnose suitability of a connection for actually using the iplayer I can only guess that you are suffering from intermittent slow-down - perhaps a few heavy users sharing the uplink from your exchange (probably not the correct technical term) but I suspect there's a 'bottleneck' somewhere upstream.
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jelv
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Re: Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

I was having a lot of problems with iPlayer in spite of having a 7150 Profile and being on PAYG (equivalent of Pro). HD was totally unusable.
All the problems went away when I got a new PC!
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PhyllisTyne
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Re: Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

Dear Walker23, post 8, 23.1.11 @ 11.03  Grin
I too think there must be some intermittent problem that stalls the stream for a while but its knowing how to find where it is. I suspect its unlikely to be the beeb and improbable that its some kind of intermittent exchange loading. I think it has to be something to do with PN, my router or the wireless/homeplug feed to the clients.
Cheers PT
thisoldman
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Re: Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?


hello dear phyllis.

a great many d/l sites have their own d/l speeds and restrictions.
you could have a 500mb bb but it wont make any diff to the site.
As far as im aware iplayer resticts d/l speeds at certain times of the day and todate i have been unable to persuade the bbc to tell me what these restricted times are. They simply quote supply and demand.  hope this helps
pierre_pierre
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Re: Why is Iplayer junk when my speed/ping tests are good?

re quotes, I get informed with a big red warning if a post has been made since I started typing, whats the problem with that, you can insert the quote then if it happens