Restrictions on Xbox Live streaming videos etc...

[#1]

I have been having issues viewing the streaming visoes from the 'Inside Xbox' and Spotlight sections of the dashboard for some time now. It got gradually worse throughout January and I spoke to Microsoft about it but they said it was my connection.
Streaming videos often take a while to load initially and then frequently 'buffer' throughout the duration of the video.
I checked my connection using a speedtest.net at the times I suffered these issues and found I had an average connection speed of 3000Kbps, plently for viewing a low res streaming video.
It also affects downloads from the marketplace.
I started hunting the net tonight and found a few threads in here relating to issues with PNs traffic management classifying Xbox Live video content in the same category as say Limewire downloads.
The threads I saw mentioned the snow, and stated that the issue should soon be resolved, but I am still having issues tonight. Generally I watch these vidoes between 10 - 12pm which I know is peak time, but I didn't have these issues a few months ago.
Can someone update me on what is being done about this matter as I know I am not the only one.

[#2]

Do you know what the bitrate of the videos is? It could be that they're simply getting stuck by the 1Mbps download server rate limit... I have a similar problem with iTunes, whereby PN's throttling doesn't differentiate between streaming or downloading so just classes everything as downloading with the corresponding unsatisfactory rate limit.

[#3]

streaming xbl videos and game demo ect downloads are both in the 0x60 queue aka gold plated (i did a wireshark capture to find this out)
PN increased the bandwidth for this queue and it did solve xbl videos buffering problems. but i also have noticedthem taking some time to load again but not bad as b4. and i also find that if its a newly relesed video stream iits worse.
when you have this problem try video thats bein on for awhile and i bet it buffers a hell of alot quicker and its this reason i havent shouted at pn yet as to me the current problem is with microsoft.
BUT IT WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE XBL STREAMING CLASSED AS 0x80 GOLD AND NOT 0x60 PLATED GOLD. WHAT YOU SAY PN

[#4]

Hi Asbo,
I agree, they seemed better yesterday than say a month ago, and they were fine after midnight (I guess restrictions are eased at this point?)
But they were fine when the NXE originally came out last year and being thet they are short duration, low res videos, they should be watchable at all times. I know noone on my friends list has the same issue, but none of them are on PN.
I do not have a clue what you are ging on about when you talk about 0x60 and 0x80 but I guess 0x80 is better?
It is currently only a minor niggle, but it does ruin one of the best new features of the NXE Dashboard, as I often like to watch OXM Reports, IGN Strategize, SentUamessage etc... and I only get to do this between 9 - 11pm.
PN have been a great ISP over the years and I am sure they will resolve this as quickly as they are able so I will watch this space I guess?
Hint! Hint! Hint!

[#5]

Hi there,
The problem is being able to (or rather not) separate XBL streaming traffic from XBL downloads.  Currently they are both classified as "download servers" meaning that they will be restricted to 1Mbps at peak times of the day.

[#6]

Hi James,
I am on the old 'Up to 8Mb' package with my peak times listed as 4pm - Midnight. It this when I would expect to find these restricted, or is there a general peak time for all PN users when it comes to throttling?
Is this issue being looked into or have you hit a dead end so to speak?
Also, would this affect streaming video from other sources? I have noticed issues sometimes at Peak times with viewing streaming game trailers etc... on various websites (couldn't tell you which as it is infrequent)
Cheers,
Matt.

[#7]

Hi Matt,
Sorry - I'd meant to have given you a link to show you when the restrictions apply.  It's here:
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/archive/bbyw/speed.shtml#Option3speeds
It should affect other sources of streaming video, iPlayer for example, is prioritised as Gold (0x80), with no rate limits being applied.
Whilst I don't want to say that we're ignoring what you're saying (we're not), but it's a bit of a tricky one and I'll need to speak to Dave when he gets back from holiday next week.

[#8]

Quote from: Jameseh

It should affect other sources of streaming video, iPlayer for example, is prioritised as Gold (0x80), with no rate limits being applied.

Did you meant to write this or was it meant to be 'shouln't'?  or 'could'?
Obviously you have setup iplayer to not be restricted, but what about streaming videos from say gametrailers.com or teamxbox.com? I think the one I had trouble with this week was on the Warhammer 40000 Dawn of War II site and it was the main teaser trailer. It wasn't major, just the odd jitter but may have been something else other than d/l speed being restricted.
[Moderator's note by Adie (Adiewoo):  Full quote of preceding post removed, as per Forum Rules - adjusted to just include relevant bit]

[#9]

Meant to say shouldn't
I'm not sure about the specific websites, but you could always check using Wireshark to see how they are prioritised.

[#10]

Thanks James.
What is this Wireshark you speak of?

[#11]

Wireshark = http://www.wireshark.org/
I did used to have a similar issue when I was a virgin cable customer....

[#12]

I am not particularly technically minded and that looks very complicated.
Is it even worth me attempting to use it!!!

[#13]

if your doing capture of traffic for stuff you use on your pc then its simple
but to capture xbl traffic you have to wire your console up to your pc to beable to capture its traffic. (yes i know you can aslo capture the traffic with a fancy hub/switch but that even beyond me)
@ jameseh or carl. How long dose it normal take the network geeks to decide if something needs its traffic upgrading. As i did a spotify capture about a week ago showing the p2p side of the streaming is affected by the unlimited peak time caps.
i know if it was a game it would have more priotiy. so just wondering if you two knew how long it would take for them to decide on somthing like spotify.

[#14]

Quote from: ASBO

As i did a spotify capture about a week ago showing the p2p side of the streaming is affected by the unlimited peak time caps. i know if it was a game it would have more priotiy. so just wondering if you two knew how long it would take for them to decide on somthing like spotify.

As the connections are encrypted its been difficult to find a signature for this application.  I have requested support from our supplier to find a suitable signature for this traffic.  Also it seems if your using encrypted BitTorrent the Spotify traffic is being classified incorrectly as BitTorrent.  Do you use BitTorrent?

[#15]

yeah i do use encypt torrents. but i am sure spotify p2p still gets limited to the lowest speed cap of 16KB/s at peak time solely runing on the connection.
but hearing that i will keep a closer eye on spotify speeds when dual runing the two traffic types togther.
thanks for the info.
edit= just tested this and it is true.   i had encpyt torrent uploading all day and ran spotify and would not go over the 32KB/s current p2p cap. shut the torrent off and re ran spotify and still got 32KB/s . so got a diffrent ip address to make sure the torrent tracker wasnt still sending connection attempts to my ip address and with a fresh ip address i was geting full line speed.