BBC iPlayer buffering

[Tony Gamble]

My broadband can download at 200mps when requested. I know that from
when I download movies for viewing later.

On Monday we watched the BAFTA Awards on iPlayer and there was frequent
buffering. It happened again last night (Saturday) whilst catching up a
BBC2 prog.

I had accessed iPlayer using the software on my LG Oled tv.

I can also get iPlayer using my Humax PVR but stopped using that route
as someone told me that Humax had some sort of hub it used for on-line
catch up.

My third route is using a Nvidia Shield that contains the Android
iPlayer app. I will see if that reduces the buffering.

I'm posting here as I also wonder if something like iPlayer can get over
saturated with requests. Is this the thin end of the wedge as more and
more of us are being encouraged to use the internet to watch their TV? I
read that Sky are encouraging that so they can eventually abandon their
satellites.

I'm old enough to remember the days when those who needed internet tried
to use it before noon and the East Coast of the USA went online.

Tony G
Ex AR and LWT

[David Wade]

Post by Tony Gamble
My broadband can download at 200mps when requested. I know that from
when I download movies for viewing later.
On Monday we watched the BAFTA Awards on iPlayer and there was frequent
buffering. It happened again last night (Saturday) whilst catching up a
BBC2 prog.
I had accessed iPlayer using the software on my LG Oled tv.
I can also get iPlayer using my Humax PVR but stopped using that route
as someone told me that Humax had some sort of hub it used for on-line
catch up.
My third route is using a Nvidia Shield that contains the Android
iPlayer app. I will see if that reduces the buffering.
I'm posting here as I also wonder if something like iPlayer can get over
saturated with requests. Is this the thin end of the wedge as more and
more of us are being encouraged to use the internet to watch their TV? I
read that Sky are encouraging that so they can eventually abandon their
satellites.

Of course it can, generally servers, or server farms, are sized to cope
with the current load plus some spare for growth. If demand grows to
exceed supply the wheels fall off..

Of course the internet is a network. Data does not flow directly from
the iPlayer to your PC. If there is a bottleneck anywhere along this
path it will buffer...

...

Post by Tony Gamble
I'm old enough to remember the days when those who needed internet tried
to use it before noon and the East Coast of the USA went online.

It will improve over time...

Dave

Post by Tony Gamble
Tony G
Ex AR and LWT

[MikeS]

Post by Tony Gamble
My broadband can download at 200mps when requested. I know that from
when I download movies for viewing later.
On Monday we watched the BAFTA Awards on iPlayer and there was frequent
buffering. It happened again last night (Saturday) whilst catching up a
BBC2 prog.
I had accessed iPlayer using the software on my LG Oled tv.
I can also get iPlayer using my Humax PVR but stopped using that route
as someone told me that Humax had some sort of hub it used for on-line
catch up.
My third route is using a Nvidia Shield that contains the Android
iPlayer app. I will see if that reduces the buffering.
I'm posting here as I also wonder if something like iPlayer can get over
saturated with requests. Is this the thin end of the wedge as more and
more of us are being encouraged to use the internet to watch their TV? I
read that Sky are encouraging that so they can eventually abandon their
satellites.
I'm old enough to remember the days when those who needed internet tried
to use it before noon and the East Coast of the USA went online.
Tony G
Ex AR and LWT

If you are connecting with WiFi that is the first place to look for a
problem.

[Tony Gamble]

Post by MikeS

Post by Tony Gamble
My broadband can download at 200mps when requested. I know that from
when I download movies for viewing later.
On Monday we watched the BAFTA Awards on iPlayer and there was
frequent buffering. It happened again last night (Saturday) whilst
catching up a BBC2 prog.
I had accessed iPlayer using the software on my LG Oled tv.
I can also get iPlayer using my Humax PVR but stopped using that route
as someone told me that Humax had some sort of hub it used for on-line
catch up.
My third route is using a Nvidia Shield that contains the Android
iPlayer app. I will see if that reduces the buffering.
I'm posting here as I also wonder if something like iPlayer can get
over saturated with requests. Is this the thin end of the wedge as
more and more of us are being encouraged to use the internet to watch
their TV? I read that Sky are encouraging that so they can eventually
abandon their satellites.
I'm old enough to remember the days when those who needed internet
tried to use it before noon and the East Coast of the USA went online.
Tony G
Ex AR and LWT

If you are connecting with WiFi that is the first place to look for a
problem.

My wifi is running at about 200mps so it ought to handle iPlayer. Thats
5g from my Huawei.

When I look at my LTE H-Monitor I see the graph wavering around 30-50mps
for that sort of accsss. I downloaded a couple of movies yesterday and
it wavered from 250 to 300.

[Jim Lesurf]

Post by Tony Gamble
My wifi is running at about 200mps so it ought to handle iPlayer. Thats
5g from my Huawei.
When I look at my LTE H-Monitor I see the graph wavering around 30-50mps
for that sort of accsss. I downloaded a couple of movies yesterday and
it wavered from 250 to 300.

Interesting. We get a max of about 50mps in the period before 9am. Slower
during the day. This is fine as I generally use gip to fetch things in the
morning before 9am as I make our breakfasts. Faster that daytime, and
doesn't count towards our useage 'cap'. Never watch x1 rate as it downloads
using the standard streaming.

Jim

[Tony Gamble]

Post by Tony Gamble

Post by MikeS

Post by Tony Gamble
My broadband can download at 200mps when requested. I know that from
when I download movies for viewing later.
On Monday we watched the BAFTA Awards on iPlayer and there was
frequent buffering. It happened again last night (Saturday) whilst
catching up a BBC2 prog.
I had accessed iPlayer using the software on my LG Oled tv.
I can also get iPlayer using my Humax PVR but stopped using that
route as someone told me that Humax had some sort of hub it used for
on-line catch up.
My third route is using a Nvidia Shield that contains the Android
iPlayer app. I will see if that reduces the buffering.
I'm posting here as I also wonder if something like iPlayer can get
over saturated with requests. Is this the thin end of the wedge as
more and more of us are being encouraged to use the internet to watch
their TV? I read that Sky are encouraging that so they can eventually
abandon their satellites.
I'm old enough to remember the days when those who needed internet
tried to use it before noon and the East Coast of the USA went online.
Tony G
Ex AR and LWT

If you are connecting with WiFi that is the first place to look for a
problem.

My wifi is running at about 200mps so it ought to handle iPlayer. Thats
5g from my Huawei.
When I look at my LTE H-Monitor I see the graph wavering around 30-50mps
for that sort of accsss. I downloaded a couple of movies yesterday and
it wavered from 250 to 300.

Watched YouTube all evening with not one case of buffering.

Same equipment if anyone is thinking of asking.

[Davey]

On Wed, 28 Feb 2024 21:47:41 +0000

Watched YouTube all evening...

Oh dear.

[Tony Gamble]

Post by Davey
On Wed, 28 Feb 2024 21:47:41 +0000

Watched YouTube all evening...

Oh dear.

We watehed the movie The Last of the Mohicans and then used YouTube to
look at clips showing how the film was made and also some interviews
with the actors.

Oh dear you say but we find YouTube often more informative and
entertaining than iPlayer.

It also does not buffer!!

[Java Jive]

Post by Tony Gamble
Oh dear you say but we find YouTube often more informative and
entertaining than iPlayer.
It also does not buffer!!

It does for me, particularly the rather beautiful but somewhat over
made-up Anna From Ukraine, but I guess that might have something to do
with the war in her country.

However, you can avoid buffering in both by using GetIPlayer and
YouTubeDownloadPlus.

[Tony Gamble]

Post by Java Jive

Post by Tony Gamble
Oh dear you say but we find YouTube often more informative and
entertaining than iPlayer.
It also does not buffer!!

It does for me, particularly the rather beautiful but somewhat over
made-up Anna From Ukraine, but I guess that might have something to do
with the war in her country.
However, you can avoid buffering in both by using GetIPlayer and
YouTubeDownloadPlus.

Thanks. I did not know about those two apps.

T

[Jim Lesurf]

Post by Tony Gamble

Post by Java Jive
However, you can avoid buffering in both by using GetIPlayer and
YouTubeDownloadPlus.

Thanks. I did not know about those two apps.

That said, GIP users are slightly worried that the changes the BBC
'promise' for March 11th might also upset using GIP. Fingers are crossed. I
guess those who can't see a mobile 'device' screen very well may also be
hit.

I didn't know about YouTubeDownloadPlus. My old YT fetcher stopped working
a while ago and I've not found and set up a useable way to fetch files from
YT. So I'll be interested to see if that runs OK on Linux.

Jim

[David Paste]

Post by Jim Lesurf
I didn't know about YouTubeDownloadPlus. My old YT fetcher stopped
working a while ago and I've not found and set up a useable way to fetch
files from YT. So I'll be interested to see if that runs OK on Linux.
Jim

yt-dlp is what I use.

[Max Demian]

Post by David Paste

Post by Jim Lesurf
I didn't know about YouTubeDownloadPlus. My old YT fetcher stopped
working a while ago and I've not found and set up a useable way to fetch
files from YT. So I'll be interested to see if that runs OK on Linux.
Jim

yt-dlp is what I use.

Microsoft Edge has YouTube downloader extensions. I use Simple YouTube
downloader. Firefox has extensions too.

[Jim Lesurf]

Post by David Paste

Post by Jim Lesurf
I didn't know about YouTubeDownloadPlus. My old YT fetcher stopped
working a while ago and I've not found and set up a useable way to
fetch files from YT. So I'll be interested to see if that runs OK on
Linux.
Jim

yt-dlp is what I use.

Yes. I did get that some time ago. But then had a problem setting up the
support code libraries it needs. So put it to one side and did other
things. Maybe I should have another try and seek help with the process.

Wasn't fussed as most of my interest is on the iPlayer and gip was my
method of choice. But if gip fails then I guess we may need yt-dlp...
assuming *it* will work if gip can't any more.

Jim

[Tristan Wibberley]

Post by Tony Gamble
My broadband can download at 200mps when requested. I know that from
when I download movies for viewing later.
On Monday we watched the BAFTA Awards on iPlayer and there was frequent
buffering. It happened again last night (Saturday) whilst catching up a
BBC2 prog.

Just a note that buffering is good, buffering is another name for
readahead but may include cases when the player hasn't specifically
requested the data. The problem is that the data isn't arriving so the
buffer is empty and so the *only* thing that is happening is buffering.
The player tells you its buffering not because the condition of failure
is called buffering but so that you know its not a broken player nor
that the programme has stopped, but that data isn't coming fast enough
for the buffering it does a lot of the time even and especially while
playback is working in order to stay ahead of the playback.

Don't ask any product managers to stop your player from buffering or to
make it buffer less - because then your viewing experience will get
worse as it will have less data buffered ahead of the playback - you
need it to buffer more when your transport is constricted so that the
moments of nonconstriction are used effectively to carry the playback
across to the next nonconstriction.