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am i being capped for watching stream content?
rock8633
Posts: 1,320 Forum Member
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Ok, my brother has been stoping with me since Monday and hes a member of lovefilm and hes been watching streamed movies on his ps3,now since Monday my speed has been bad,hes watched a few movies today and ive been capped for sure,im getting 2.5mb out of 10mb download ,and 256kb out of 1mb upload.I can understand Virgin capping people for p2p and other download sites but streaming?this is all legit stuff he is watching,any help please...:mad:
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Unfortunately Traffic Management affects streamed legal content too.
http://shop.virginmedia.com/help/traffic-management/traffic-management-policy.html
http://www.lovefilm.com/features/detail.html?editorial_id=29959
You appear to be mixing up Megabits (Mb) and Megabytes (MB).
A 10Mb connection should be fine for number of 1.6Mb streams.
So if someone is streaming movies their speed will be traffic managed as soon as they hit the limits what else do you think has triggered the traffic management, next time think before trying to be pedantic:rolleyes:.
1.6MBps is more than a 10meg line is capable of sustaining as in the link below which shows how to run a speed test on a Virginmedia connection.
http://www.virginmedia.com/testmyspeed/manual.php
Lovefilm recommend a speed "of at least 2Mb per second" and say they stream at "1.6 Mbps". They are quoting in Megabits per second. A 10Mbps line quite easily copes with at least 2Mbps.
I may be pedantic, but you are still mixing up Megabits and Megabytes.
As the OP has only been traffic managed since his brother started streaming movies it points directly to it being the problem and very likely they have put the wrong bits instead of bytes so blame them.
OK, the web site you are quoting from is wrong and you are right.
I suspect its the other way round though. You can easily stream at that sort of quality using 2Mbps (Megabits).
AFAIK stream media is NOT supposed to managed however it is in the download cap so if you are not on 50mb and within the cap period then lovefilms will be effected.
You didn't just copy from their site. Their site says 1.6Mbps. That's with a small b for bits. You are claiming that its 1.6MBps. That's a big B for Bytes. What they are printed and what you have said are different.
VM sell their tiers at Mbps. So when Lovefilm say they recommend 2Mbps, 10Mbps is plenty. Of course VM will still cap you in the end.
They are not HD movies, only SD. A bit rate of 1.6Mbps is plenty for that.
But of course you cannot think outside of the box.
Now if you had originally posted about a possible typo instead of googling an explanation to post we would not be here, but you are obviously akin to a pot that more than likely finds pancakes good to toss.;)
I've just read your post including the quote. . .
VM's traffic management only applies to P2P services?!?!?
So I can download off iTunes, download PlayStation Demo's. . .watch Sky Mobile TV all without being throttled?!?!?!
EXCELLENT NEWS
It's so poorly worded.
Three of the examples they give of non-P2P use are nothing but P2P.
1.6 MegaBytes per second is 12.8Mbps and the average UK broadband is way way less than that so if your assertion is correct LoveFilm shouldn't have any customers.
SD quality streamed video doesn't need 12Mbps or anything close to it so the figures quoted on the LoveFilm site are correct and you are wrong.
The VM STM threshold is purely data based - there is no distinction between streaming and downloading.
The shaping is supposed to apply only to P2P and NNTP but some streaming is done using P2P type protocols.
So they're lying
If I streamed Sky Sports constantly and downloaded 1gb of demo's off the net I'll still get capped
STM apples to all data passing over the connection.
In addition shaping applies to P2P and NNTP
What is so difficult to understand about that?
Virgins speeds are 10Mbps, 20Mbps, 50Mbps.
...so easily enough speed on either. Theres still many many people on xDSL connections that struggle to average out at 1.6Mbps.
1.6Mbps is like 200KB/s, thats 12MB of data per minute. 720MB per hour.
So after 2 hours of streaming from lovefilm, during 4pm - 9pm, your speed is reduced to 2.5Mbps instead of the normal 10.
Or after 4 hours of streaming from lovefilm, during 10am - 3pm, your speed is reduced to 2.5Mbps instead of the normal 10.
At 2.5Mbps, your brother was using 1.6, leaving you with little more than half a meg.
No worries tho, within the next few months the people on 10Mb will get free upgrade to 20Mb at no extra monthly cost. Same for people on 20 they are going to 50 just the same. People on the 50Mb will just get it a cheaper monthly price. This isnt fact in the official sense, but is fact judging from previous upgrades since 512Kbps broadband was released. The new 50Mb modem/hub will probably be free, i mean VM are going to be being a very large bulk order of it, reduced cost and all that.
Huh?
STM. . . if you download over 3000mb you get capped?
Additional Shaping to P2P?. . . What?
In what way are those different - I've no idea. Surely the P2P is included in the download 3000mb limit so why are there two sections (STM and P2P)
STM applies to ALL traffic - P2P and non-P2P. It does nothing until you hit the threshold and then your speeds get reduced for ALL traffic.
Traffic shaping - applies only to P2P traffic and within the time periods mentioned, this is always applied irrespective of how much you have downloaded/uploaded.
The two forms of traffic management are independent of each other.
2Mb for an SD stream is pretty standard. That's what a decent iPlayer stream needs too. 12Mb and above is what is needed for an HD stream.
Lovefilm have got it right. 10Mb should be fine for this, always.
This is not going to happen for many reasons:
1) Virgin Media's network is really under a lot of strain at the moment. In many areas, the upload speed increase that is rolling out (giving all packages a 10:1 downstream:upstream ratio) will take a very long time because the network in those areas hasn't seen enough investment.
In order to complete the upload increase in these areas, a large investment will need to be made by Virgin Media. This has the potential to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds in each area - and that is only enough to maintain current subscriber levels and service quality.
Many areas are heavily oversubscribed, with even more investment required to maintain adequate service levels - with or without any speed increases.
A further speed increase (either from 10>20 or 20>50) would only cost more on top of these upgrades and in many areas would require significant additional expenditure with NO extra income for VM.
2) Even if the network was able to support these higher speeds for everyone, the modems that most people on the 20mbps package have aren't suitable for 50mbps. The cost of upgrading those modems would be very high. With the cost of the above upgrades really pulling on Virgin Media's purse strings, it's unlikely that they would want to spend so much to upgrade their packages.
The only rumour I have seen that makes some sense is an upgrade from 20 to 25mbps. This wouldn't cost as much to implement on the network, wouldn't require new modems and would be more relevant in the market (with many ISPs touting "up to" 22mbps packages).
This stuff is elementary to anybody with some knowledge of computing