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On Demand downloads slow
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[Deleted User]
Posts: 3 Forum Member
I've got a 50mb connection with smallworld cable(soon to be Virgin) it works great online, with Xbox, with Netflix etc but several times with sky on demand services I've hit buffer whilst trying to watch program's! Anyone else having same issues? I've reset connections and stuff and am now on the new virgin hub but still slow!!
Cheers for any help
Martin
Cheers for any help
Martin
0
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Do you know if your supplier operates any traffic shaping or throttling of the service?
A lot of people seem to find Sky's on demand slow to download, there's been several threads here about it. I find it much slower compared to downloading a similar sized file on the PC. However it should be enough to play without hitting the buffer.
OP is not on virgin yet though.
Good point. Although from looking at their fair use policy, Smallworld seems to have no traffic management either.
they don't need one.
their network is rubbish as it is, so never gets to the point where it needs managed
As there were no other problems at my end I can only think that at times the Sky servers get bogged down or have other issues which cause the slowness.
The boxes are hard wired to the router but for the last few weeks things have been ok.
Then again, that is plenty fast enough to watch the show almost instantly, in this situation, higher speed is not required.
Sky have capped the download speed from their servers at around 12Mbps. As pointed out, this is perfectly fine for instant availability on most assets. It also allows you to carry on using your connection as it doesn't saturate it. The software on the box calculates your download speed and allows you start watching when enough has downloaded to show the programme buffer free. Seeing the buffer message would indicate an issue with your ISP, not Sky. I've never seen the buffer message, so I guess my connection is more consistent.
The movies are generally available to start watching in minutes, whereas a show from Box Sets won't be available for anything up to 15 minutes.
If you want to watch from the beginning - yes. If you want to watch from halfway through then this limitation is a pain in the arse - as you have to sit there waiting for 50% of the thing to download at an artificially slow pace before you get to the bit you want to watch.
And as others have suggested - if the OP's Sky box is connected to his router wirelessly rather than wired, this also has a detrimental effect on the speed that On Demand downloads hit the box. I've got two Sky+ HD boxes - the one which is wired to my router could download a HD movie in less than a quarter of the time it takes the one which is wirelessly connected.
The first I started to download at 8pm. It was available instantly. I hit the buffer twice before deciding to give it 30 minutes to download some more so I could watch in peace.
The second I started to download at 10:30pm. It was available instantly and I checked after about 15 minutes and it was 60% downloaded already.
So I don't know if it was the movie, the channel, the time, the server or what but in the space of 2 hours I had two different experiences with the streaming.
The download is declared ready to watch when the system calculates that real time playback will never catch up with the download, but that completely relies on the initial download speed being maintained at the start level all the way through the download, which may not be the case of course due to many possible factors.
AFAIK it never re-calculates once it's started, as that would be irrelevant if you've already started to watch!
how as catch up records on to the hard drive , thought you could only rec two programs and watch something you had recorded with sky