[reeves1985]

Hi
I'm after some help

I have a sub with Al Jazeera sport for the premier league but I am having a major problem with the streaming

After I login and open up a channel the stream starts and plays fine. After a few seconds the quality kicks in and give a really good quality picture
Then after a few minutes or so the picture gets all juddery and my CPU usage jumps right up to 100%

It is also noticeable worse if I connect the laptop to the tv with hdmi

I'm using a 30 meg virmin fibre line
And the laptop is a toshiba satellite L500-19X
The specs are here:
http://www.toshiba.co.uk/discontinue...lite-l500-19x/

I have seen a lot of people using lower spec rigs and stream absolutely fine

Also of note I have no issues streaming other flash content at HD resolutions
But I do have the same issue with the test stream on premier league pass

I have tested my line and it is up to the full 30mbps

And I have tried both Ethernet and wifi
Also I did a fresh install of win7 thinking that would cure it
But nothing has worked

I have tried hola and overplay but again still the same

I would appreciate if someone could give me any advice

Thanks

[ricsterg]

They are fine tuning their equipment. I emailed them and their answer back was please be patient we are working on it.

They've just put the hd channels live and are upping the bandwidth.

[reeves1985]

Have you had the same issue as me with the streaming?

[kosmos5457]

I've had the QuickTime image in the background suggesting audio only when streaming on iPhone and iPad, any ideas? Using SmartDNS, not VPN. Channels are pixelated at best too!

[Robbo18]

The iPad app is a waste of time, I've had maybe one day of good quality the rest of the time it refuses to play or plays in Lego mode. It's testing your connection always to stop it stuttering by reducing quality and its as if my connection isn't good enough. Never had a problem with ADMC I think these guys just suck.

[reeves1985]

I did speak with ajs and they said for the HD channels the minimum connection is 4mbps

I haven't tried the iPad or iPhone apps though so cannot comment

[reeves1985]

Quick update to my issues

I dug out an old http I used when the cable scene was booming

The system is 4-5 years old
Has a abit AN-M2HD mboard
Using the standard on board gfx (GeForce 7050)
And a AMD Athlon 64 x2 dual core cpu over locked slightly to 3.02ghz from 2.7ghz

Again with my 30mbps fibre line connected directly to a 40" TV

Now the interesting part is if I use the native resolution which is full 1080p (TV res)
I get the same stuttering as I did before

But interestingly if I set it to 720p again TV resolution not pc res
I get a very watchable picture with minimal stutter

The only assumption I can make from this is that the CPU in my laptop which is a penguin dual core 2.1ghz cannot handle the pace which is what is causing problems

But what is interesting me more is people with lower spec rigs and laptops being able to stream with good quality

[Graeme_Wood]

I'm playing at 720p with a dual core and Radeon 5450 HTPC, the picture quality is great, but this is a slight judder every few seconds - as if its skipping a frame or two. Plays great when in a window on the page, just judders when full screen.

Might have to drop my resolution again and see if that helps.

[paul_smith3]

im still not sure what the fuss is over this ALJAZ.. if any one knows the sat hobby there are loads and loads of other channels...

[reeves1985]

Problem is if you drop resolution lower than 720p the pic itself looks funny on the screen I tried that

I can put up with the pic at 720p

I am thinking I may upgrade the graphics car to a radeon 6670 HD 1gb

Do you think that will help?

I have my CPU now running a 3.1ghz (dual core) and have an additional 2gb ram on the way

So my spec will be
AMD Athlon 64 x2 5200+ running at 3.1ghz
4gb ram
Radeon 6670 HD 1gb DDR3 or radeon HD 6670 2gb DDR3

Hoping to run at 720p smooth

[Graeme_Wood]

Your current spec should be fine - at the minute my HTPC plays 1080p bluray rips with no problems at all ( some of these are 40gb in size ), so I think its more of an issue with flash / Al Jazeera itself.

[reeves1985]

I have tried 2 different setups
My htpc also plays full 1080p blu rays and streams hd content great from elsewhere

But my assumption was based on my laptop which has less cpu and a poorer integrated graphics card
Which struggles even more than my httpc

If it is a issue with flash from the ajs end I can't see it getting sorted as it is already using the latest flash etc
And they have just upgraded the channels

Also if you look at you cpu usage when playing said stream the CPU usage jumps to 95-100%

[ricsterg]

This is their response back to me after the shocking pq of eng v sco last night. Seems to be an issue when it flipped from the game to the effects of the badges after a replay and then back to the live game.

Quote:

Hi ,

Thanks for your email.

All channels are working fine from our side, Please note the following:

The quality of the stream largely depends on the connection speed you receive from your Internet Service Provider. We provide the stream at various speeds which will pick up from your broadband speed along with the processor speed of your computer.

Please make sure you are using the latest version of Adobe Flash Player and have this set as your default media player, you can download it for free via the following link

In order to download the latest flash player please visit the following site: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

We use an adaptive player on our website and applications. This automatically selects the best possible quality for you. We incorporate live adaptive streaming when available, so will always provide you with the best quality video available depending on your internet connection.

Please remember that broadband connections are shared by location. This is known as the Contention Ratio. If many people in your area have the same Internet Service Provider then you will be sharing the connection with them. For this reason it may be better to view clips at a lower quality (speed) than normal to reduce the buffering breaks.

Although ISPs advertise various speeds for their broadband service, these are maximum speeds and are not always achieved. The routing chosen by your ISP to reach our servers can also have an effect on the stream. The more hubs that the stream passes though, the more likely is there to be a degradation of the video displayed. It may improve the situation if you disconnect from the internet completely then re-connect to get a different routing.

You can test your current speed here http://www.speedtest.net/

To save bandwidth, turn off any other browser windows that are open and close other applications that use the internet. Close as many other applications as possible to save RAM.

If your speed is sufficient and you are still experiencing interrupted playback you can test your broadband line by going to www.pingtest.net

Best Regards,
Customer Services
ALJAZEERASPORT.TV

[Simon Rodgers]

Can you subscribe to Al Jazeera sports via Sky at all?

[Adam_Holt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon Rodgers

Can you subscribe to Al Jazeera sports via Sky at all?

No you can't

[St@mmie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by reeves1985

Problem is if you drop resolution lower than 720p the pic itself looks funny on the screen I tried that

I can put up with the pic at 720p

I am thinking I may upgrade the graphics car to a radeon 6670 HD 1gb

Do you think that will help?

I have my CPU now running a 3.1ghz (dual core) and have an additional 2gb ram on the way

So my spec will be
AMD Athlon 64 x2 5200+ running at 3.1ghz
4gb ram
Radeon 6670 HD 1gb DDR3 or radeon HD 6670 2gb DDR3

Hoping to run at 720p smooth

That spec should be more than enough, one of my pc's running it is only based on an AMD A4 APU which is basically a dual core Athlon X2 at 2.7ghz with integrated Radeon HD 6410D GPU with 4gb DDR3 1600 Ram, I initially had the odd stutter with it, but found if I set the resolution to 720p @ 50hz it played fine and have discovered this evening that if I use Firefox as a browser it plays fine without messing with the resolution.

[reeves1985]

Quote:

Originally Posted by St@mmie

That spec should be more than enough, one of my pc's running it is only based on an AMD A4 APU which is basically a dual core Athlon X2 at 2.7ghz with integrated Radeon HD 6410D GPU with 4gb DDR3 1600 Ram, I initially had the odd stutter with it, but found if I set the resolution to 720p @ 50hz it played fine and have discovered this evening that if I use Firefox as a browser it plays fine without messing with the resolution.

That is why I cannot understand it!

Your graphics card is a better one than mine but as you say i still should be able to get a decent enough stream to make it watchable

I will try Firefox and see how I go with that as that is the only browser I haven't tried

[Simon Rodgers]

How DO you get this channel in the UK? Is it internet only?

[The Big Roberto]

Try this, right click on the video, then uncheck "hardware acceleration". Then restart browser

[reeves1985]

Tried that a few times already

Makes no difference unfortunately

[The Big Roberto]

Graphics card settings is the other thing I would try, if you do change the graphic card settings I would recommend rebooting after changes are made.

[Kingsd316]

Apologies but I posted this in the premier league thread

I'm also getting the 100% CPU usage problem and jittery screen, never had any probs streaming before (ADMC) but laptop is about 3 years old, 3gb ram, god knows what graphics card and Vista operating system

Given up now and am hoping for a decent iphone app update so I can get a cable direct to the tv

[The Big Roberto]

I have had no problems streaming from AJ. Here is what I'm using

HTPC connected to 50" TV via HDMI
Firefox Browser
AMD 640 3.0Ghz quad core
8 GB DDR3 1333Mhz
2 GB Radeon HD6670
Asus M5A78L-M LX V2 Motherboard
Corsair Builder Series CX500W PSU

[reeves1985]

I have just installed the Firefox browser and it seems a lot better!!!

I'm not saying its jitter free but it is a massive improvement this is on my 40" TV ant believe it or not it is set to 1080p

I can only try the free channel as I am waiting for my account to be reset again


At the min I only have 2gb ddr2 ram in until the other 2gb arrive

I'm hopping for the best but don't want to jinx it

Roberts the radeon you have I have been toying with the idea of getting it

It's budget compared to the new big cat gfx cards but it looks decent enough
With plenty of umph
Would you recommend?

[reeves1985]

Also my flash player keeps crashing in chrome and Firefox

I looked on net and the only solution seems to be to downgrade to 10.3 which I have but I still have the problem