Why do none of the BBC's internet streaming videos ever seem to play well?

Hi All,

Just wondering if everyone else experiences the same, essentially terrible,
quality of the BBC's internet streaming videos (i.e. realplayer, windows
media, etc.). They always seem to arrive at substantially less than half the
indicated bandwidth and so skip frames to the order of 80/90%+ (i.e. 80/90%
of the video is not shown).

They seem to have managed to get their audio streams (radio stations) to
operate reasonably decently and reliably but the video has almost always
seemed close to dire or abysmal! (It also seems they may have now stopped
their lowest bandwidth stream option which sometimes at least seemed
passable!).

All input, experiences, thoughts, etc. welcomed.

Thanks and best wishes,



News Reader

On 6-Jul-2006, "News Reader" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> All input, experiences, thoughts, etc. welcomed.

Could be ISP traffic shaping and ISP's tending to spens money
on advertising rather than bandwidth. Nothing can go faster
than the slowest link in the chain. Have you tried it at
3am in the morning?

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)
> On 6-Jul-2006, "News Reader" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> > All input, experiences, thoughts, etc. welcomed.
>
> Could be ISP traffic shaping and ISP's tending to spens
> money on advertising rather than bandwidth. Nothing can
> go faster than the slowest link in the chain. Have you
> tried it at 3am in the morning?

3am in the afternoon might be a tad difficult ;-)

Ivor

News Reader <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Just wondering if everyone else experiences the same, essentially terrible,
> quality of the BBC's internet streaming videos (i.e. realplayer, windows
> media, etc.).

Just yesterday I was having the same problem watching the broadband
version of Newsnight using RealPlayer for the Mac. However, with "Send
connection quality data to RealServers" ticked in the preferences, and
also the connection speed and max bandwidth preferences set to 512Kbps,
I managed to play the whole program with only a couple of hiccups near
the start.

I have a 1Mbps ADSL connection so I suppose the 512Kbps setting doesn't
stretch the limits of my bandwidth. I also presume that the player is
able to tell the server how much data is getting through and how bursty
it is so the server can tailor its output accordingly.

Other settings I have that may be relevant are:

* Enable caching: cache size 20MB
* Buffer 10 seconds before playing
* Use hardware video overlay optimisations

Please let us know if any of this helps you or not.

--
James Taylor

"James Taylor" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:1hi3xan.hvxasbt02vvfN%(E-Mail Removed) .uk.invalid...
> News Reader <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> > Just wondering if everyone else experiences the same, essentially
terrible,
> > quality of the BBC's internet streaming videos (i.e. realplayer, windows
> > media, etc.).
>
> Just yesterday I was having the same problem watching the broadband
> version of Newsnight using RealPlayer for the Mac. However, with "Send
> connection quality data to RealServers" ticked in the preferences, and
> also the connection speed and max bandwidth preferences set to 512Kbps,
> I managed to play the whole program with only a couple of hiccups near
> the start.
>
> I have a 1Mbps ADSL connection so I suppose the 512Kbps setting doesn't
> stretch the limits of my bandwidth. I also presume that the player is
> able to tell the server how much data is getting through and how bursty
> it is so the server can tailor its output accordingly.
>
> Other settings I have that may be relevant are:
>
> * Enable caching: cache size 20MB
> * Buffer 10 seconds before playing
> * Use hardware video overlay optimisations
>
> Please let us know if any of this helps you or not.
>
> --
> James Taylor


Hi,

Thank you kindly for your suggestions.

I will try these.

Based on Real's rather murky history on "sending" of any data to anyone I
default to preventing any such outgoings from their software.

I will however experiment and thank you very much.


Best wishes,



News Reader

(P.s. Amusingly I was also attempting to watch the Newsnight stream the
other night. Further - I believe if you throttle your connection manually
you can force it down to a lower bandwidth stream which often seems to work
much more reliably - e.g. / i.e. 38kbps vs. 215kbps - thanks again).

P.p.s. Thanks to all for your input (in part it may be ISP related -
however I have experienced this across several providers). Thanks all again!
Any further input always welcomed / appreciated / etc.

On 7 Jul 2006, "News Reader" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Based on Real's rather murky history on "sending" of any data to anyone I
>default to preventing any such outgoings from their software.

Depending on your firewall software, you might be able to selectively enable
the Real s/w to pass traffic to/from the particular service you want whilst
still keeping it from any "call home" traffic. For example if you can let
it access 212.*.*.* then it'd allow feedback to BBC but not Real Networks

(I am guessing at the IP for whatever it was you wanted...) Peter M.

Ivor Jones wrote:

> 3am in the afternoon might be a tad difficult ;-)

That depends entirely on how well the brain is functioning and takes
some of the importance away from Traffic shaping.

Incredibly, I dont think the useds problem lies with their ISP, I think
Its just cause their computer cant handle it...

Get a new one buddy..... Or rip the RM files and watch them at a better
quality whenever the desire takes you.... Then again maybe your 500Mb
harddrive cant take much more...



# Ivor

Brian

Ivor Jones wrote:

> 3am in the afternoon might be a tad difficult ;-)

That depends entirely on how well the brain is functioning and takes
some of the importance away from Traffic shaping.

Incredibly, I dont think the useds problem lies with their ISP, I think
Its just cause their computer cant handle it...

Get a new one buddy..... Or rip the RM files and watch them at a better
quality whenever the desire takes you.... Then again maybe your 500Mb
harddrive cant take much more...



# Ivor

Brian