One of those not-sure-where-to-start problems. Since we got BT Infinity a year ago, and especially since the BBC introduced the big-screen, easy-click iPlayer last August, we've enjoyed superb pictures and performance, to the point where we'd got right out of the habit of bothering to record BBC programmes.
Recently, though, even on the SD setting, everything we watch is interrupted by the 'buffering' swirly. A speed test from a PC shows a healthy speed of 30 down and 10 up, but the same thing on the PS3 showed a shocking 3 down and 0.125 up, while still reporting a wifi signal of 70-80%.
There's no external aerial on the PS3; changing the orientation of the box helped a little but it hadn't moved since the time it worked without a hiccup. There's more we could do to improve its wifi performance, I'm sure, but it's frustrating that it's started doing this after working so well.
So before I start work on the bits I can control, I'm asking for some intelligence on the bit I can't, the server end. Has anyone else noticed a recent (last six weeks) degradation in iPlayer performance, regardless of platform?
EDIT: for what it's worth, the Channel 4 4OD player, although a pile of poo by comparison with the iPlayer, doesn't suffer these interruptions to anything like the same extent.
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Wed 15 Feb 12 at 12:00
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I got a speed drop on iPlayer last week (or was it the week before) for a short period. Speed test showed a slowdown on the Internet connection.
WDB is this all the time on the PS3? Questions I'd be asking is:
- Is the speed that low all the time on the PS3?
- Have you tried changing the WiFi channel?
- Does rebooting the HomeHub make a difference? If you got BT Inifinity last year you will have a HomeHub2 and sometimes I have to reboot mine.
- When iPlayer is slow on the PS3, what's it like on the PC?
- How does the PC connect to the HomeHub? WiFi or Ethernet
- What happens if you try the PS3 connected directly to the HomeHub via Ethernet?
It sounds to me to be a speed problem from the PS3 to the HomeHub to me if the speed is fine on the PC. You might have a signal strength of 70+% but still might be seeing interference on the channel used.
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I use a Wii box for iplayer. When I first set the thing up iplayer was very slow to load and was always buffering as you describe. I gave it up as a dead loss as I don't have a particularly fast broadband connection anyway.
I then thought I would try moving the router. Moved it about 6 foot. iplayer now perfect.
Realise your was originally OK but might be worth a try
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And as I suggest higher up it is worth trying the PS3 plugged into the HomeHub via Ethernet too.
I realise the OP is restricted where they can put the HomeHub itself as it has the BT Openreach Huaweii EchoLife HG612 plugged into it.
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Thanks, chaps. I've been off work with flu this week - nice souvenir from my travels last week - so had plenty of time for thinking but no energy for doing. Feeling a bit brighter today, so I'll have a dig around the various boxes and see what a bit of tweaking can achieve.
Incidentally, I never watch iPlayer on a PC, although it would be a useful test. I did watch a whole programme on the iPhone yesterday. That ran without a hitch, but I imagine the server recognises the small screen and sends it an appropriately thinner stream.
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>> Incidentally, I never watch iPlayer on a PC, although it would be a useful test.
Which is why I suggested it - test it out when the PS3 is having problems.
The iPhone is going to be using a different stream to other devices because it does not support Flash video. And if it's an iPhone specific stream will have lower bandwidth requirements (resolution is lower).
Have you also done a broadband speed test from the iPhone when the PS3 is having problems?
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OK, not sure whether to be more or less puzzled now.
Still recovering, so I have the excuse to watch telly in the daytime. I watched an entire Masterchef without interruption. Then thought I'd follow it with a bit of Raymond Blanc, which had been badly interrupted the first time I'd watched. That stopped and stuttered and eventually ground to a halt.
Now some numbers. Before watching Masterchef the PS3's own network test reported 19M down and 7M up - consistent enough with the 24M down and 10M up I'd got from a PC test earlier, especially given its imperfect WiFi situation. Signal strength was at 85%.
When the second programme froze, I repeated the test. The signal strength had not changed, but the down and up rates were down to 1.2M. I repeated the PC test and found the same 20-ish result as before, so it doesn't seem to be a problem in the connection to the house.
At the same time, I played the HD Raymond stream on the PC. Quality-wise it's not a patch on the PS3 and the big Sony screen, but it didn't hiccup once.
So it does look like a WiFi problem of some kind, and probably a PS3-specific one. I'd like to try a wired connection but there's no easy way to route one into this room. I have a 5m cable somewhere that might just reach for a test. I'm reluctant to change the channel if that would require reconfiguring all 10 WiFi devices in the house, and I'd be surprised if we're getting interference from other networks, since I can pick up only two neighbours' access points from here and one of those is very faint.
Looks like I have some more digging to do.
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"Before watching Masterchef"
Aki looked quite delicious covered in chocolate ;-0
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cooking doesn't get any tougher than this, not when my mum cooks liver anyway.
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I can cook liver:)
It's soft and tender and melts in the mouth!
Would you like the recipe Zero?
Pat
Last edited by: pda on Thu 16 Feb 12 at 17:06
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>> I can cook liver:)
>>
>> It's soft and tender and melts in the mouth!
>>
>> Would you like the recipe Zero?
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>> Pat
No, I can cook liver so its soft and melts in the mouth, its my mother that cant. She ruined liver for me for years.
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>> I'm reluctant to change the channel if that would require reconfiguring all 10 WiFi devices in the house
No reconfiguration of clients required.
You mention an iPhone too. To rule in/out it being a PS3 specific issue, what download/upload speed does the iPhone get from the same location when the wifi speed dropped?
Can anyone recommend an iPhone app for checking on Wifi hotspots/signals. I've got one for Android WiFi analyser.
And does rebooting the HomeHub help? Although I am guessing the PC is connecting via WiFi? If it's via Ethernet cable then it might be wifi.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Thu 16 Feb 12 at 17:07
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Still puzzled. A few more observations:
- The same broadband speed test from the iPhone yields a much lower result than from the PC. Could be because the test is not written to run on an iPhone.
- Changing the channel from the default Smart Wireless (selects 1) to fix at 6 or 11 makes no difference here and merely upsets other devices on the network, including the iPhone and both my Internet radios.
- Have done a couple of Home Hub 3 (not 2) reboots but to no effect.
Clearly, using a cable instead of wireless would get around the problem, but it's not an easy fix in this case. One other possibility is that I'm using the HH3 in 802.11b/g mode, rather than its preferred b/g/n, because the Internet radios (both Reciva-based units from 2008) don't recognize the network in b/g/n mode. I'll see what happens if I give the HH3 the mode it prefers.
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If it's mostly down to location of the HH3 vs PS3 then get some power line Ethernet adapters. They're fairly cheap these days.
I watched something on iPlayer last night and it stuttered a bit... and a speed test showed I was getting normal speed so not a bandwidth issue. And this was on a wired connections on the Mac. So I downloaded the programme (quickly) and then watched it. Clearly a glitch or two on the BBC network last night - the download paused a few times.
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Here's a piece of info that may be something or nothing. Just tried to watch the BBC4 programme on Rolls-Royce engines, but found it stopped so much it was unwatchable. Then I switched to another user profile on the PS3, one without a PSN ID associated with it, and - 15 minutes in, anyway - it's played flawlessly. Coincidence? I don't know, but I'm going to persevere with this method for a bit.
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Don't know if anyone else has noticed this but the PS3 iPlayer had a sudden return to form about three weeks ago. There was an evening when it showed nothing but an error screen, and since then I've watched several programmes at peak evening viewing time with no pauses at all. Changes at the BBC end? I suspect so but I've seen no information.
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BBC iPlayer on PS3: performance drop - rtj70
