Problems with buffering/freezing whilst watching live UK TV

Richendy


Joined: 22/11/2010
Posts: 11

Message Posted:
05/02/2012 21:15

Over the last few weeks we are experiencing significant buffering/picture freezing while watching in North Cyprus live UK TV. Our previous provider, with whom we had minimal problems decided to go out of business. Consequently we had to look for an alternative.Have tried various VPN's, I Players etc with no improvement. Run various download tests and on the island seem OK. Indicating the problem is on the signal from the UK end of the chain. Are others experiencing similar problems? If not what is the best route to follow.

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
05/02/2012 22:12

Richendy tracking down exactly what is causing the buffering / freezing is not a simple I am afraid. Firstly even if everything is working perfectly with you system, your home network, your internet connection and your VPN service, you can still get variable results and variations depending on what specific content you try and watch and at what times you try and watch it, which makes tracking down problems with any of the elements you can control that much harder.



Some things I suggest you could try would be to check what the processor usage is on your machine when it is playing video .If you are using windows pushing cntrl+alt+delete ONCE should bring up task manager or an option for task manager and once task manager is open there should be a tab saying perfromance and on this tab it should show what % of your processing power is being used in real time. If processor usage gets to 95+% then this would cause interuption to video playing [cont]

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
05/02/2012 22:17

The more 'headroom' you have processor wise the better. If for example you processor usage shows 80% while playing video, which would not cause interuption, windows is constanly doing things in the background that may cause this to increase. Anyway processor usage is one possible cause.



Another thing to try would be to conect the PC as directly as you can to the internet connection, removing as many elements in the chain, just to test if doing so has an impact on how video streaming performs. Most connections here as they come into the house, but after they 'inject' power, can be plugged straignt into an ethernet port on a PC/laptop. If yours currently goes into a router or wireless AP or something similar I would suggest connecting directly to see if there is any difference.



Another thing you could try is if you have a freind with a laptop try their machine on your connection and see if it is any different, if you do not have more than one machine yourself that is.

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
05/02/2012 22:20

You could also try using software to monitor your internet connection upload and download rates in real time to see if this give any clues as to what is going on and possibly why. Something like DU meter would alow you to do this, though there are other alternatives. DU meter itself is 'pay for' software but you can use it for a month free trial and it can be donwloaded from here.



http://www.hageltech.com/dumeter/about

mickhm


Joined: 26/03/2010
Posts: 150

Message Posted:
05/02/2012 22:57

Once again Multimax comes to the rescue of internet users. Why does not everyone give them a try? The cheapest and most reliable provider on the island. even gave 7 days credit when they could not provide service even though it was not their fault!!!! come on people, this firm gives what it promises and derserves your support

Micho


Joined: 03/10/2010
Posts: 425

Message Posted:
06/02/2012 10:32

Richendy, buffering will also depend on the speed of your internet connection.

BigBro


Joined: 31/08/2010
Posts: 66

Message Posted:
07/02/2012 21:50

Having buffering quite a lot in the evening !!! CPU goes between 25 / 78 % while buffering ...... any ideas ? Have the 4 / 5 gig package !!

Yinglis


Joined: 13/10/2008
Posts: 290

Message Posted:
08/02/2012 12:00

Have had a lot of buffering while watching itv1 !!! not so technical myself ( hubby even less ) any ideas ... Karsiyaka with Multimax cheers