Content buffering despite high speed connection.

[gb2012]

I've a BDP-S370 which seems to be randomly stalling on playback of web content, particularly iPlayer.  Interestingly cBeebies programmes seem to be unaffected and BBC 2 seems to have the most issues but this may just be a red herring.  Does anyone have any recommendations?  I'm with ISP Zen.

Message was edited by: Catmambo

[Accelebrate]

Top marks to Sony/Catmambo for taking the trouble to look into this and liaise with O2.

Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this, if we can actually establish what the fault is, and if it transpires that it is an ISP issue then it'll be a lot easier to approach other ISPs if we've got a few facts behind us.

[simonmar]

Catmambo - thanks for looking into this.  I'm fairly sure it's not ISP-specific though: looking back through the thread, although O2 was the most common ISP, the problem was also reported by several people (including me) on Virgin Media, and also Zen, BT, Sky, and Talk Talk.

I was all set to capture a packet trace from my router, but then Virgin in my area had some problems with its local broadband and my bandwidth has been too low for iPlayer.  However I think the problem is now fixed, so I'll try to grab a packet trace later.

[rmoore3904]

It'll only be down to the O2/BE isp service if they've either changed something since just before Christmas or haven't responded to the change that the BBC made before Christmas because, prior to that, my BE broadband service was allowing HD iPlayer to run perfectly through my bdp-s370. Since then of course it has been constantly buffering as described previously.

The O2/BE service is the main high speed, low traffic management broadband LLU that anybody interested in streaming and/or gaming signs up for so I guess that's why there's such a high incidence of this problem with their users.

That said, it's good to see Catmambo back on this thread and I'm really very grateful that Sony seem to be trying to sort this one out one way or another.

Thanks, R

[paddywacx]

Thank you Catmambo for your update and trying to resolve the issue.

I recieved this reply from Sony helpdesk:  Haven't tried it yet.

Thank you for your recent e-mail received on 13/02/2011 03.15 PM.

I am pleased to learn that you are the owner of a Sony BDP-S570, however I am sorry to read that you are experiencing buffering when viewing BBC iPlayer.

In order to resolve the issue at hand, as your Blu-Ray player runs at a "Grade N" network, alternative devices can reduce the bandwidth that your Blu-Ray player receives as they run on alternative grades (especially mobile phones).

Therefore I would recommend disconnecting all alternative devices from your wireless router and then refresh your Internet services using the BDP-S570 remote and the steps below:

1. Press Home.
2. Go to Video icon.
3. Go to the icon that reads "new service information" and press OK.

I hope this information is of some assistance. Thank you for your enquiry.

***** - UPDATE - I DID NOT HAVE AN OPTION THAT READ "NEW SERVICE INFORMATION" BUT IT READ SOMETHING ELSE.  I SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN IT DOWN AS I FORGET WHAT IT SAID.   ANYWAY, WHATEVER IT WAS, I SELECTED IT AND AFTER THAT THE FIRST PROGRAM I WATCHED RAN FINE.  LIMMY ON SD VERSION.  I THEN TRIED A HD HUMAN PLANET BUT IT DID NOT WORK.  BUFFERED AFTER 10 MINUTES.  SWITCHED TO HUMAN PLANET IN SD, RAN FOR 30 MINS AND THEN BUFFERED.

SO NOT SURE WHAT THIS UPDATE OR WAHATEVER DID, BUT IT DIDNT WORK.  I HAVE REPLIED TO SONY SO AWAITING RESPONSE - *****

Message was edited by: paddywacx

Message was edited by: paddywacx

[abealing]

I have suffered the same issue in streaming an HD film from Qriocity.  I have a Virginmedia basic 10 MB connection which tests as a good speed, more than adequate for the purpose and Qriocity assesses the speed before starting the stream.

However I know that Virgin traffic manages connections and I suspect this has been the issue and have raised it on this forum:

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Fibre-optic-broadband-cable/Does-streaming-a-film-from-Qriocity-...

Is there a known issue with Virgin broadband and streaming to a Sony TV/Blu-ray?

Andrew

[rmoore3904]

Ok guys, I have great pleasure in being able to confirm that last night I was able to watch 3 different iPlayer programmes in HD without any stuttering, buffering or any other glitches.

I had already installed the latest firmware upgrade from the network update and responded to an 'updated content' alert when I switched the BDP-S370 on. Other than that, same BE 15Mb connection and same router etc - it just works now for the first time since before christmas! Hooray!

Not sure what the problem was or how it got sorted but thanks to Catmambo et al and I hope you other guys all get sorted soon.

Cheers, Russ

[chippyboy99]

Well, I have to say I just tried it and it seems to be working again for me too!  (Fingers crossed - only played 1 program for 20 minutes, but it did stream perfectly for all that time, which is better than it has managed for weeks).

Incidentally, I read this thread this morning and saw that people were questioning whether the ISP may have something to do with it, and specifically O2/BE.  It may be coincidence, but I am with BE as well.

I wonder if there was some traffic shaping going on at O2/BE that was catching specific iplayer streams (i.e. the one the Sony uses) and not others (e.g. the PC streams)?

I don't see Sony or the BBC confessing to any problems, so it's hard to know what's changed that has fixed it.

[canary_jules]

I applied the firmware update and since then I've been able to watch BBC HD programmes without buffering. All is good.  BTW, my ISP is BE and I have a good 10meg connection.  Something seems to have been fixed.

[chippyboy99]

I may be mistaken, but I don't think it's the firmware update that has fixed it.  Mine was still broken after the update.

I think you and me being on the same ISP is the clue here.  I think BE have changed something, coincidentally or otherwise.  That's only a hunch though.

[canary_jules]

You may be right. I installed the update but didn't watch anything for a few days afterwards. So it may not have anything to do with the update. I'm very happy now that I can watch even BBC HD material without stuttering every 30 seconds.  Watched a complete Human Planet this way a couple of nights ago. That's what I bought my Sony Blu-ray player for. Love it!