IPTV and Internet

[golfer]

A general question for everyone who uses IPTV through their internet connection and that is how has your viewing been over the last few weeks?

Generally ours has been excellent with only some occasional blips with buffering, freezing and pixelating of the picture, at which time our internet connection was supposedly giving us about 8mbs, more than adequate for the IPTV.

Last week we connected via fibre optic supposedly giving us up to 100mbs (although what nobody tells you is that in order to get those sort of speeds your equipment needs to be pretty new and up to date) when the engineer did a speed test on his equipment it was showing over 92mbs whereas a speed test on my old(ish) laptop at the same time showed a speed of c45mbs. But even 45mbs should be more than enough for the IPTV but since the change over the TV has been the worst we've encountered for a long time and was really not watchable on Friday night and Saturday, even on the low internet channels, and the problems still persist, albeit less frequently.

For any tech experts out there where do you think the problem lies, is it the internet connection, the IPTV provider, incompatible speed to equipment or anything else you can think of?

[davexf]

Hola

Speed is all very well if your equipment is happy with it. Data is sent in packets and there is a handshake at the start and a check at the finish of every packet. In theory, there should be no lost packets BUT if the receiving computer can't keep up, then it has to be able to say "die"

There are several things you could try like receiving on Wi-Fi there are various bands, some faster than others. packet switching is not my forte but your supplier should be able to help

Davexf

[golfer]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the info.

I do think it is a compatibility issue somewhere with the increased speed going over and to older equipment but if I manage to get it resolved I will let you know.

Thanks again.

[aquamarina]

Hi Golfer

We’ve had fibre optic for a couple of years now and been really pleased with the service. However we recently upgraded to our provider’s 5G offering which was advertised as having a speed of 300mbs. Although this speed was demonstrated on the technician’s equipment, in reality we usually achieve around 90mbs but this is more than adequate for our needs, and as it costs no more than the previous service, we are certainly not complaining. We usually watch TV via Fire Stick which generally works well. We have several dotted around the house and they vary in age, but one of them is only a few months old and has a noticeably faster processor than the others. We are experiencing intermittent buffering snd freezing on all of them since upgrading to 5G and the signal drops out completely for a few seconds from time to time. In addition, my printer doesn’t retain the wifi connection - it’s a pain having to keep inputting the password. We keep blaming the levante, the rain, whatever, but I would be interested to know if you discover what the issue really is, and how to fix it.

[golfer]

Hi Aquamarina,

Our fibre optic connection was also to the 5G but limited to 100mbs (in reality for what we use we don't need anything like that and just a stable and constant 10mbs, would be adequate for us). Within a couple of hours of this upgrade, previously we were on a wimax adsl with about 8mbs, with very few problems, our TV through the IPTV box was unwatchable and this still persists a week later, although sometimes it is fine for hours and then really bad at different timss.

Initially when running speed tests I was getting results of more than 18mbs but still the IPTV wasn't working properly, also undertook line quality checks, which showed no packet loss, a latency of c36 and no jitter (which doesn't mean anything to me) but I understand that this should mean that the signal quality is very good and with those results the IPTV should have been working perfectly.

An internet technician came to us on the Monday and undertook speed test on his up to date equipment and was getting over 90mbs but at that moment in time the IPTV was fine, so not unexpected. Luckily the internet boss visited us on Thursday evening and initially was getting similar high speed results but then our IPTV started playing up and lo and behold when he re did the tests was getting less than 2mbs (I have had as low as 0.17 during the week), as a result he knows that there is a system issue, which he is working hard to resolve and hope that he will in the very near future. Once we have a stable speed then we will see if the IPTV works properly with a constant and stable connection and only then will we know if there is also an issue with compatibility between the higher speed system and the IPTV equipment.

I am no techy but try to find out why and when things go wrong and so I now know that all the high speed connection promises are really only achievable if whatever equipment you are running off the connection is up to date and able to handle such speed, in our case when the technician was getting more than 90mbs, when I did a speed test at the same time on my laptop I was getting about half of that, which is still more than enough for us, as long as it is stable and constant.

I will let you know how it pans out.

[aquamarina]

Thanks Golfer - I agree that a slower, more reliable speed is preferable. ‘Strong and stable’ - now where have I heard that before? 😂. I’m no techy either, but it seems we can automatically flip between 5G and non-5G - last night 5G wasn’t working at all although we still had speeds of around 65mbs with the non-5G which is more than adequate. We are loath to call out the technicians as the problem is so intermittent - a bit like going to the dentist with raging toothache which subsides as soon as you sit in the dreaded chair. I look forward to hearing how you get on. It would be nice to go back to watching a whole TV programme without shouting at the screen!

[golfer]

It looks as if the problem has been located and resolved, as we have been watching HD TV since last night with no problems at all, we now have to hope that it lasts, only time will tell.

I agree that when it is an intermittent problem, it is very difficult for a technician to catch it at the time he is there, in our case luckily he was here when it went wrong and after trying everything to resolve it within our connection, without success, he was able to recognise that it was a wider issue within their network infrastructure/architecture/configuration. A big shout out to Robert from Co-Fi, who worked tirelessly over the last few days to try and find the issue and now looks to have resolved it with changing some cables and devices within our community fibre optic system.

Unfortunately as our lives are driven more and more by technology the less 'control' over our day to day lives we have because when it all works it is all great but when it goes wrong, only then do you realise how much we are dependent on it and that we are, in the main, in the hands of others to resolve things.

I hope your issues get resolved soon and as you say, all we need is a stable and consistent service and very few of us actually need the speeds that are now being generated.

[aquamarina]

Really pleased for you, Golfer. Weirdly, we’ve been watching uninterrupted TV all night too, although we are not signed up with Co-Fi. Fingers crossed it continues …