Video streaming technology not ready for prime time

by parky58

I mean it's not a reliable technology compared to 40-year-old cable or 15-year-old digital air tv.

Youtube streaming is relatively ok but not 99% reliable. Digital air TV is 99% to 100% reliable. I wish my streams were just as reliable as the older cable or DT by air, but it is not the case.

So we have much better quality signals than, say, 15 years ago but streams other than Youtube may buffer now and then or freeze or stop and require reload. This stopping actually occurs even in Youtube. Until buffering is solved streaming won't live up to the HD quality of the signal.

I am talking from my experience with my 100 Mb connection. What's yours?

I guess the most immediate solution is in 5G.

iammyusername

Sounds like you need a new provider

foottuns

I never use routers from ISP, routers are blotted with filters and settings that can interfere with your internet. I am using an asus router on a 70Mbs and I never had issues with buffering from my end, I can play 4k TV on netflix and Amazon without an issue. Are using ADSL or Fibre?

thatlad

If you've got 100mb and youtube is stuttering on anything then you've got a problem not the provider.

Could be that your provider has poor CDN contracts, virgin media in the UK had this for years and refused to acknowledge it. Other problems could be your network or VPN.

foottuns

Yep! Or a better router, if you are using the ISP router and DNS dont expect not to throttle your traffic.

brainstormer77

You may have packet loss and you don't know it. The speed is one thing, but quality of connection is another. You may want to start with the cables, then check your router,.modem, and call your ISP to perform diagnostics.

Working in IT I often hear from work from home employees on how the VPN is not reliable. Well, it is because of packet loss. Normal internet can hide these dropped packets, VPN doesn't tolerate them. Usually the fix for them is to use wired connection, 5.0 Ghz wifi or change 2.4Ghz channel to another band that's not congested, but sometimes its the cables or ISP. Unfortunately its a trial or error process.

I want to add this tidbit of fun info. At work we have a 100mpbs connection, shared among 100+ employees. I can watch YouTube and hardly ever buffer.

foottuns

My advise if you are able to change your router go get an asus router and hange it, not sure what connection you have. Check out eith your ISP or google it to see if you can swap the router and how.

Here's a list of 2019 best routers.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.techradar.com/au/amp/news/best-asus-router

foottuns

Yep! Sounds like a good plan.

micklemasthe2nd

5G will be the game changer

w0lrah

The technology exists to run a service reliable enough that your internet connection is likely to be the weakest link in the chain. It can be done. The problem of course is that doing these things is expensive and thus investing in it requires a minimum scale of operations that's challenging, especially for providers operating in "grey areas". Even the big names have their problems from time to time.