Coverage of the London Olympics on Sky

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2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#666534 2-Aug-2012 20:44

I've been trying to watch Prime streaming via isky for the last three nights. The connection is appalling - it stops every few seconds to buffer, plays for a few seconds, stops again, etc. Literally stop start every 3-5 seconds. I thought it might improve later in the evening, but it's been like this for the last three nights, all the time I have had it playing (roughly 7pm-11pm Tue, Wed and tonight).

I'm on telstraclear ADSL in Christchurch. Youtube HD plays fine, so it's not like it is a bandwidth issue with my ISP. I've restarted the router, turned off all applications and other devices (which was pointless really, given that Youtube and other websites load just fine, but might as well isolate potential issues). Only thing I haven't been able to try is an alternative internet connection.

Any ideas? Does anyone else have a similar issue?

Thanks v much

Ian

grant_k

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#666542 2-Aug-2012 20:56

ianjohnsonz: I've been trying to watch Prime streaming via isky for the last three nights. The connection is appalling - it stops every few seconds to buffer, plays for a few seconds, stops again, etc.
...
Any ideas? Does anyone else have a similar issue?

I gave up on iSky months ago for this very reason. They just don't seem to be able to get it sorted with some ISPs whereas with others it's fine.

Right now I am downloading from SBS Australia at approx. 2 Mbps. Can usually get 1.6Mbps with BBC iPlayer. But iSky I could not get any consistent throughput at all -- it kept buffering like you say.

So I watch Sky via the satellite usually recorded not live. And download from various overseas sources without any problems whatsoever. It's high time Sky got this sorted, especially with the Olympics now happening.

ianjohnsonz

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Wannabe Geek

#666555 2-Aug-2012 21:23

grant_k:
ianjohnsonz: I've been trying to watch Prime streaming via isky for the last three nights. The connection is appalling - it stops every few seconds to buffer, plays for a few seconds, stops again, etc.
...
Any ideas? Does anyone else have a similar issue?

I gave up on iSky months ago for this very reason. They just don't seem to be able to get it sorted with some ISPs whereas with others it's fine.

Right now I am downloading from SBS Australia at approx. 2 Mbps. Can usually get 1.6Mbps with BBC iPlayer. But iSky I could not get any consistent throughput at all -- it kept buffering like you say.

So I watch Sky via the satellite usually recorded not live. And download from various overseas sources without any problems whatsoever. It's high time Sky got this sorted, especially with the Olympics now happening.

Thanks for the quick reply. Nice to know it's not just me. I see it's now showing an error message:

"The selected item is not available"

No kidding it's not available!

grant_k

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#666575 2-Aug-2012 22:19

ianjohnsonz: Thanks for the quick reply. Nice to know it's not just me. I see it's now showing an error message:

"The selected item is not available"

No kidding it's not available!

I frequently saw that message too. Sometimes it would appear after about 10 minutes, but by starting the stream again, and then fast forwarding to the point it stopped previously, I could get playback to resume. On one occasion, I had to do this 10 times in order to finish watching a one hour programme. On other occasions, that message would appear after 2 or 3 minutes, and no matter what I did, I couldn't get any further.

All extremely frustrating which is why I gave up in the end.

profrink

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#668598 6-Aug-2012 21:34

I gave up on iSky for the Olympics too. Am just watching the BBC iPlayer stream via VPN which is miles better.

Mark Watson is starting to ruin the athletics for me with his uneducated and amateur commentary so I may just switch to this BBC stream for the rest of the games...

mattbush

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#674417 20-Aug-2012 02:11

Why dont Sky continue offering Prime as an HD channel after the OLYMPICS.

Misererabe gits they are.

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PaddyPatPat

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#674435 20-Aug-2012 09:14

Hahaha lets just forget that they would have used a completely different production chain to produce the HD content vs the normal SD content. SD gear doesn't make HD content.

mattbush

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#674443 20-Aug-2012 09:30

mattbush: Why dont Sky continue offering Prime as an HD channel after the OLYMPICS.

Misererabe gits they are.

Because they keep saying they dont have the capacity!!!!!!!!

I have been shopping for a new tele lately and been getting a lot of comments from salesman about how unpopular Sky are becoming from customers.

Lets hope they get a bit of a shake up soon.

hypnotoad

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#674454 20-Aug-2012 10:02

mattbush:
mattbush: Why dont Sky continue offering Prime as an HD channel after the OLYMPICS.

Misererabe gits they are.

Because they keep saying they dont have the capacity!!!!!!!!

I have been shopping for a new tele lately and been getting a lot of comments from salesman about how unpopular Sky are becoming from customers.

Lets hope they get a bit of a shake up soon.

So you want Prime to be another part time HD channel like 1,2,& 3?

I would prefer that they ditch those bandwidth wasting channels if it meant more HD content was possible.

grant_k

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#674460 20-Aug-2012 10:27

PaddyPatPat: Hahaha lets just forget that they would have used a completely different production chain to produce the HD content vs the normal SD content. SD gear doesn't make HD content.

Actually, Sky's representative on their Facebook page told me the following:

Hi Grant, thanks for the feedback!
Yes our equipment in the studio is capable of HD, so the temporary shift to HD broadcasting on PRIME has meant that equipment is being used to it's full potential.
The current plan is that PRIME will not remain in HD post Olympics, however the more people that voice their opinions on the matter the better!

So there you have it. Prime's studio is capable of HD, so it would be a simple matter of resetting the config. and switching to a DVB-S2 transponder on Optus 160.0E. If enough people make a song and dance about it, maybe it will happen. Sure would be nice!

PaddyPatPat

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#674469 20-Aug-2012 10:59

grant_k:
Actually, Sky's representative on their Facebook page told me the following:

Yes our equipment in the studio is capable of HD

Prime's studio is capable of HD

I assume this is a reference to a shift to using the Mt Wellington facilities.

Dell

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old3eyes

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#674514 20-Aug-2012 12:28

PaddyPatPat:
grant_k:
Actually, Sky's representative on their Facebook page told me the following:

Yes our equipment in the studio is capable of HD

Prime's studio is capable of HD

I assume this is a reference to a shift to using the Mt Wellington facilities.

If the studio can do HD how about it on DTT then or will hell freeze over before Sky allows this to happen??

Regards,

Old3eyes

tkr001

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#674734 20-Aug-2012 19:19

old3eyes:
PaddyPatPat:
grant_k:
Actually, Sky's representative on their Facebook page told me the following:

Yes our equipment in the studio is capable of HD

Prime's studio is capable of HD

I assume this is a reference to a shift to using the Mt Wellington facilities.

If the studio can do HD how about it on DTT then or will hell freeze over before Sky allows this to happen??

If they did it on DTT before Satellite they would be insane. Why give it away before offering it to their subscribers?

richms

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#674746 20-Aug-2012 19:36

Does prime get any NZ on air funding? How about just mandate delivered in HD to get NZ on Air money?

Richard rich.ms

JimmyH

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#674815 20-Aug-2012 21:37

richms: Does prime get any NZ on air funding? How about just mandate delivered in HD to get NZ on Air money?

Not as far as I'm aware, and judging by the lack of local content on Prime I suspect not, but you could fire an email to NZ On Air asking under the Official Information Act if you really want to know.

I suspect there are a couple of issues from Sky's perspective. Firstly, I doubt they make much money on Prime so they will be trying to keep the costs down. Also, I doubt they have the capacity on the satellite to allocate enough bandwidth without cutting something else - I recall they had to shut down some of the PPV channels in order to have capacity for the Olympics broadcasts. If they can't get it on the satellite then I doubt they would do it on terrestrial. Having a situation where people who aren't paying can get a much better picture than those paying a monthly sub for the decoder do would gratuitously annoy some of those paying subscribers, and it isn't sensible for Sky to do this.

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