Kodi streaming speed question

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Rikkitic

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#223717 14-Oct-2017 12:23

I am fairly new to Kodi and it is throwing some real challenges at me. The biggest one is my streaming speed. I have been experimenting with different installations on different devices. But Kodi is very slow for me on all of them. Yet my browser speed tests all report that my connection speed is more than sufficient.

I just ran a comparative test using Indigo on Kodi 17.4. One installation is on a Chinese Android box running Android 6. The other is on Windows 7. Both Kodi installations give me very poor speed tests, around 2-3 Mbps with a score of 2 out of 10. This is probably accurate because I have constant issues with buffering and low resolution.

Yet I just ran two Windows browser speed tests at the same time using Ookla and DSLreports. Both give me constant download speeds of 25-30 Mbps, which is normal for me. When streaming with the browser I don't have buffering or resolution issues. I do sometimes briefly see pixelation as the adaptive streaming reacts to speed changes. I am on RBI and my speed does fluctuate a lot, but the average is always well over the 2-3 Mbps reported by Indigo.

Can anyone shed any light on this? It is really frustrating. Why are my streaming speeds through Kodi so much worse than with the browser? I really need to understand what is going on here.

Perhaps I should add that I have also experimented with an older Kodi version to see if that would make any difference, but I get the same results with 16.3. I would really appreciate some help here.

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#1883341 14-Oct-2017 12:28

when you use kodi where are you streaming from? local content or from the web?

Rikkitic

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#1883344 14-Oct-2017 12:36

Sorry, I should have made that clear. I am streaming from the web. No pirate sites, just the FTA links supplied by Apsattv and some add-ons from the official Kodi repository.

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blakamin

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#1883402 14-Oct-2017 15:40

Wifi?

timmmay

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#1883419 14-Oct-2017 15:55

I stream across my network, or from tv2/tv3, no issues with an R.Pi2 and the OpenElec Kodi distro.

Rikkitic

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#1883427 14-Oct-2017 16:18

No wi-fi, LAN only. Trying to stream from the Internet, either NZ/Aus FTA or a few of the video add-ons in the official Kodi repository. I have mainly been using iPlayer for tests because it seems to be giving me the most problems. I found another add-on script that uses Ookla speed test from Kodi, but the results I am getting just increase my confusion. Ookla says my speeds are at the low end of my normal, around 20 Mbps in 17.4. Indigo says they are more like 2.0 Mbps. Actual performance is closer to what Indigo says. If I use a browser to stream the same sites, performance is much better, normal HD with no buffering. In Kodi it is awful. I have to set iPlayer stream to 1.0 Mbps to get it to stream at all without buffering. I don't understand why there is such a difference.

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blakamin

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#1883436 14-Oct-2017 16:37

What geo unblocker are you using?

Rikkitic

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#1883483 14-Oct-2017 17:16

DNS4ME. I have set up several profiles for different regions where there are conflicts. All NZ boxes are unticked. Could DNS4ME possibly slow things down?

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Jase2985

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#1883489 14-Oct-2017 17:42

Yes

Try using your ISPs dns and see what you get

Rikkitic

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#1883528 14-Oct-2017 18:39

I did that, also tried the Google DNS servers, but no difference in either case. However, your question made me curious so I did some research and ended up at Steve Gibson's GRC site (which I know well from past use) and discovered his DNS benchmark page. I ran the benchmark and got a result that might be interesting, except of course I don't understand it. According to the conclusion, I have a 'suspiciously high' number of unreliable resolvers. He says this means my local network is probably 'busy and congested' and that means I should consider the timing results invalid.

What I don't understand about this is that I don't have a local network as such. I have a gateway device that connects to my RBI signal and has wi-fi and two LAN cables running to different parts of the house. We are on a farm well away from any neighbours and there are no other wi-fi's in our area. I checked when running the test and I had all my other computers switched off so there was nothing connecting to the LAN ports. I don't understand what local network Gibson is referring to, unless he means my actual RBI link.

Most of this is over my head, which is very frustrating, but I have to wonder if my poor Kodi results could have anything to do with the RBI connection itself. It isn't exactly solid and the speed goes up and down all the time, though it usually doesn't change enough to cause problems. However, when streaming I do often see adaptive changes in resolution that reflect the changes in our Internet speed. I have to wonder if Kodi is just much more sensitive to this than the browser. But as I said, it is over my head so I don't know what, if anything, to make of it.

If someone could explain to me that this really is a problem, maybe I could use that information to complain to our ISP again. We have had major problems in the past with speed and reliability but it has been okay overall for some time, though not great. But if something in the RBI link is preventing Kodi from working properly, that is another matter. We are paying a lot and it surely ought to work for that. But again, I don't know enough to stand my ground.

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Oblivian

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#1883532 14-Oct-2017 18:47

Resolver cache - places your devices look for DNS lookups. And when using DNS masking etc it does exactly that. Puts your lookup/IP all over the world to stop geo items finding you

cmd - ipconfig /displaydns

Comes form network settings, hosts file, and any masking tools.

Those aussie/NZ feeds do exactly that. Probe out and do some fancy work to enable the casting to you, The difference being the feed doesn't come from a cache like akamai or local ISP accelerator. So chances are, the feed for those is just too reliant on TTL and packet loss that the cell network probably can't smooth.

Rikkitic

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#1883540 14-Oct-2017 19:01

Sounds like you are saying there is no way to fix it. That is pretty depressing. I have to say, though, that I don't have problems with the NZ feeds and even the aussie ones seem mostly pretty good. The buffering and freezing is mainly with overseas video add-ons like iPlayer.

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Oblivian

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#1883541 14-Oct-2017 19:06

Without taking the same box, to a RELIABLE non RBI, or a RELIABLE Rbi and see if its the same you can't tell

Addon makers use all sorts of sources and ways to get the data.

Some legal, some not, some from cached servers with close ports, others not. So if its some bloke in Russia with a satelite feed encoded and sent out to a single box in the UK for multicast. It's going to be a lot less reliable than it would on something that doesnt have speed variation issues.

Rikkitic

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#1883545 14-Oct-2017 19:18

OK, thanks for that. It really helps clarify things. Your suggestion to try my box on another ISP is a good one. I don't know why I didn't think of that. I will certainly do it and see if it makes a difference. I have only been using video add-ons from the official Kodi repo, no dubious Russian stuff. I am already having enough problems without complicating things further.

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Apsattv

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#1883549 14-Oct-2017 19:32

are you installing the speedtest test on the android box from the playstore?

http://www.speedtest.net/mobile/

Rikkitic

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#1883594 14-Oct-2017 20:55

No, I got it somewhere else. Don't remember where for sure. I was trying so many things from so many sources. I think it was in one or another repo.

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