Watching NFL Game Pass on VDSL

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Watching NFL Game Pass on VDSL - very poor quality

lchiu7

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#129311 10-Sep-2013 13:05

I have a VDSL connection which measures about 29/10 to Telecom's servers.

Last night I was trying to watch a game on NFL Game Pass and while it started off in HD, it very soon deterioated to a highly pixellated and pretty much unwatchable picture.

This was about 9:30pm last night. There was no other streaming activity taking place in the house and my connection is wired.

Not a scientific comparison but I recall last year when I was on TCL cable (100/10) I could get HD all the time.

I don't know specifically what bandwidth is required for the NFL Game Pass but I can't imagine it would need more than about 5-6Mbs for HD quality.

Any other NFL fans trying to watch games on Telecom xDSL and how is it for you?

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

michaelmurfy

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#892692 10-Sep-2013 13:19

I've never tried it (not really into sports) but try downloading [This File] - the server it's hosted on is about the same location where the NFL servers should be. Post the speed you get to that and post a traceroute to it also. It's likely congestion on their side or international congestion on Telecom (slightly unlikely)

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Inphinity

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#892702 10-Sep-2013 13:29

michaelmurfy: I've never tried it (not really into sports) but try downloading [This File] - the server it's hosted on is about the same location where the NFL servers should be. Post the speed you get to that and post a traceroute to it also. It's likely congestion on their side or international congestion on Telecom (slightly unlikely)

This is based in NJ, US? I get ~360KB/sec from it on our VF fibre and ~1.8MB/sec on my Telecom VDSL.

pinkydot

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#892726 10-Sep-2013 13:53

lchiu7: I have a VDSL connection which measures about 29/10 to Telecom's servers.

Last night I was trying to watch a game on NFL Game Pass and while it started off in HD, it very soon deterioated to a highly pixellated and pretty much unwatchable picture.

This was about 9:30pm last night. There was no other streaming activity taking place in the house and my connection is wired.

Not a scientific comparison but I recall last year when I was on TCL cable (100/10) I could get HD all the time.

I don't know specifically what bandwidth is required for the NFL Game Pass but I can't imagine it would need more than about 5-6Mbs for HD quality.

Any other NFL fans trying to watch games on Telecom xDSL and how is it for you?

I watched live for the Gaints & Cowboys game.
and at night watch replay for the Saints & Falcons. Both in best quality 4500 Kbps in vdsl

lchiu7

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#892731 10-Sep-2013 14:02

Might have to look at my network again to see what the problem is.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

plambrechtsen

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#892747 10-Sep-2013 14:26

lchiu7: Might have to look at my network again to see what the problem is.

Please tell me you weren't trying it over wifi Laurence? :)

lchiu7

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#892765 10-Sep-2013 14:38

plambrechtsen:
lchiu7: Might have to look at my network again to see what the problem is.

Please tell me you weren't trying it over wifi Laurence? :)

No! See my description in the original post.

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michaelmurfy

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#892793 10-Sep-2013 15:43

Inphinity:
michaelmurfy: I've never tried it (not really into sports) but try downloading [This File] - the server it's hosted on is about the same location where the NFL servers should be. Post the speed you get to that and post a traceroute to it also. It's likely congestion on their side or international congestion on Telecom (slightly unlikely)

This is based in NJ, US? I get ~360KB/sec from it on our VF fibre and ~1.8MB/sec on my Telecom VDSL.

It's hosted on a Linode in Hurricane Electrics new DC in Fremont, I'm able to almost max out my line with it. If this shows above 6mbit then it's most likely congestion on NFL's side.

Kim587

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#892881 10-Sep-2013 19:11

Sounds disturbingly similar to some people's experiences on Premierleaguepass. What bit rate had you selected out of interest?

lchiu7

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#892912 10-Sep-2013 20:35

michaelmurfy: I've never tried it (not really into sports) but try downloading [This File] - the server it's hosted on is about the same location where the NFL servers should be. Post the speed you get to that and post a traceroute to it also. It's likely congestion on their side or international congestion on Telecom (slightly unlikely)

Well it's ranging from about 150KB/s to 350KBs with an estimated time to download of about 6 minutes. I don't think that's particularly fabulous.

But speedtest.telecom.com is showing 29/9.

On the games I am getting about 800 to 1200kbs dropping to 400kbs.

I think I need to get this VDSL connection checked.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

Inphinity

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#892913 10-Sep-2013 20:39

Just re-tried michael's test file, only getting 1.2MB/s now , but then, that's still far and away faster than needed for NFL streaming - their top quality is, iirc, 4.5Mbps, and 1.2MBps ~ 9.6Mbps.

dwl

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#892938 10-Sep-2013 21:35

I didn't think that gamepass needed to come from offshore. For me, it is streaming at 4500 clean from a URL of http://nlds21.cdnak.neulion.com/nlds/nfl/nfltv/as/live/nfltv_hd_4500/20130910/09/xxxx.mp4. I'm on Telecom ADSL and this resolves to what looks like a Telecom Akamai cluster:
nlds21.cdnak.neulion.com. 1427 IN CNAME nlds21.cdnak.neulion.com.edgesuite.net.
nlds21.cdnak.neulion.com.edgesuite.net. 704 IN CNAME a1082.w10.akamai.net.
a1082.w10.akamai.net. 3 IN A 219.88.185.42
a1082.w10.akamai.net. 3 IN A 219.88.185.50

I'm not sure exactly where this is but ping pings are only about an extra 10ms from when my ADSL seems to hit the main Telecom network here in Porirua. Possibly only Akamai will be able to say whether their servers experience temporary moments of overload but I wouldn't be surprised seeing the explosive growth in video and other high bandwidth content now being served.

For PremierLeaguePass the service mostly copes pretty well but there are times when multiple users notice degradation. I also notice that the PLP profiles seem to get modified on a Sunday morning to drop off the highest rates on some of the streams - I would expect this to be driven by NeuLion/Akamai, the provider for both NFL and PLP. Maybe Telecom could share their views on whether there might be CDN limitations?