[TelstraClear] TV3 Ondemand useless because of Telstra

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [TelstraClear] TV3 Ondemand useless because of Telstra

slippers

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#89400 1-Sep-2011 16:35

TV3 on demand has been poked for ages now, its just not able to serve up video consistntly...

This isnt just me, Iv spoken to the guy that runs the on demand service and hes admitted that despite their thousand or more emails per day, they cant replicate the issue.

Their content is supplied via Telstraclear....is this any surprise?

I notice the 'TBOX issues' thread...... a lot of the symptoms in regards to serving the video are THE SAME.

There is OBVIOUSLY something wrong with their topology or something.

TV3 are relying on some new player thats ready to roll out... I suspect it wont fix anything.

NOTE: ads serve up perfectly.....ads are hosted in house.

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#515177 1-Sep-2011 16:52

What's the problem? Just complaining but not saying exactly what's going on doesn't help anything...

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#515180 1-Sep-2011 16:54

Just FYI I am watching a program right now and have no problem.

Obviously we would need a lot more information. For example I am on TelstraClear HFC network (cable). And using their own DNS. With this it seems to work just fine...

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#515190 1-Sep-2011 17:02

Hi Slippers,
can you email me your account number and contact number to:
online.marketing@telstraclear.co.nz
I'll have this looked into for you.
Apologies for any stress this has caused you.
Thanks
Tim.

Morph

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#515204 1-Sep-2011 17:26

slippers: TV3 on demand has been poked for ages now, its just not able to serve up video consistntly...

This isnt just me, Iv spoken to the guy that runs the on demand service and hes admitted that despite their thousand or more emails per day, they cant replicate the issue.

Their content is supplied via Telstraclear....is this any surprise?

I notice the 'TBOX issues' thread...... a lot of the symptoms in regards to serving the video are THE SAME.

There is OBVIOUSLY something wrong with their topology or something.

TV3 are relying on some new player thats ready to roll out... I suspect it wont fix anything.

NOTE: ads serve up perfectly.....ads are hosted in house.

What ISP are you with

blakamin

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#515215 1-Sep-2011 17:40

Never had any problems at my old houses or my new one. (all cable)

mattbush

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#515254 1-Sep-2011 18:40

freitasm: Just FYI I am watching a program right now and have no problem.

Obviously we would need a lot more information. For example I am on TelstraClear HFC network (cable). And using their own DNS. With this it seems to work just fine...

How many residential cable users are on the 100Mbit service like you are?

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#515263 1-Sep-2011 18:52

slippers:I notice the 'TBOX issues' thread...... a lot of the symptoms in regards to serving the video are THE SAME.

There is OBVIOUSLY something wrong with their topology or something.

There is no possible way that any T-box issues can be related to issues with a particular site. They have absolutely nothing to do with each other, and the T-box doesn't even have any IP functionality at present other than grabbing the EPG.

freitasm

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#515472 2-Sep-2011 08:04

mattbush:
freitasm: Just FYI I am watching a program right now and have no problem.

Obviously we would need a lot more information. For example I am on TelstraClear HFC network (cable). And using their own DNS. With this it seems to work just fine...

How many residential cable users are on the 100Mbit service like you are?

Sure... But if they had a problem with things not playing it would show up anyway, regardless of speed. It doesn't seem the complain is about speed.

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slippers

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#515476 2-Sep-2011 08:19

sbiddle:
slippers:I notice the 'TBOX issues' thread...... a lot of the symptoms in regards to serving the video are THE SAME.

There is OBVIOUSLY something wrong with their topology or something.

There is no possible way that any?T-box issues can be related to issues with a particular site. They have absolutely nothing to do with each other, and the T-box doesn't even have any IP functionality at present other than grabbing the EPG.

Ok, fair enough - ill take your word for that....

I had a feeling I couldn't just make this thread without qualifying it a bit more.... here goes.

Issue: When I go to watch an episode, the ad will play then either the stream doesn't work at all first go and I get directed to their feedback page... OR it does play and I might get as much as 50% through the show at the most (usually dont even make it to the first ad break though)... when it will just freeze.

This happens on TVNZ ondemand as well and you fix it just by chosing a different bitrate, I can live with it if this is the only problem...

Unfortunately, TV3s one will SOMETIMES let me resume using a different bitrate and then I just fast forward to where I was up to... Sometime it just stops working from that point on. I havnt been able to watch a whole 1 hour show for about a month now.

NOTE: TV3s ondemand content is served via Telstraclear, so all video is coming from Telstraclears network when you view TV3 ondemand.... I can only assume that advertisements are hosted somewhere else because there is NO issue serving ads.

My typical setup is:
A Macbookpro or a PC using Windows 7.
The following browsers have been tested and all have the same issue:
Mac: Safari, Chrome, Firefox
PC: IE, Firefox, Chrome

My fixed line providor at home was Slingshot which all tests were done using both the Mac and PC but I also carry a 2degrees mobile broadband SIM with me for my Mac everywhere and have tried it in Birkdale, Massey, Avondale and at Albert Street.

Iv tested using the following devices:
Huawei e220 (upgraded to 7.2mpbs firmware)
LG Optimus P500 on cable
LG Optimus P500 on wifi tether
Huawei (2degrees stick)
Vodem (PCMCIA cardmodem)

I think my testing has been pretty thorough and during all these instances I have had no problem at all with any other video or content streaming.

I rang TV3 yesterday to find out whats going on, I was put through to their website guy. He was really great and honest. He admitted that they dont know what the problem is because they cant replicate it. But the high volume of email complaining of the same problem indicates that there is one.

He advised me that the current player was coded inhouse and that a new application was 1 or 2 months away. He admitted that at the moment, TV3 were crossing their fingers and hoping that the roll out of this new player will resolve the issues people are having.

My hunch is that this issue is neither to do with TV3 player or Telstras ability to serve the content to TV3's player - but rather something that made the issue present from ISP to ISP... ie, everyone on Xtra might have no issues.. where as people on Slingshot do.... So perhaps some sort of peering issue? or throttling certain routes carrying large amounts of video traffic between Telstraclear and is border? Who knows.... but this is definsately host side issue and it needs to be sorted.

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#515477 2-Sep-2011 08:22

If you say it only happens on some ISPs, not all, then I wouldn't day it's a host side issue, but an issue on each affected ISP.

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#515481 2-Sep-2011 08:35

Ok, just tested with my own 2degrees SIM card and it's working just fine in Wellington (using a Sierra Wireless USB modem). Didn't have to change bitrate or anything, just played the episode I selected, with no stop.

Could it be something with the network traffic in Auckland? Is TelstraClear connecting to other networks at the Skycity Tower? How are these other networks getting their traffic in Auckland?

Also tested on a Motorola Xoom tablet with a Telecom XT SIM and it's playing fine as well.

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slippers

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#515494 2-Sep-2011 08:54

freitasm: Ok, just tested with my own 2degrees SIM card and it's working just fine in Wellington (using a Sierra Wireless USB modem). Didn't have to change bitrate or anything, just played the episode I selected, with no stop.

Could it be something with the network traffic in Auckland? Is TelstraClear connecting to other networks at the Skycity Tower? How are these other networks getting their traffic in Auckland?

Also tested on a Motorola Xoom tablet with a Telecom XT SIM and it's playing fine as well.

?

Yeah... ok, host side issue may be inaccurate... I just mean.... the player aint gonna resolve anything.
And Freitism - in Wellington 2degrees transmission goes through FX and Citylink so the conditions in Wellington would not be the same... I agree that looking at the Skytower is probably the most logical place to start.... In fact it might be worth seeing if I can test APE's vs Non-APE'd to try and isolate the problem.

If it works for you it will work...and your unlikely to ever have this issue.

I believe that all the places I tested from 2degrees were all going via Citylink, Slingshot goes through the same peering exchange yeah? Ill try find out what towers DONT go through the same route in Auckland and get some people to test.

DonGould

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#515523 2-Sep-2011 09:47

My first question is processing power on the PC.

You talk about changing bit rates. You seem to be assuming that the problem then comes right because the connection can now keep up with the stream.

However when you reduce the bit rate, you're also reducing the quality and the amount of data being thrown at the web client application to process and render.

I find your comment that you can view the ad ok, but then start to have problems with the program interesting.

I don't know how this stuff is served up, but I'm wondering if the client application (on your computer) is leaking?

I wonder if the machine simply can't keep up with the processing requirement. Can anyone tell me how often the TV3 server sends a key frame? How much change information is having to be processed? Are packets being dropped over time and are the key frames simply to far apart for a slower machine to keep up with.

I'm wondering this because FM says he's having no issues. But is this because he's simply got a faster machine with more ram in it?

Also how many plug ins do you have on the web browsers? How many does FM have? Is the web browsers thread simple getting to much work? (fm - you know more about threading than I do I suspect, care to chime in?)

Anyway, I don't know, but I hope the above random thoughts might help in some ways.

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#515538 2-Sep-2011 10:12

I have tested this on Chrome with a few plugins attached - bit.ly, chartbeat, Firebug and YSlow. Tested in three different boxes:

- Lenovo m75e desktop (AMD Vision platform quad core, 8GB RAM, AMD built-in HD3000), gigabit ethernet connected to a 100Mbps TesltraClear connection via Cisco SRP router;

- Motorola Xoom Android tablet, NVIDIA Tegra dual core platform, connected via Telecom XT for this test.

- HP dm1z mini laptop (AMD Fusion platform, dual core, 4GB RAM, built-in HD4000), connected via 2degrees for this test.

It could be lots of things, but I wouldn't say it's on the server side (TelstraClear). It could be the connection from those ISPs to the TelstraClear network in Auckland. Could also be badly coded video player that can't cope with some dropouts in said connection...

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#515543 2-Sep-2011 10:19

$5 on it being Slingshot shaping/traffic management/proxy issue....

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