Minimum internet speed requirement?

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Minimum internet speed requirement?

(12 posts)

pierref

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I picked up my new Humax HDR-1000S four days ago but have problems with On Demand;
BBC iPlayer. Correctly loads and displays programme options,when an available programme is selected it goes to the programme page then on selecting play after a few seconds it always displays: "Sorry: Unknown MediaSourceError (0) There has been a problem playing this programme." This is the same on all available channels and even on selecting Radio channels.

With iTV Player I get either a black screen or "Incorrect Link The link is currently not available" or
"This service is not currently available. Please try again later. (10001)"

Showcase and tv guide (earlier) are no better both displaying no options.

TV Portal works OK.

My internet speed using "Broadband Speed Checker" is between 3 and 3.2Mb/s.
Network connection tells me "Great, you're connected" On Demand TV BBC iPlayer & ITV Player.
Note: The same internet cable connected to my Samsung TV plays BBC iplayer using Smart OK (HD buffers a bit).

It looks to me as if there is a minimum internet speed requirement of > 3Mb/s. The manual states 2Mb/s is the minimum. I have Emailed Humax with no reply.

Does the forum think it's an internet speed problem or is there something else I can try?

| Thu 29 Nov 2012 19:18:45 #1 |
REPASSAC

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You do not mention how the unit is connected to the internet - with connections other than hard wired the true connection speed will always be less than your direct connection - my ISP box allows testing of the connection via 500mbs homeplugs - for some reason they give about 12 mbs

| Thu 29 Nov 2012 20:13:45 #2 |
pierref

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I am using an Ethernet cable to a Linksys ADSL+ router connected to my telephone line which is a twisted pair back to the BT exchange. PC's also connected to the Linksys router show an internet speed of 3.2Mb/s. I wonder what the lowest internet speed achieves all the connectivity available on the HDR-1000S? Humax say it's 2Mb/s. I don't think so!

| Thu 29 Nov 2012 21:52:16 #3 |
damian

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I can't comment on the 1000S, however my broadband is 2Mb/s and my hdr-foxt2 is fine on iplayer low-res and choppy on hi-res. The hdr-foxt2 will buffer iplayer so I press pause, wait 5 mins or so and enough has been buffered to watch hi-res iplayer with no problems at all for the rest of the programme.
Other people are mentioning on-demand problems with the 1000S and it makes me wonder whether it buffers or not. I'm guessing it does and some people, just like I was, are a bit impatient, however it shouldn't be too difficult to work out by pressing pause for a few minutes and seeing if that helps.
2Mb/s won't be enough to watch hi-res iplayer straight off in my opinion, however very easily got round on the hdr-foxt2 by pausing it for a few minutes.
itv player seem to be having their own problems aside from even the way it's accessed on the box seems to cause issues.

| Fri 30 Nov 2012 1:02:13 #4 |
chrisund123

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When I first got my 1000S I tested the Iplayer out with some HD content, it seemed to play just fine. I then promptly shoved the 1000S in a drawer while I waited for my sky subscription to run out...

30 days later, the iPlayer is unusable with HD content (and not 100% with SD either). No idea what changed... I have 10meg with Virgin Media, and unless I hit the traffic management threshold it delivers pretty much 10meg consistently. the Iplayer on my media player (Popcorn Hour C-200) works flawlessly compared to on the 1000S, so it's definitely not a problem with my connection.

Hopefully Humax/freesat will be able to sort this out in a future software update.

| Fri 30 Nov 2012 11:08:39 #5 |
damian

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Hi Chrisund123,
does pausing make any difference? i.e. can it build up a buffer

Also, if I were running sky/virgin then humax/freesat is in direct competition. It would make sense to traffic shape packets thus reducing the bandwidth to iplayer via the humax/freesat portal, obviously only in the interests of my other customers so they all get a fair share of the bandwidth (it's a reasonable excuse).

With the box working fine and then struggling 30 days later with no changes being made I don't see how the box could be responsible. Perhaps a factory reset on the box would prove this. I'm more inclined to point to the portal or traffic shaping. It'd be interesting if you could test your box at a friend's house with a different isp.

| Fri 30 Nov 2012 12:56:58 #6 |
grahamlthompson

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I tested the hdr-1000s using the usage meter on my Virgin super hub. After resetting the router to zero the counter the router stopped downloading about 30 minutes into a 1hr iplay HD programme. The programme finished playing OK showing the box must have buffered at least 30 mins of HD. 20Mbps link.

| Fri 30 Nov 2012 13:50:35 #7 |
damian

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Thanks Graham for confirming that it does buffer properly. It's also useful to see that it took 30 mins whereas the same file at your full download speed 20Mbps would be less than 5 mins. There's clearly some throttling going on. I'm going to have to have a play at a friend's house who lives across the road from the exchange so gets stupid speeds and I'll see how fast iplayer streams there.

I'm hanging back from buying the 1000S, mainly because I don't need another box, however I've a friend who's looking for a pvr and I really can't make my mind up what to advise, hence my interest

| Fri 30 Nov 2012 15:46:12 #8 |
grahamlthompson

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damian - 47 minutes ago »
Thanks Graham for confirming that it does buffer properly. It's also useful to see that it took 30 mins whereas the same file at your full download speed 20Mbps would be less than 5 mins. There's clearly some throttling going on. I'm going to have to have a play at a friend's house who lives across the road from the exchange so gets stupid speeds and I'll see how fast iplayer streams there.
I'm hanging back from buying the 1000S, mainly because I don't need another box, however I've a friend who's looking for a pvr and I really can't make my mind up what to advise, hence my interest

May be the buffer area is only big enough for 30 minutes or so of HD so it in effect buffers up to 30 min and stops when the last portion of the data has arrived. No idea how much space is available for the buffer. Presumably part of the reserved disc space you get with no recordings saved.

| Fri 30 Nov 2012 16:38:06 #9 |
John the Met

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Hi All,
I'm new to this posting game and I believe that I posted the following into the wrong thread so if you have "seen it all before" I'm sorry.

I don’t have any answers to the Humax iPlayer download buffering problem but I have the following observations.

The following points are made with the advantage of a direct comparison with my Humax HDR FOX T2 which co-located with my HDR 1000S 1TB. The HDR FOX T2 is fed from my Plusnet Internet Router via Cat 5 Ethernet cable. My Plusnet connection provides me with a download speed of approximately 4900kbps, well in excess of the iPlayer threshold for ‘HD’ video display of 3500kbps. My HDR FOX T2 streams iPlayer HD content without problem but this is certainly not the case with my HDR 1000S 1TB.
a. BBC iPlayer HD content using the HDR 1000S 1TB is unwatchable because of continual ‘buffering’.
b. When the transition from HD to SD is made there is a short period when the ‘buffering cycle’ period extends and the image and sound displayed settles down to a normal format.
c. As stated earlier, this phenomena is peculiar to my HDR 1000S 1TB and as the up-stream infrastructure is shared with my HDR FOX T2 I believe that the fault lays within the HDR 1000S 1TB.

3. The next problem is manifest when using BBC Text especially when displaying the weather forecast information.
a. All appears well until you select the option that requires the whole of the screen to be populated with text and graphics. At this point the sound stutters and then becomes mute. If you leave the display in this mode an ‘error’ message appears in the top centre of the screen. This message states “Audio/Video decoding buffer is underrun.”

I have two other Humax products other than my HDR 1000S 1TB a HDR FOX T2 and FOXSAT HDR, both of these breeze through this task faultlessly so once again the fault is with the HDR 1000S 1TB.

May I proffer a suggestion?
I wonder if the two faults aren’t inter-related and it is all down to data transfer and buffering within the HDR 1000S 1TB, a fault that can be fixed with a firmware update?

If this is the case I wonder why this fault wasn’t picked during bench testing or was this curtailed so that the HDR 1000S 1TB could hit the Christmas market. Of course, Humax also has the new Freeview YouView to sort and maybe their resources are being spread too thinly

| Mon 3 Dec 2012 0:27:17 #10 |