The burdens of Techmology, and other totally frustrating bur minor problems

[LMNO]

So, I'm lucky enough to attempt a wireless house.  I've got Sonos, a Roku with Netflix and Hulu, and at least half a dozen computers and tricorders that feed off of WiFi.

So, the question I have is: Of those who are using Netflix, et al, how much lag, pausing, and dropping are you getting when watching shows and movies?  I want to hope that the standard experience is seamless, but from what I've gone through, a show will snag and hang at least seven times in an hour.

What should I be expecting, here?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

I usually watch on my laptop, but Villager has a Roku, and I use that with her on the weekends and such. It's usually pretty seamless but sometimes it acts funky. I'm not sure what factors go into that.

[Eater of Clowns]

I have Netflix Plus, which tears through the veil of your consciousness and screams the viewing experience in a warped tongue directly into your cerebral cortex for a disturbingly immersive understanding.

It lags a little bit during peak hours.

[LMNO]

Dick.   

Specifically, the Netflix buffer fails constantly, then hangs at 25% when reloading.

[Salty]

That doesn't sound right. Is it on High Quality? That's what kept mine lagging just like that. It's an awful lot of data, that high quality.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

So, I'm lucky enough to attempt a wireless house.  I've got Sonos, a Roku with Netflix and Hulu, and at least half a dozen computers and tricorders that feed off of WiFi.

So, the question I have is: Of those who are using Netflix, et al, how much lag, pausing, and dropping are you getting when watching shows and movies?  I want to hope that the standard experience is seamless, but from what I've gone through, a show will snag and hang at least seven times in an hour.

What should I be expecting, here?

You should be expecting large Internet service providers to be battling Netflix about the costs of delivering streaming HD content:

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/netflix-packets-being-dropped-every-day-because-verizon-wants-more-money/
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/netflix-may-have-gained-direct-connection-to-comcast-network/

Do you have Comcast or Verizon?

In any event, consult the Netflix ISP speed index: http://ispspeedindex.netflix.com/results/usa/graph

[Junkenstein]

I've used the UK version and accessed the US version a few times with few problems. Given Comcast and Verizon's tendency to fuck with you because fuck you, I wouldn't be surprised if they were the real source of your issues at all.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Bandwidth is affected by many conditions. The internets is like the road system, sometimes it gets congested or theres an accident involving a series of trucks. The good news is it's only going to improve as time goes on.

I use a pirate box which has access to most of the available media and channels. At certain times of the day/week it's silky smooth, at other times I'll get stutters. Does netflix have an option to download content? I generally spend 5-10 mins downloading a movie or series, if I'm going to be watching during peak times that way I can guarantee no stutter.

[Junkenstein]

Fair point. It may be easier to just download (whatever you want from a certain piratical bay) and dedicate a computer to stream the downloaded copy from.

I mention that only because there was a couple of things we were looking for on Netflix a while ago and neither US or UK version had them. That said, I have no idea why the fuck we wanted to watch "Cool Runnings" in the first place. 

[P3nT4gR4m]

Wasn't arguing for or against pirate/legal, just noting that I'm using a streaming service (like a distributed netflix or lovefilm)  but it has an option to download. Surely the legal ones have this? Would be silly not too, given the way the trucks sometimes get stuck in the tubes.

[Junkenstein]

I've not found an easy/obvious way to download with netflix though I'm sure it's possible if so inclined. I doubt their TOS or business model supports this however.

[P3nT4gR4m]

DRM already supports time/replay/copy limited file management. I'm not talking about an ownership scenario here, merely full-file caching...

... actually, now that I think about it, the IP industry probably is dumb enough not to have thought about implementing this. Forget I said anything

[Faust]

So, I'm lucky enough to attempt a wireless house.  I've got Sonos, a Roku with Netflix and Hulu, and at least half a dozen computers and tricorders that feed off of WiFi.

So, the question I have is: Of those who are using Netflix, et al, how much lag, pausing, and dropping are you getting when watching shows and movies?  I want to hope that the standard experience is seamless, but from what I've gone through, a show will snag and hang at least seven times in an hour.

What should I be expecting, here?

Wow, eh we have crappy internet but nothing like that. Are you on Verizon, didn't they choke netflix?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

So, I'm lucky enough to attempt a wireless house.  I've got Sonos, a Roku with Netflix and Hulu, and at least half a dozen computers and tricorders that feed off of WiFi.

So, the question I have is: Of those who are using Netflix, et al, how much lag, pausing, and dropping are you getting when watching shows and movies?  I want to hope that the standard experience is seamless, but from what I've gone through, a show will snag and hang at least seven times in an hour.

What should I be expecting, here?

My house has been mostly wireless (all devices other than my desktop) for about a decade, and we have to reset the wireless router about 4 times a day, but otherwise it works fine. Also a new router would solve that problem.

[LMNO]

So, the tech was here, and it looks like this was one of the dumbest problems ever.

The original installer used the wrong power cord, causing the wifi modem to short out and reset itself.

I mean, I'm glad it's nothing major, but the amount of frustration this has caused, over some dumbass using the wrong power cord...



ROGER!  GET YOUR TUCSON OUT OF MY BOSTON!  GAWDAMMIT!