BBC I player!

[mailee]

I had a little time tonight so I thought I would watch 'Young carpenter of the year' as I missed it earlier in the week. I started it off on I player and after a few minutes it started buffering....again....and again.....and again. It seems like every time I try to watch something on I player it does the same. I then thought I would download it and watch it later. I couldn't as it needs an upgrade to my windows media player! is it just me or is I player rubbish? I think I will just give up trying to catch up on TV and try to work out my DVD recorder! :evil:

 

[Harbo]

Until we recently got BT Infinity I never bothered with iPlayer unless I let it download to my Laptop to watch later.
Most of our viewing is from recordings on our Humax PVR which is great.

Rod

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

I watch I Player often and most of the time its perfect. Now and again I end up turning off what im watching due to buffering but it ain't often.

 

[brianhabby]

Hi Mailee,

If it's any consolation, I too often give up on iplayer for the same reason. I think it is down to a crappy internet service - sometime it is just sooooooo sloooooooooow.

regards

Brian

 

[toysandboats]

Mailee,

Rarely have any trouble, watched 30 minutes last evening and had no buffering issues.
I use BT but not Infinity as there is no need for 4 times the speed.
I wonder if your ISP is throttling your service?

I periodically run Speedtest and usually get 3.9Mbps down and 0.85 Mbps upload. This is not the best in the world by a long way but I do enjoy iPlayer and think it is a good service

David

 

[Harbo]

Before our upgrade max speed on a good day was 1.4 but generally a lot slower.
YouTube and iPlayer was a waste of time then.

Rod

 

[studders]

Mailee,.
I wonder if your ISP is throttling your service?


David

If it's Virgin then they almost certainly will be during 'peak' hours, which can be any time up to 1am from what I can tell.
No limits to them doesn't appear to mean No limits as I understand it. :roll:

 

[mailee]

Yes it is Virgin media and on my laptop with a wireless connection. I am wondering if it is my wireless connection that is the problem as sometimes it will just drop off the internet connection? I will be upgrading this laptop in the near future so that may help. Thanks guys.

 

[9fingers]

Alan, Just download the whole programme to your laptop and then watch it as a local file.

Saves all the grief.

hth

Bob

 

[mailee]

That's it Bob I give up! I just tried downloading it and I got the i player on my desktop and that was all, it won't work. I click on the iplayer logo and nothing happens. Think I will jsut give up on I player all together. Never have this sort of trouble with other online videos for some reason. Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[9fingers]

To be honest, that particular programme was awful so you did not miss much.

Once you have the file downloaded, you should be able to open it with windaz media player.

I player does seem to want to update regularly so maybe you don't have the latest version?

Bob

 

[andycktm]

To get it they've got to give it.I think the bbc site has been under pressure lately.
i player is thee player,how a third party player can be better than the made for the job player is beyond me...........

 

[cambournepete]

Mailee,.
I wonder if your ISP is throttling your service?


David

If it's Virgin then they almost certainly will be during 'peak' hours, which can be any time up to 1am from what I can tell.
No limits to them doesn't appear to mean No limits as I understand it. :roll:

Not had any problem with Virmin throttling my service. It's currently:

"No limits" refers to the amount of data you can download, not the speed...

 

[studders]

"No limits" refers to the amount of data you can download, not the speed...

Yes, as far as Virgin are concerned. To me a service advertised as No Limits should mean exactly that.

 

[studders]

Not had any problem with Virmin throttling my service.

But do you regularly do heavy downloads at peak times? Which is what using Iplayer necessitates.

 

[RogerP]

Not had any problem with Virmin throttling my service.

But do you regularly do heavy downloads at peak times? Which is what using Iplayer necessitates.

I have Virgin Media cable. I don't regularly download very much but when I have to it always comes through at the advertised speed I pay for.

Anyway my Virgin package includes iPlayer (and all the other "catch-up" services) so it's just another TV channel - no need for the computer.

 

[moppetsdad]

One thing to watch out for with iplayer is after you have deleted it. it is still in your "my videos" folder and if you watch a lot on iplayer it will very quickly use up ypur memory without you realising it, so make sure you delete it there as well.

 

[petermillard]

I think the problem's as much with iPlayer as your broadband, personally - at peak times, I just don't think they can cope with the demand - though obviously skanky broadband will play its part.

Regarding Virgin Media, at least they're upfront about their 'traffic management' policy - I'm on a 50Mbit cable connection (no traffic management - that's part of what I'm paying for) and iPlayer is frequently flakey at peak times, whereas I have no such problem streaming content from Netflix or iTunes over the same connection<shrug>. The cynic in me would suggest that the BBC getting a former Microsoft man in to head up iPlayer development in an increasingly mobile and app-based world, was not their smartest move...
Pete.

 

[cambournepete]

"No limits" refers to the amount of data you can download, not the speed...

Yes, as far as Virgin are concerned. To me a service advertised as No Limits should mean exactly that.

Unless you specifically pay for your own dedicated connection then you can expect it to throttled sometimes so that others in your area can use the web as well. I do know if any provider who doesn't do this.

Virgin are very open about their interpretation of unlimited:

What does unlimited broadband mean?
No download limits. Unlike some of our competitors, you get unlimited downloads as a basic right so you can load up on music, films...whatever you're into.
Back to top

So you can download as much as you like, it just might take a bit longer in peak times.

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

Yes, as far as Virgin are concerned. To me a service advertised as No Limits should mean exactly that.

Unless you specifically pay for your own dedicated connection then you can expect it to throttled sometimes so that others in your area can use the web as well. I do know if any provider who doesn't do this.

So you can download as much as you like, it just might take a bit longer in peak times.

As far as I know sky do not cap in peak times. My other half is always watching internet TV all through the day, evening and night and our speeds never drop.