Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

[RonV]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

VUDU is not using Bittorrent technology. They have their own proprietary protocol. As far as I know that there are no "SmartFilters" for the VUDU on the Comcast routers yet. But I do hear what you are saying. If its patterned like a P2P protocol then Comcast may pick up on it...

One thing you may want to try.

Unplug everything from the cable modem and power cycle the cable modem.

Reconfigure your router with no QOS and then only plug in the VUDU via a cabled network connection. Reboot the VUDU and see if the quality goes from yellow to green...give it about 5 to 10 in this configuration.

[mbustin]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

Vudu tech support said the connection is "excellent" from their end and suggested clearing the history - but I've already done that many times. Will try your suggestions tonight.

[Greg]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

Vudu tech support said the connection is "excellent" from their end and suggested clearing the history - but I've already done that many times. Will try your suggestions tonight.

You didn't deprioritize Vudu traffic in the advanced network options, right?

-- Greg

[mbustin]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

You didn't deprioritize Vudu traffic in the advanced network options, right?

-- Greg

I flipped the option a couple times -- just like I played with every other option I can think of. I keep the normal networking setting tho - definately.

[mbustin]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

Well, I came home from work, and the light is green !?

VuDu TS said "From our end, it looked like you should have been fine. It looks like the box adjusted itself to your network properly."

I downloaded another 99cent movie and it's still green, so that's good. I guess my conspiracy theory about Comcast is unfounded - at least I hope so ...

Thanks for you suggestions, I hope I don't have to try them later ...

[redwein]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

I'm really glad to hear that. You had me worried. I thought it could really throw a wrench in the works for Vudu if Comcast was responsible. So I take it from your message that it seems they can run a diagnostic test of your box from their offices? That's good to know.

[mbustin]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

I'm really glad to hear that. You had me worried. I thought it could really throw a wrench in the works for Vudu if Comcast was responsible. So I take it from your message that it seems they can run a diagnostic test of your box from their offices? That's good to know.

Yes - they confirmed that they checked the logs on my box and that all should be OK now ...

OTOH - with the increased load of upcoming HD movies and the presumed increase in subscribers, ISPs will probably be overwhelmed with P2P traffic - and then who knows what will happen ... I think it's a valid concern and heavy users may be forced to pay for business use like NA9D, or pay some sort of heavy use fee ....

[NA9D]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

mbustin -

Glad you got things working! Whew! Had all of us worried. It's possible your box had a disconnect with the Wi-Fi adapter and that screwed up the quality database. It probably had to get re-set and rebuild itself and get some network history going.

Anyhow to the general comment of ISPs - it irks me that they hype up all this "high speed" crap and then tell you that you can't use that high speed for anything but web browsing! There's no need to have 10 Mb/sec or even 5 Mb/sec for browsing web pages. Speeds like are available should be usable for whatever the customer deems appropriate - particularly if it is a legal use but even then it's not the job of the ISP to play the cop.

At the same time, I don't mind having to pay more for better service. I would have stayed with Comcast's consumer product except I got this great deal on their business service and I really needed a fixed IP since I run a server for the ReplayTV community. Anyhow, at the minimum, the ISPs should be required to disclose to you what sort of limits or caps they have on their network at the base price. Then they should allow you to add on in cost to remove those. The whole net-neutrality thing is a better idea in that services aren't discriminated against, however.

Frankly, there is a TON of dark fiber out there that was ran in the dot com bubble back about 9 years ago. It's slowly lighting up but the fiber telecom industry has been in recession up till a couple years ago and it's finally getting good. More and more fiber is being run so I don't buy this "network congestion" idea. If you are going to offer people enormous speeds, then you should make dang well sure that you have the infrastructure to support it. Anything else is irresponsible.

And yes, there is a bit of log reporting that your box does to the mother ship for troubleshooting things like this.

[mbustin]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

mbustin -

Glad you got things working! Whew! Had all of us worried. It's possible your box had a disconnect with the Wi-Fi adapter and that screwed up the quality database. It probably had to get re-set and rebuild itself and get some network history going.

Yeah , I was going all Chicken-Little ... heh heh ...

I'm not touching the setup anymore ...

[mbustin]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

My Vudu network indicator has been yellow for days, says my network connection is fluctuating too much for instant viewing. I'm sure the speeds are fast enough, everytime I test it, it's at least 4Mbps. What's the best way to measure the speed for a period of time - any recommendations? I recall earlier RonV or Na9D recommended a tool, but I don't remember. Thanks

[RonV]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

www.speakeasy.net/speedtest is the site I use for testing. I usually run 10 test in a row waiting 30 seconds between each test.

One thing I can't remember do you have QOS on your router? And what other applications are you running on your network? Bittorrent, VoIP, etc can be an issue.

If you are going to run the tests I would suggest that you unplug all devices from the router first and only plug in the PC. Also make sure you turn of QOS in the router before starting the test.

Let me know how the test works out....

[NA9D]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

The speakeasy test site is a little too short of a test if you have Powerboost. A better test is the ones at www.dslreports.com/stest. These test your speed by sending gradually larger and larger file sizes.

Or go and download a program that's very, very large from some place like Microsoft or Apple, etc. Watch what happens to your transfer speed as the file progresses.

The QoS question is a very good one. I know I had a rule on my system that had the Vudu given the lowest QoS status and it caused my box to be yellow when I had a lot of bandwidth in use. Changing the QoS status to normal fixed my problem.

[mbustin]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

I'll try both sites, thanks for the suggestions. Do you know how much the speed has to vary to get the yellow light?

I cleared the bandwidth history and am downloading 300 to finally test on my HD setup in the basement hdmi vs component and to get an idea for comparison with the upcoming HD releases. I assume disconnecting the box will probably restart the whole net testing process.

Perhaps vudu can shed a little light on it's network testing procedure, ie how often the box tests the speed, etc...

I haven't touched QoS, I don't know much about it ..

I know this is the wrong place but whats the resolution of a regular DVD being played on a player?

What's the resolution from a DVD player that "upconverts" it?

I have a 1080i HD TV. Also, watching the current 300 on vudu thru hdmi vs component - what are those resolutions?

I assume that if 300 comes out on vudu in HD it's at 1080p, but will be displayed at 1080i (on my 1080i max) tv, right? Thanks.

[RonV]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

I'll try both sites, thanks for the suggestions. Do you know how much the speed has to vary to get the yellow light?

The VUDU needs a consistent 2 mbps downstream to keep the light green.

I cleared the bandwidth history and am downloading 300 to finally test on my HD setup in the basement hdmi vs component and to get an idea for comparison with the upcoming HD releases. I assume disconnecting the box will probably restart the whole net testing process.

Disconnecting the box from the network will not clear previous tests but can reduce the "trust" it has of your network connection. The green light for networking means that it knows it can trust your network connection to deliver an uninterrupted movie experience.

Perhaps vudu can shed a little light on it's network testing procedure, ie how often the box tests the speed, etc...

That I can't do unless a VUDU engineer wants to chime in here.

I haven't touched QoS, I don't know much about it ..

Well the other part of the question you didn't answer was dealing with other applications running on your network...do you run Bittorrent, VoIP, Gaming? These can all impact your internet bandwidth.

[NA9D]

Re: Help!! My box claims low bandwith?!

The yellow light should only come on if your box starts dropping below 2 Mb/sec regularly. Who do you have for internet and what is your speed package? Do you have any other traffic going on on your network?

As for DVDs, standard definition DVDs will be in 480i on composite or S-video and 480p if your have a progressive DVD player hooked to a 480p compatible TV via component cables.

Your "1080i" TV is probably really a 720p set. You want to set the Vudu to the NATIVE resolution of your set. Most sets capable of 1080i are really 720p. I think the Vudu can tell what it should be set at automatically for best picture.

As for the resolution, well it will be upconverted to 720p or 1080i over HDMI. What's the native resolution of the movie? I don't know but I would guess that it is 480p.

In terms of a 1080p movie, on the Vudu, someone from Vudu explained it once and I don't know if it was on the public forums or not but I think the gist was that it won't matter. The Vudu will output whatever format your TV needs. And I don't think it necessarily up-converts or down-converts. I forget. It was probably Volker who said this as he's the display expert. Search the forum for posts from him...