VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

[ccline]

It is apparent to me (and I'm sure to a lot of people) that Vudu is just not able to facilitate all of their customers, especially during peek hours.

I too am getting the dreaded "Buffering" during peek hours. It doesn't matter which video I watch or device I use to watch it. I also know it just isn't my local or backbone because I can stream from any other service such as Netflix, Amazon, or HBO Go with ZERO interruptions. My network speed is just fine at 10-13Mbps down with 5Mbps up.

I have monitored the incoming traffic and I can watch the packets literally drop off after 20-30 sec. I have ran several ping and tracert with normal responses. Yes, I have performed a power cycle just for giggles. No, it didn't help. I have even gone as far as to go over to my friend's house that has a completely different network/provider and still unable to play with out getting the buffering. The worse part is, that the buffering is completely random depending on the day/time/month.

This clearly indicates that Vudu's infrastructure just isn't capable of supporting the number of customers it has and is just praying each day that enough users do not log on at the same time and saturate their network.

My questions is Vudu...when are you going to do something about it before you start losing customers or are you just going to continue to put the blame on our devices and internet provider?

[FelipeF]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

Have you contacted customer support to let them know about your streaming issues?

[ccline]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

Other than giving me a credit I'm not sure than can do anything for me. I just tried again to view either of the two movies I purchased last night but I'm still getting the buffering issue.

I'm just not interested in spending hours on the phone resetting my roku, performing pings, tracert, trying a different device such as my laptop, only to end up with the same results.

[craiggers88]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

The only time I have ever had a problem with playback issues and buffering problems was when my brother was downloading something on his Playstation 3. I have never had a problem other than us hogging the bandwidth on our end =X, and I have played so many movies, it's not even funny!

I hope they can fix this for you though

[nycomet]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

I can have three green bars and the dreaded buffering message will pop up for a moment then it goes back to normal. When this occasionally occurs it's clearly not my cable service. It must be Vudu's server capacity being stretched beyond it's limit. In fact, sometimes it happens late at night during off peak hours.

More disturbing is when I have three green bars and a message will suddenly pop up on the screen stating a network error has occuredd. Try again later.

Again this seems to be a problem with Vudu's server output being drained faster than Rosie O'Donnell sucking down a super-size McDonald's milkshake!

Fortunately, it doesn't happen often.

[Guest]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

Other than giving me a credit I'm not sure than can do anything for me. I just tried again to view either of the two movies I purchased last night but I'm still getting the buffering issue.

I'm just not interested in spending hours on the phone resetting my roku, performing pings, tracert, trying a different device such as my laptop, only to end up with the same results.

Do you have a case number that we can take a look at? We'll need some more information to be able to help.

[ccline]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

Case# 130208-000273

So lets go through the motions.

1. Power Cycled my Roko even though this problems happens on both my laptop and Roko.
2. Reset my Wifi router even though my Roko is hard wired to the router.
3. Monitored the incoming packets and watched them drop:
I have attached an image.
4. Ran a simple ping test on api.vuvu.com and the other two sub domains you chat with and all come back under 80ms.
5. Tracert on the same dns names all came back with reasonable times.
6. Tried various movies from my list so it isn't just the same movie.

My connection to your datacenter is just fine regardless of the 1-3 dc you have. The problem is on your end not mine.

[Guest]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

Case# 130208-000273

So lets go through the motions.

1. Power Cycled my Roko even though this problems happens on both my laptop and Roko.
2. Reset my Wifi router even though my Roko is hard wired to the router.
3. Monitored the incoming packets and watched them drop:
I have attached an image.
4. Ran a simple ping test on api.vuvu.com and the other two sub domains you chat with and all come back under 80ms.
5. Tracert on the same dns names all came back with reasonable times.
6. Tried various movies from my list so it isn't just the same movie.

My connection to your datacenter is just fine regardless of the 1-3 dc you have. The problem is on your end not mine.

Thank you. One of our agents should be reaching out to you shortly.

[ccline]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

I will admit when I am wrong even though everything checked out. In the end DNS masq somehow was re-enabled. I knew this interfered with Vudu services in the past. I solved my own problem.

My apologies.

[Guest]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

I will admit when I am wrong even though everything checked out. In the end DNS masq somehow was re-enabled. I knew this interfered with Vudu services in the past. I solved my own problem.

My apologies.

I'm glad to hear it's working now! If you have any problems, feel free to contact us.

[courtpassant]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

I'm beginning to think the same thing. Buffering problems have been going on for weeks.

I have:

Power cycled
Changed my DNS to Google Public DNS
Created a static IP and enabled a DMZ in my router
Switch to WPA2 encryption

Yet I still get buffering issues. On a Roku and a PS3 just 10 feet away from wireless router. (I'd hard wire it but it's across the room and we have ahead wood floors).

Amazon works fine, so me thinks the network error lies at home base Vudu. Sad. I won't invest in movies from them until the problem is fixed.

It is apparent to me (and I'm sure to a lot of people) that Vudu is just not able to facilitate all of their customers, especially during peek hours.

I too am getting the dreaded "Buffering" during peek hours. It doesn't matter which video I watch or device I use to watch it. I also know it just isn't my local or backbone because I can stream from any other service such as Netflix, Amazon, or HBO Go with ZERO interruptions. My network speed is just fine at 10-13Mbps down with 5Mbps up.

I have monitored the incoming traffic and I can watch the packets literally drop off after 20-30 sec. I have ran several ping and tracert with normal responses. Yes, I have performed a power cycle just for giggles. No, it didn't help. I have even gone as far as to go over to my friend's house that has a completely different network/provider and still unable to play with out getting the buffering. The worse part is, that the buffering is completely random depending on the day/time/month.

This clearly indicates that Vudu's infrastructure just isn't capable of supporting the number of customers it has and is just praying each day that enough users do not log on at the same time and saturate their network.

My questions is Vudu...when are you going to do something about it before you start losing customers or are you just going to continue to put the blame on our devices and internet provider?

[RandomNinjaAtk]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

I've never had a problem with this in the past until last night. I was watching episodes of Game of Thrones S1. Finished the watching one episode in HDX with no issues. But then after starting the next episode, I hit this buffering issue.

I performed speedtest and everything was fine with my connection. Yet only 1 green bar would appear for HDX. So after trying 6 - 10 times (buffer, play for 5 seconds, buffer, etc), I gave up and switched to HD and had full bars with no issues. About halfway through the episode, I then switched back to HDX and had no issues after that. I'm assuming it was a VUDU that was having a issue with the customer demand/load.

But this is the first time this has happened to me. But I sure hope it doesn't become a frequent problem...

[Guest]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

I'm beginning to think the same thing. Buffering problems have been going on for weeks.

I have:

Power cycled
Changed my DNS to Google Public DNS
Created a static IP and enabled a DMZ in my router
Switch to WPA2 encryption

Yet I still get buffering issues. On a Roku and a PS3 just 10 feet away from wireless router. (I'd hard wire it but it's across the room and we have ahead wood floors).

Amazon works fine, so me thinks the network error lies at home base Vudu. Sad. I won't invest in movies from them until the problem is fixed.

Have you started a support ticket as of yet? We'll need to gather some information to be able to fix the issue.

[Guest]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

I've never had a problem with this in the past until last night. I was watching episodes of Game of Thrones S1. Finished the watching one episode in HDX with no issues. But then after starting the next episode, I hit this buffering issue.

I performed speedtest and everything was fine with my connection. Yet only 1 green bar would appear for HDX. So after trying 6 - 10 times (buffer, play for 5 seconds, buffer, etc), I gave up and switched to HD and had full bars with no issues. About halfway through the episode, I then switched back to HDX and had no issues after that. I'm assuming it was a VUDU that was having a issue with the customer demand/load.

But this is the first time this has happened to me. But I sure hope it doesn't become a frequent problem...

Please keep me posted on if you see more hiccups. I would be happy to take a look at your streaming sessions from last night. Send me a PM with your email address used to create your VUDU account included.

[LuzRinggold]

Re: VUDU Admit You Just Cannot Handle the Load

We too experienced "buffering" Saturday night around 9:00 pm Eastern. After about 30 minutes we gave up on watching our movie and found someone on Netflix to watch. We had the same problem a few nights earlier (can't remember which night).

I am not sure if this would matter, but Vudu's buffering issue seems to be both during peek time and when watching HD movies. Best I can remember we have not had this problem with SD.