Has anyone actually lost their TV signal yet?

[Lyric]

Sid, as far as I can see you have said little about buffering. I know you have a 2.5ish Mb connection. I also know you have at least three ways of streaming programs.. I disregard downloading as this gives by far the best result.
Do none of your methods suffer from buffering at all ?
My, very satisfactory, connection from BB4S runs between 6.5 and 7.5 Mb every time I check it but I still get slight buffering, maybe twice an hour for seconds, It is totally livable with but I currently think it is due to an under-performing laptop than anything else.
The Macclesfield box is looking like the answer to me, just need some money !

[firsttango]

You'll often get buffering on a 100 mb fibre optic connection, depends on many more things than just raw speed, anyone claiming never to get buffering at some time or other is blessed by a higher authority

[El Cid]

All systems use buffers, that isn't a problem. The way a buffer works is to download a small amount of data into a storage buffer and then start playing. That's why the programme selected never starts immediately. The rate at which the buffer is kept topped up is variable, but, so long as there are some data in the buffer the picture will be stable.

Each program handles it in different ways. Sky Go starts very quickly, but the initial quality is very bad and it slowly improves over about 30 seconds as the buffer fills and then the quality is fine.

The problem arises when there the rate of topping up the buffer gets too slow and the buffer is empty. Then the picture will freeze until more data is fed into the buffer.

Obviously, the slower and more unstable the connection is, the more likely you are experiencing picture freezing. When I am using BBC iPlayer on the TV I might get one very short glitch in a half hour programme.

Sid

[Lyric]

Ok, I understand that, what I was trying to get out of you was how the Macclesfield box compare

[elusive]

Question for cid about the android t.v soloutions box. do you watch itv bbc etc through the filmon app.putting aside the bbc i player demand five etc?

we are intrested in buying a box before we move out next month and i guess this the best bet?

[gerryh]

You can watch it either way.
Watching via Filmon doesn't need a VPN, Smart DNS or whatever as it isn't geo blocked.
Watching via BBC iPlayer needs a VPN etc.
Cheers
Gerry

[Bugwap]

Ok, I understand that, what I was trying to get out of you was how the Macclesfield box compare

Hi

There are lots of varied opinions about the effects that VPN's have on the speed and stability of an internet connection.


As El Cid about buffering on his connection, I don't know. There was and is considerable improvement in the speed & responsivness of our remote control sessions with the VPN connected.

What I can tell you is that, however counter intuitive it may sound, our VPN solution has no impact on the overall speed of the connection.

David Latham

[El Cid]

Question for cid about the android t.v soloutions box. do you watch itv bbc etc through the filmon app.putting aside the bbc i player demand five etc?

You can get live TV from the BBC and ITV app but only catchup from C4/5.

The quality of the BBC etc streams is better than Filmon in my opinion. There is also TVCatchup for live UKTV streams which is also very good. If you use the Mobdru app there are hundreds of options including Sky, ESPN and BT but the quality is not as good as the BBC etc streams.

Sid

[Bugwap]

You can watch it either way.
Watching via Filmon doesn't need a VPN, Smart DNS or whatever as it isn't geo blocked.
Watching via BBC iPlayer needs a VPN etc.
Cheers
Gerry

There are other solutions than filmon with the right VPN Gerry as I think you may discover

[USINSPAIN]

So that is like saying we will get better reception through your box which is what we want????, had a good look at the XBMC programme through the laptop plenty of stuff on there probable to much and is very complicated for a novice like me

[Miro]

Keeping an open mind here, but a few things keep nagging at me. Firstly, it seems by all accounts that any form of TV received via the internet can be prone to some amount of buffering (stop/start - picture freeze, call it what you will). Is there any hardware that is truly immune to this? If it is purely down to your individual internet connection (and not just d/l speed either) then I can see this is simply a compromise that we probably have to accept - regardless of how much we spend on any new system. What actually bothers me more is the lack of sharpness on moving scenes, particularly watching sports.
Secondly: I note with interest that there now seems to be general agreement that XBMC is too complex and fiddly for the "average" non-tech ex-pat (no offence meant). The new start-up screen described by Sid seems preferable - but are we now not looking at a pretty much standard Android device? Anyone with a mobile or tablet will be familiar with this. It still doesn't offer a real EPG. The only system that seems capable of that is the MAG250 - but they pretty much all come with subscription fees for channels of dubious sources, payable to dubious sources! I think these boxes work in a totally different way, maybe someone can explain? One company I mentioned earlier does offer the FTA channels via a MAG250 for no fee, but on the condition that you contract their ADSL service - of which there are some, err, dubious reports.
So what to do?

Meanwhile....I have received my Chromecast and had a play around with it, so will report as promised.
The first couple of hours were frustrating. Beautifully packaged, with the only instructions printed on the box suggesting that you simply plug it in, set it up, and start "casting". Not quite so simple. First of all, what isn't clearly explained anywhere is that you can NOT set it up using a device wired to your router. Obviously you're going to need a wireless router to use one of these, but you should also know that you'll need a wirelessly connected device to set it up from, e.g. tablet or phone. Next, I discovered that I had to dig into my router settings to get it to work with the Chromecast. For the techies: IGMP and UPnP have to be enabled. I don't have a clue what either of these are, but managed to work it out (and can assist anyone else who goes this route and who have a standard Movistar Home Station router - otherwise you're on your own!) I like a challenge, but this would be enough to make many throw the towel in. Furthermore, Chromecast cannot function unless your SSID is visible. I don't mind that for initial set up (obviously it needs to find your router), but once it's connected, you'd think you could hide your SSID again. Anyway, once I'd figured all that out, it really was simple to setup!!
OK, so I can "cast" any Chrome tab to my TV with one click. So whether it's Filmon, or BBC / ITV etc using Zenmate, simple as. By the way, I think I read that Chromecast won't work with a VPN. There's a slight hitch, in that apparently Google ballsed up the alt+tab function in the latest version of Chrome, which means if you go full screen on the tab you're casting, you then can't multitask by minimising the cast tab and working in another. However, there's a workaround, by installing a Chrome extension called Fullscreen Anything. It works. I watched on the TV (joyously) as *beep* departed from the CL, while SWMBO played Solitaire on the PC.
My initial aim after the Big Switch Off was to restore just what we had lost, with as little outlay as possible. I've tried to resist moving the goalposts and expecting more than we lost (and certainly don't want to pay for stuff we didn't have before) but of course any extras that happen to result from the situation are welcome. With Chromecast, I can easily watch movies I've downloaded without having to transfer them to a USB stick (also can pause them which I couldn't when watching on a stick) by simply playing them directly in a Chrome window, and even better, the soccer matches that I used to watch on the PC through Sopcast, I can now send to the TV using the cast entire screen function. So that's a bonus.
At the moment, there are very limited apps compatible with Chromecast, so it has limited use with a tablet. Chrome for mobile devices doesn't currently support casting, so I can basically only use YouTube, Vevo and a couple of others like Netflix that I don't use, with my tablet. But I do like watching live concerts, and there's loads on YouTube (even some full movies) and the quality when streaming from YouTube to the TV is perfect.
Overall verdict so far? For around 50 quid (delivered) and no ongoing fees (not using VPN or smart DNS even), I can say I'm pretty satisfied. It enables us to watch the channels we lost, on the TV, which as I said before, was the original goal. It's not without it's compromises though. Picture quality is certainly not as good as satellite (YouTube is possibly better actually) but maybe no internet solution can promise that; we don't have an EPG and the ability to channel hop with our backsides planted on the sofa, but the net result will probably be less time wasted watching cr4p just because it's on. So for me, for now - sorted.

P.S. Sorry if this was a bit too waffly or detailed, but there's nothing much on TV right now, so.....

[Miro]

P.S. the *beep* in my previous post was a certain team from N.London with a syllable that sounds like a posterior part of anatomy. IMHO, as a lifelong Spurs fan, they should be *beeped* out of all competitions!

[Bugwap]

If you have an iPad/iPhone then surely the best solution would be to have an Apple TV and stream through that. Otherwise, I am pretty sure the box supports streaming but David Latham is the person to answer that. You can certainly download to a USB stick and play from that.

Sid

You can indeed stream to the box using any device DLNA compatible.

You can also play content from one of the 4 usb ports or from the SD card slot which supports
cards up to 32 Gigabytes.


David Latham

[Bugwap]

P.S. the *beep* in my previous post was a certain team from N.London with a syllable that sounds like a posterior part of anatomy. IMHO, as a lifelong Spurs fan, they should be *beeped* out of all competitions!

HEAR HEAR!

[Miro]

The blue team from the North West are due to make their final curtain call shortly - it's on Sky Sports for anyone with a subscription - or not

[Bugwap]

The blue team from the North West are due to make their final curtain call shortly - it's on Sky Sports for anyone with a subscription - or not

How quickly you can go off someone

[Unicorn]

With smarty dns how often is it advised that updates of ip address should be set?

This is with an account, not the freebee. I have set it at every hour but it seems not enough.

[El Cid]

With smarty dns how often is it advised that updates of ip address should be set?

This is with an account, not the freebee. I have set it at every hour but it seems not enough.

You should not need to do anything at all unless your IP address changes and that normally only happens if you reset the router, turn it off or have a power cut.

Why is your IP address changing?

Sid

[Unicorn]

I do not know but it does all the time. I have the Telefonica package, mobile, internet and landline.

[Enrique]

Hi Unicorn,
Your IP shouldn't change that often........get on to your ISP.
A dynamic IP will have a lease life, so if you disconnect i.e. turn off for 24hrs(depends on lease life) then your IP will be released back for someone else to use and when you reconnect you will get a new IP.