Severe lag when streaming TV episodes

[GSGregg]

Two shows of interest on at the same time? No problem in the days of VCRs. Nowadays I've taken to watching network shows on line, but the experience is barely tolerable. While audio flows smoothly, video lags by from about a half-second to as much as three, but degenerates to little more than a slide show once you're 'in deep'. Eventually, the show freezes even the audio for several seconds at a time, and last night I was unable to finish a show on Fox. I run XP 32-bit with a Celeron D-331 @2.67GHz, a Radeon HD4670 1GB 'Ice-Q' AGP-8X and ECS (MSI?) mobo.

I guess the question is, do I need particular players or codecs to watch these shows comfortably? I've looked on the network sites for requirement info, but have found none.

Thanks. Gregg

 

[NerdIT]

Try VLC media player -no extra codecs needed

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

I've thrown every file format at it with no problems.

Also are you using onboard audio? or add-in card?

 

[NerdIT]

Also when you say streaming -where from?

 

[GSGregg]

Hello, NerdIT; sorry to take so long responding, but apparently my email notification isn't activated, even though the checkbox indicates that it is. Now, if I can just find my UCP.....

I install every VLC update that shows up, running v2.1.5 now. There's never any indication of the VLC player taking over, and my impression has been that the TV networks use either Flash Player or their own delivery system. I've been unable to find info on what system(?) is used, or recommended, by a particular network.

Quote: "...when you say streaming - where from?" Maybe 'streaming' isn't the correct term to use; I thought it applied to any broadcast over the internet - movies, taped episodes or live performance. Not so? If by "where from?" you mean the source, I just catch up on primetime shows at CBS.com, NBC.com or FOX..com

My vidcard is the one-gig HD4670 AGP I mentioned previously (add-in).

 

[NerdIT]

Hey there, the term is kind of used loosely that why I wanted to clarify. If you had a video file saved on a hard drive on your computer, you could "stream" it to your smart TV or any other device with appropriate software to run it (VLC for example on PCs, browser app on smartTV) on the local network and watch it (typically).

In your case you are streaming from the Internet -as opposed to a local source. So your experience is multi-faceted firstly and mainly involving the speed/type of your ISP Internet connection, port settings (firewall) on router and PC, web browser/OS and video card.

One thing to point out is that AGP is now an obsolete technology bus for video cards -do you have the current driver for your Radeon installed? This could be the issue I would start there.

Then, I would try other browsers and/or installing/re-installing Flash, Silverlight, Shockwave, and Quicktime - as any of these could be needed for whatever site you are watching TV on.

What browser are you using now?

 

[GSGregg]

When graphic/gaming demands reached the Gigabyte level and the corner had been turned for PCIe, nVidia abandoned AGP without having made a one-gig model. ATI/AMD decided to market one and make a buck, but never got a driver certified by WHQL. I have hunted for an AGP hotfix a few times, but none of the prospects did as claimed, and the driver (Catalyst 9.9 version 8.65) that came with the card is the only and last one that will work.

My browser is Firefox 41.0.2.5765 as of Oct. 15. On the computer are Windows Media Player 11.0.5721.5145, Silverlight 5.1.30514.0, and before a recent HDD failure I had HTML5 that apparently did nothing useful on my rig. I install updates of Flash Player, Shockwave Flash (if there's a difference) and VLC, which I mentioned.

Trouble is, if I upgrade any part of this comp, I have to do it all.....😀

 

[NerdIT]

Unfortunately it may be upgrade time -as you have a big gap between you hardware's capabilities- and the requirements for modern/new software.

It's just the way technology works -exponentially. :|

 

[NerdIT]

VLC is standalone program so it doesn't depend on any web browser.

Also, I would recommend installing windows 7 64 bit -as you are not utilizing half of your CPUs potential power -which every ounce is needed in your case- and XP is no longer supported and patched so is very prone to attack/viruses especially when connected to the web at all, and even more so when using a browser...How much RAM do you have??

Time for an upgrade it seems ! 🙁

 

[GSGregg]

Hey-y-y-y! The email notification worked this time!

I know of XP's limitation of three-plus gigs of ram, but my 661FX-M7 mobo only holds two---of plain DDR. I mull potential upgrade packages once in a while, and a few weeks ago Microcenter had refurbished HP '5000' something-or-others with Haswell i3s to which I could add a GTX750ti for a total of around $500 (but the PSU was only 300W), but before I made up my mind, they were all snapped up.

Of course, Haswell is old-hat now, right? We're into 14nm Skylake and the ink on the Sandy Bridge receipt isn't even dry yet! 😀
___________________________________________
Been a long time since I used Amazon Instant Video......I think I'll do it again and see how things compare.

 

[GSGregg]

(My) Memory refreshed; turns out that I stopped using Amazon not long after they started 'encouraging' Silverlight rather than Flash Player.....I can't say FP was perfect, but I did buy and watch a lot more items then than I would, or even can, now. In 'Settings', they still have the dots you tick to select your chosen player, but when FP is selected, the UI defaults to a gray window claiming that Silverlight has not been installed, and hawking the Plugin.

Looking up Silverlight ( http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/Get-Started/Install/Default.aspx ), the only Windows requirements listed are:

a) x86 or x64;
b) CPU 1.6GHz and higher;
c) 512MB RAM

But---XP is omitted from the compatible systems list.

Amazon wants 900kbs internet speed for SD or 25Mbs for HD. If AT&T isn't lying to me, I have up to 3Mbs, so standard video should be within reach. (sigh)_________________________________________

Although there hasn't been a real solution, upgrade seems to be the only thing that makes sense nowadays, so your post #8 stands to get my vote if nothing else wakes one of us from a sound sleep. Thanks for your insight, NerdIT.

Gregg

 

[NerdIT]

Hey there,

To confirm if AT&T are being honest, you can run a speed test at;

www.speedtest.net (if you have flash working lol)

Glad (to try) to help!

 

[GSGregg]

Tee hee.....that's a sore point with me. In Sept. 2009, with almost zero computer experience, I signed up for what is now called AT&T HSI Pro and chose 'up to 3Mb/sec' @$30/mo (now $47) because a friend was dissatisfied with his 'up to 1.5Mb/sec' @$25. Not one of many speed tests over six years REACHED 1.5Mbs, let alone come anywhere near 3. [Correction--see below] Inspired by your suggestion, I ran 10 different tests today; two were so low as to be considered bogus, but the other eight came in between 1.13 (one) and 1.25-1.27Mbs (the rest). Files I get from a gaming site I joined are download at 175kbs, or 1.4Mbs, without fail.


Correction--I just test-downloaded a 34.8MB file in 2:57, which works out to about 1.6Mb/s, and that's the first time I've broken the 1.5 barrier. Maybe there's something to AT&T's upgrade claim after all.....

Again, NerdIT, thanks for chiming in and take care;

Gregg

 

[NerdIT]

In my area (North Carolina, US.) The most basic ($30-40) from our ISP Time Warner is a 10Mbps Downlink and ~1.5Mbps Up.. I pay $10 extra dollars for the "turbo" and it promises 20Mbps Down and the same ~1.5Mbps Up..

I actually (most of the time) actually do get the promised bandwidth -sometimes more sometimes less-

For streaming like you do you are concerned with the Down-link speed as you are "pulling/streaming" from the Internet..This could be you problem actually, lack of bandwidth. Even with my 20Mbps down Netflix still has to buffer sometimes (usually when I'm downloading something or gaming at the same time. And if you ever do want to multi-task as I just mentioned (in that case 3 things sharing that 20Mbps -game,download, Netflix) you will need more speed.

Also, if your router has QoS (Quality of Service) functionality -you can set it so browser/silverlight/flash traffic takes priority over all other data types. In my case I have Netflix at the top and then my actual gaming PC as the second - So on my home network -Netflix gets priority over all other traffic, and then my all traffic from my gaming system is next. The rest of data types get lumped in and get along the line as they normally would as if without QoS -if that makes sense.