Speed of 'streaming'!

[Hanow]

Not sure if that is what it is called. But....... for example, sometimes I watch a You Tube something-or-other, and it plays continuously. At other times, it keeps stopping and - well - catching up with itself before continuing to play. I know what I mean - just hope someone else does. :-[

What do I need to set or change to get it to play continuously?

[blakey]

Your service provider! It's a slow connection that causes this. You'll find it happens most In peak times when a lot of people are on-line. A faster connection will resolve it. Also it can be too many people accessing the particular item you're viewing.

[Hanow]

Blakey - many thanks. I sort of assumed that I may have needed to download some kind of support tool to make it faster.

I certainly notice a drop in performance late afternoon - through to about 10 at night. BT have just changed my modem to their latest version. I had hoped it might make things better - but clearly not!

[Chrissie]

I often get the same thing Hannow

[blakey]

When your stream starts to play you could try pausing it for a few mins and pressing play when a good amount of the data has downloaded. That will allow for a smooth playback. Annoying I know but it will work.

[Hanow]

Chrissie - I asked the BT engineer if/when we are going to get the new zippy-whizzy-speedy service. He told me that it will be introduced in stages. At present it has been put into Crowlas and Marazion!!!!!!!!!!!! Total population almost in the negative numbers! Why not Truro or Penzance? - at least of reasonable size! I confess, I laughed.

[hifistud]

It's even worse when you're trying to stream something out live!! And the zippy-whizzy-speedy service isn't coming to my cabinet (it's known as FTTC - Fibre to the cabinet) until March 2012. At that point, though, given where the cabinet is (much less than a kilometre from me) I ought to get 20Mbit down and 10Mbit up - which will make for a much, much smoother stream in both directions. Folks I know that have already got an FTTC service tell me it's amazingly zippy and speedy... which just frustrates me even more.

[Hanow]

Hifi - in your situation 'video-star' and all that - must be very frustrating.

I get so ticked off with these companies who advertise their service as 'all-singing-dancing', only to find that few people have it or can actually get it - regardless of what you might be paying. > BT's current TV ads are suggesting that their latest service/modem doo-dah is the bees-knees. By upgrading to their top package (due to them shouting at me for over-using my allowance on the lower (cheaper) package) I had assumed that I was going to be getting this sooper-dooper wotsit service. Not so! > It will only be when they - BT- decide to 'upgrade' and make provision through my exchange. If and when they ever do it is totally outside of my control. Meanwhile, I can just keep paying the bill, even if my service is affected at 'peak' times! Such a con! >

[Perpetua]

Virgin are no better Hanow, I forget the speeds that they advertise their broadband to be . . . but I'm doubtful that's what I actually get.

[vereybowring]

I lived in Edinburgh for a while and got to experience Virgins Fibre Optic packages - I was on the cheapo one and was getting 20MBit down and 5 up which was nice.
Unfirtunately I now live somewhere without fibre optic again.

[Perpetua]

I'm not fibre optic either, well I don't think I am Verey.