I can't watch MaxGo! Why?

[shortspark]

Okay, I just signed up for the new MaxGo but can't watch it. I can get the movies but they are constantly buffering, loading and everything is jerky. And of course this is in SD - HD being out of the question. I have an old computer and the plug-in required to watch runs my cpu to 100% so maybe that is part of the problem. Also, I live out in the sticks and there is only one cable provider for high speed internet and the best I can do without spending a lot more is 1 MB of speed. That low speed has ruled out Netflix and other movie providers who require greater speed. I am thinking that speed thing is also my problem with MaxGo (and also Dish OnLine which is unwatchable as well). Are there any options for me? I could pay an additional $25 per month and get 3 MB speed which is the top speed the ISP can give. Can I watch MaxGo in HD with that speed? Will the extra 2 MB of speed make a difference? The MaxGo website has no info on speed requirements that I can find although I believe I saw Dish OnLine shows 3 MB required for their HD viewing.

 

[CK SatGuy]

Is Max GO even available for Dish Subs? (probably in beta) Anyway, You're about both the internet speed and you're computer. You're speed does need to be faster and it sounds like you have an older computer. You might not need to replace the whole computer, but if the video is really lagging the the graphics card on you're computer needs to be upgraded.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

MAXGO and HBOGO are in beta for a select group of DISH Network customers.

 

[shortspark]

Thanks, yea, it is an older HP (about seven years old). It just so happens that a week ago I ordered a new Dell desktop PC but I have no idea about the graphic card in it. I do not play games so I don't pay much attention to that. Now that I might stream videos, however, I need to look into that and maybe replace the card with a better one if this new PC does not stream any better. Plus, I'm afraid I might have to shell out the extra twenty-five bucks a month to get that 3 MB speed.

As far as MaxGo is concerned, yes, it is beta and is available to anyone who subscribes to Cinemax. Just sign up with your Dish account at www.maxgo.com/beta/dish. It would be great if I could get enough speed to stream properly. HBO has something similar but not for Dish customers.

 

[shortspark]

I just saw your post Scott and although I could sign up for MaxGo using my Dish account, HBO showed a pop up screen of providers and Dish was not one of them so I was not allowed to register, even though I have HBO through Dish.

 

[CK SatGuy]

I was able to sign up for Max GO as well. Haven't tried HBO GO yet.

Edit: Trying HBO GO and it's still not available for Dish subs yet. Hopefully it'll be available soon.

 

[TG2]

though I own it ... I'm watching Flash Gordon via MaxGo right now.. Thanks for the alert that it was open for testing..

also should note, that theres only 300 or so movies available ... most seem to be set to "expire" at the end of april or may..

For the record.. Comcast Cable internet, 6 meg DL w/turbo to 10M, and 2M up, self made AMDx2 system 1gig ram, Nvidia based 8xxx series video card, both SD & HD stream pretty well ... some buffereing occured on the HD stream, and the SD quality and performance are much better than the Sling Adapter.

And for our OP ... on monitoring my bandwidth, on SD I'm seeing 500k to 1.6 meg swings (2.55meg spikes). You'd probably need a minimum 2 megs of bandwidth to stream, and anything else going on while you're streaming would likely cause stuttering for a few seconds ... without knowing the details of the stream server or its ability to optimize, you'll never know for sure until its tried out..

EDIT: while streaming HD, I'm seeing 1.2 to 3.9 meg swings with spikes to 6 meg, averaging around 2.5 meg continuously.

 

[CK SatGuy]

As far as MaxGo is concerned, yes, it is beta and is available to anyone who subscribes to Cinemax. Just sign up with your Dish account at www.maxgo.com/beta/dish. It would be great if I could get enough speed to stream properly. HBO has something similar but not for Dish customers.

It seems you can only access Max GO for dish with the link you provided so we would have to bookmark that link for easier access. Did you ever get a similar e-mail with a link for HBO GO? If you did, could you post the link for that as well?

 

[shortspark]

Thanks for that TG2. You are right, all I can do is try. You have much more speed than I'll ever have but I did call my ISP today and told them I wanted a trial at the max they can give (3 MB), even though it will cost me an extra $25 per month. I have 1 MB now and as I said before, even SD is no good at that let alone HD. I have to have HD because I plan on shooting the movies to my 1080P projector via HDMI and anything less than HD on a huge projection screen will look terrible. I have a wireless device that has a USB driven transmitter from the computer to a remote receiver which plugs into my HDMI A/V receiver, which in turn goes to my projector also via HDMI. Surfing the net and watching youtube is great on my 106" screen. This device from Cables Unlimited will do HD and the picture is terrific - BUT, movies will be dependent on my equipment and the speed I can get. I suppose I will have to disable my other computers from the LAN when I watch movies to help with the bandwidth. Well, I don't know much about streaming movies and this is my first go at it so it is all trial and error.

As I mentioned before, I have a new Dell coming tomorrow so maybe it will have some upgrades over what I have now which will assist in viewing movies.

 

[shortspark]

It seems you can only access Max GO for dish with the link you provided so we would have to bookmark that link for easier access. Did you ever get a similar e-mail with a link for HBO GO? If you did, could you post the link for that as well?

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that. You can not go to Max Go's regular website to sign in because it will give you the same information you get on HBO Go, which is that Dish subscribers are pending this service. You MUST access Max Go with the link I provided above as that is the only portal to beta and your log-in. I did not get an email for HBO Go and simply tried to access it the usual way through their normal site. As Scott said, they are in beta with Dish too but I guess I was left out of that one as I only received the Cinemax offer.

 

[TG2]

I have to have HD because I plan on shooting the movies to my 1080P projector via HDMI and anything less than HD on a huge projection screen will look terrible.

As I mentioned before, I have a new Dell coming tomorrow so maybe it will have some upgrades over what I have now which will assist in viewing movies.

Well ... Good Luck ... in my reference for their optimizations and what stream server .. because it would be nice if as users we could specify, even if going the crude route of opening a config file, to tell the server to buffer 2 to 3 minutes ahead ... or more ... sure it would mean a hefty delay to the start of a movie, but the larger your buffer, the more likely you are to not have any hickups during playback.

As to the new dell .. if truely new .. and core2 or better with 2 or more Gigs of ram, the video on board (common) shouldn't be too much of an issue for streaming. Though its also true that a better video card would off load some of the rendering duties, its still not going to be much for the newer machines and just regular 2d video ... only if the plugin's for video took use of hardware accelleration would you get excellent performance...

And of course netflix doesn't offer store-n-play options ... ie.. select a movie to watch, it downloads and allows you to play for X times or hours ... the technically "illegal" options would be up to you ... personally if I had a way to legally use a netflix like service while keeping a low download rate (for cost savings) I'd do that..

I'd also recommend you double check with your ISP as to their bandwidth cap .... right now its 250 gigs for comcast... and I think the most I've done was around 50 in a month .. but I'm not a heavy on line watcher ... that's why I have the slingadapter... inside the house, the stream data only goes between the slingadapter and me.

 

[leepell]

FYI, Change www.maxgo.com/beta/dish to www.HBOgo.com/beta/dish and you can sign up for HBO Go. Works well, but unlike EpixHD, I can't seem to get it to work on the Logitech Review

 

[TG2]

FYI, Change www.maxgo.com/beta/dish to www.HBOgo.com/beta/dish and you can sign up for HBO Go. Works well, but unlike EpixHD, I can't seem to get it to work on the Logitech Review

that is just TOO GD FUNNY!! Its done by the same provider... it remembered all my settings.. I just had to "Agree" and poof.. there it is...

 

[CK SatGuy]

FYI, Change www.maxgo.com/beta/dish to www.HBOgo.com/beta/dish and you can sign up for HBO Go. Works well, but unlike EpixHD, I can't seem to get it to work on the Logitech Review

You know, I tried that this morning and it didn't work. I try it again just now and it worked perfectly. Weird. But hey, I was able to sign up. Looking foward to using both GOs from now on.

 

[Dishusercan]

Do you know how to bypass the " You must reside in the 50 states" it also says to contact your tv provider, is it dish who enables your IP?

 

[TG2]

Do you know how to bypass the " You must reside in the 50 states" it also says to contact your tv provider, is it dish who enables your IP?

Your "Location" on your posts says "US" are you not in the usa? if you are, then you want to check your IP address ... something like whatismyipaddress.com ... and then go to mxtoolbox.com and run an ARIN check against your IP... (to run the check, in the box at mxtoolbox.com you type "arin: " without the quotes, and with your IP address after the space)

The arin check will tell you more about the ip address holder, their NIC information, and if not USA based, then you'd have to work through a US based proxy so that you would be seen as coming from an IP in the US ARIN ip space. (don't post your IP address openly here, not that anyone here would misuse the information but if someone is trolling they might see it and launch DOS attacks or other nasty stuff on you)

 

[mike123abc]

HBOGO works great for me. It gives a really nice picture, better than DVD but not full HD.

 

[CK SatGuy]

I noticed that with MAX GO, you can set your PQ to either SD or HD, while with HBO GO, the picture gets optimized automatically based on internet bandwidth and your computer's resources. Again, another weird thing. (Then again, since it's in beta, I guess weird things can happen.) Either way, the picture looks really good on both websites. BTW, in case you didn't know, you can check your internet speed at speedtest.net. My speed is at 2.25 Mbps.

 

[bkos]

FYI, Change www.maxgo.com/beta/dish to www.HBOgo.com/beta/dish and you can sign up for HBO Go. Works well, but unlike EpixHD, I can't seem to get it to work on the Logitech Review

I was able to sign up for both using my Logitech Revue and am now able to watch video from both of them on the Revue. The HBOGO app that is loaded on the Revue does not work but if you use Chrome on the Revue with the links, both services load a GoogleTV enabled site and you can sign up and start watching. Video and audio were great on both services.

 

[leepell]

Thanks bkos, it's now working for me as well on the revue