On Demand Video Quality Issue - Spartacus Vengeance

[docpadds]

I have downloaded some Rentals to the Hopper and so far mixed results. I grabbed the Graham Norton show in SD and it played back no problem. I also had it download (overnight) all the Spartacus episodes that are available On DEmand for free. This was 9 episodes in HD.

Every one of them plays for a few minutes then breaks up in a similar style to when we have weather issues. Then after freezing and becoming blocky for a few seconds resumes. Only the HD ones seem to do this so far.

It does it on the Joeys and on the Hopper, however the Hopper recovers quicker.

Has anyone else downloaded these shows and checked them out?

-Jonathan

 

[Scherrman]

I have downloaded some Rentals to the Hopper and so far mixed results. I grabbed the Graham Norton show in SD and it played back no problem. I also had it download (overnight) all the Spartacus episodes that are available On DEmand for free. This was 9 episodes in HD.

Every one of them plays for a few minutes then breaks up in a similar style to when we have weather issues. Then after freezing and becoming blocky for a few seconds resumes. Only the HD ones seem to do this so far.

It does it on the Joeys and on the Hopper, however the Hopper recovers quicker.

Has anyone else downloaded these shows and checked them out?

-Jonathan

I watched a movie on VOD last night and it worked great. Started playing in matter of seconds. I was reading on here at the moment when I started the movie so I paused it to let the download get further ahead so I would have any issues. It was just like watching any DVR program. Loved it.

 

[satjay]

I have been really impressed with the downloading times pretty much instant. Especially HD ones, speed had been great, not sure if the Hopper system has anything to do with it.

 

[Tampa8]

Did you post this somewhere else? If not, I swear I did see another post about those exact downloads causing a problem......

 

[doogie2566]

What speed is your internet rated by chance? Also, does your speed fluctuate a lot? The reason I ask this is because I was having the same issue with downloading On Demand stuff and talked to Dish support about it. They said that SD content is rated at 1.5 Mbps and HD must be at least 3 Mbps.

After a few chats with support, basically the way I understand it is that the quality of the program you download depends upon your instantaneous download speed. For instance, I rented Luck Episode 1 in HD. I let it completely download before watching it (which doesn't really matter actually). But while watching it, I would notice at times it would decrease in quality for about 30 seconds to 1 minute before returning to crystal clear HD and sometimes it would pixelate or lose audio for a second or 2. The reason it does this is because apparently my internet speed dipped below the 3 Mbps threshold at that instant. It is not like watching an HD video on Youtube or Hulu where you can let the HD video completely stream and still get crystal clear HD picture, it depends on your streaming speed at that exact point in time.

For example, even if my speed was 1 Mbps and I tried to watch an HD video on Youtube, it would be HD but I just have to let it completely stream. It might take awhile but it would still be a perfect picture. But no matter how long I let the On Demand download for Dish, it would not be an HD picture because it would not be a fast enough stream speed. It is a different type of streaming service I guess but it does make a difference.

I hope this makes sense and not too confusing but that is the best way I know how to explain it.