Streaming with Blockbuster Thread

[bgnewb]

Which movie were you trying?

I tried Topshot HD again, this time episode 6. I wish there was a list of the streaming shows versus download and wait shows.....
Sry took a bit for me to respond been at work

 

[cloudy]

I'm bummed to hear so many having streaming issues. But at the same time, I'm glad I didn't join it yet (clearly it's still more of a beta than it is a full rollout). I'll wait until they can get the service up and running the way it really needs to. What they really need to do is Talk to the Microsoft XBox team and ask how many servers they REALLY need.

 

[Mike_H]

Sample Stream info screen. Its in pause, and to show the additional banner atop, you press cancel. If not in pause mode, the "Stream Quality" box would be up top where "Normal" is.

Hmm... I've never seen a "stream quality" box.

 

[Dirtydan]

Hmm... I've never seen a "stream quality" box.

Nor have I.
Dan

 

[kracker8476]

Homeplug I would not recommend using for streaming. If you use one of dishes singlinks you need 2 of them. If you use one and the other built into the vip receivers it will only go as fast as the slowest link in the network chain. Which the vip receivers only go up to 3meg. So using 2 slinglinks should be able to give you up to 85meg depending on your internet speed.

 

[TG2]

Homeplug I would not recommend using for streaming. If you use one of dishes singlinks you need 2 of them. If you use one and the other built into the vip receivers it will only go as fast as the slowest link in the network chain. Which the vip receivers only go up to 3meg. So using 2 slinglinks should be able to give you up to 85meg depending on your internet speed.

They actually have 200 and 1gig over power line adapters.. but especially if you use the GIG ones you have to have all of them the same.

eg: Belkin 200 Meg
http://www.belkin.com/pressroom/releases/uploads/07_10_08PowerlineAV.html

and Gig
http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=495008

but at such a cost ... its cheaper to buy 2 or even 3 40 dollar Buffalo N routers at Newegg, reload them with DD-WRT if you want, and then bridge an N network outside your gateway wireless...

my setup ... 2 buffalo WHR300N's (one in bridge, one in AP mode) The first connects back to my whole house gateway (Cisco/Linksys 2100L) and that first buffalo is locked to N only mode, allowing the other side of the house to connect in... with five ethernet ports on the router (wan port added to lan when in Bridge Mode) means 5 devices at the far side get hard wired into 150Meg N wireless. I've pushed 20+ megs of data across this wireless while also streaming 8 ~ 9 meg sling stream at the same time.

 

[smoeke]

Nor have I.
Dan

search for the movie "secretariat" it was the 1st one i came across with stream quality meter

 

[bgnewb]

Homeplug I would not recommend using for streaming. If you use one of dishes singlinks you need 2 of them. If you use one and the other built into the vip receivers it will only go as fast as the slowest link in the network chain. Which the vip receivers only go up to 3meg. So using 2 slinglinks should be able to give you up to 85meg depending on your internet speed.

I denied the DVR's home plug IP to my router and only allowed the DVR's ethernet IP to have access to the router. It still would not "stream" it would only download to DVR. I have 2 netgear powerline ethernet that are the same model. Both allow 85mb throughput. Now i know it will not all the time do 85 mb but the tests are showing consistently 20 plus mb. I have a 4 mb with bursts to 5 mb download speed with a ping of 100-150 to all over the USA. Also i can stream VUDU and Amazon just fine in HD.
Does anyone know of a truly defined film in the BBMP collection that is a streaming only movie i could try? Or does anyone have any other ideas. Or does anyone think DIRT could help?

 

[MikeD-C05]

All I know is the Turbo Plug doesn't work well enough to stream a video on demand without buffering . I had to directly link my 722k to an ethernet cable from my router to get instant streaming like Netflix on my google revue unit. I did have all of my receivers hooked up by the plug alone till BBMP happened. Now I use the Netgear wall plugs in my boys room and the master bedroom but I run ethernet cables from them directly to the receivers. Now online all of my receivers show Broadband connected . But when I run the DISH com feature they still see the other receivers on all 3 boxes ,but they show two off line every time, on each receiver I have. But now DISH shows all connected and I can stream instantly movies from the net. Costed me another ethernet splitter unit ,but now everything works.

 

[Mike_H]

home electrical wiring is extremely non-standard. This leads to significantly wide variation in capabilities of the network adapters, even from one room or one wall plug to another. Most include some instructions that in the hands of a qualified electrician your home wiring can be tweaked to improve in bast cases, or be more stable from one plug to the other.

I ended up creating a WDS network using two WNDR3300 dual band (2.4 and 5 Ghz radios) and a WRT610N which is also dual band with twin radios. The 5GHz network is a backbone (over 200Mbps) and used to carry the overhead of the WDS network backhaul from the WNDR3300's to the WRT610 (connected to the internet). Xbox 360, PS3, 722K all connect via ethernet to a WNDR3300. Unfortunately such configurations are somewhat complex, and the lack of maturity in the software involved means grandma is not going to be setting such a system up anytime soon.

Interesting to see today. Started streaming Tangled in HD on my 722K this afternoon. Bit rate is way low, causing buffering almost immediately and requiring me to press pause for 15-20 minutes to avoid the buffering every couple minutes. It has been averaging around a titch below 4Mbps. I would think that would be plenty for an animated flick, but apparently this one is visually complex enough to need more that that. The hesitation is a bit irritating and the slow speed is coming from Dish, not my internet connection.

 

[TG2]

Does anyone know of a truly defined film in the BBMP collection that is a streaming only movie i could try? Or does anyone have any other ideas. Or does anyone think DIRT could help?

I think that's the next crack in the BBMP facade .. shuffle movies and content around, but don't give clues to the customer to help id what *should* be adaptively streamed and what isn't.

The best I could find.. was that any title that said "Stream in X mins" or more ... was standard older VOD, anything that said "Watch Now" was mixed bag of On Demand that actually started downloading and playing via buffer quickly .. or was a real streamed title with a stream quality meter.

8Mile was the most recent one that I attempted and it worked perfectly .. it was a real stream, stream quality meter, and was in HD w/5.1 audio.

Now if only it would identify which is which, and have ALL VOD content available quickly they'd turn this mosh-pit of hodgepodge content into something people would use more and find less failure with.

 

[Hall]

search for the movie "secretariat" it was the 1st one i came across with stream quality meter

Every movie I've tried has had the meter. I also mentioned that it always shows 1-2 bars out of 4 when starting. If you watch something else and let it download, errr sorry, "buffer" , it will always show 4/4 bars...

 

[Dirtydan]

I grabbed 3 movies yesterday, watched part of one, now this morning they are all gone. What gives?
Dan

 

[Hall]

They might come back (seriously). It happened to me. Apocolypse Now Redux was one I picked, watched part of it, and a few days later, it was gone. Yesterday, it re-appeared.

On a related note, can anyone TRY to stream that movie - the Redux version, not the normal one. Tell me what happens.

 

[Dirtydan]

I have never had a download work the next day, nada, movies are in "All Movies" "rentals" but next day ,gone.
Got Redux started after about 2 min. wait.
Dan
Edit: Redux is now starting to buffer at times, but I did see the 4 green bars while it is buffering, this is the first time I have seen the bars.

 

[TG2]

I grabbed 3 movies yesterday, watched part of one, now this morning they are all gone. What gives?
Dan

I have never had a download work the next day, nada, movies are in "All Movies" "rentals" but next day ,gone.
Got Redux started after about 2 min. wait.
Dan

There's discussion of a bug that causes "Rentals" to disappear during the reboot the receiver does every night. Some have it happen any time the receiver looses power or is reset for any reason... Dish IRT was made aware of the problem ... there is no resolution at this time.. most likely will be another firmware, and hopefully it will becoming soon as there are lots of "issues" being seen more of now that BBMP is out ...

 

[bgnewb]

I think that's the next crack in the BBMP facade .. shuffle movies and content around, but don't give clues to the customer to help id what *should* be adaptively streamed and what isn't.

The best I could find.. was that any title that said "Stream in X mins" or more ... was standard older VOD, anything that said "Watch Now" was mixed bag of On Demand that actually started downloading and playing via buffer quickly .. or was a real streamed title with a stream quality meter.

8Mile was the most recent one that I attempted and it worked perfectly .. it was a real stream, stream quality meter, and was in HD w/5.1 audio.

Now if only it would identify which is which, and have ALL VOD content available quickly they'd turn this mosh-pit of hodgepodge content into something people would use more and find less failure with.

Good news and bad news for me!!! Ok, after chatting with dishonline support i am finally able to stream movies. I did several reboots and finally got to stream movies!!! Bad news is now my 722k reboots during and after watching movies. The receiver stalls and then reboots. It did 4 times just while chatting with the tech support guy. They are mailing me a receiver and will receive it in a cpl days.
I am stoked that i can stream now in HD. The most i was able to get out of the Tech guy about what streams and does not is if it says "watch now" you can stream it. If it says download you cant...........DUH.....LOL.
either way i am happy about the streaming.

James

 

[Dirtydan]

Ok, I got firmware update on my vip722, new fw is 721. Now I still lose recordings over night.
Dan

 

[TheKrell]

Ok, I got firmware update on my vip722, new fw is 721. Now I still lose recordings over night.
Dan

Grrr. Where's the "dislike" button? Not you! I mean the "auto-delete everything" on L721.

 

[barco13]

I think somebody may have already mentioned this, but it appears there are instances where the title doesn't match the content. Attached is a shot where I tried to stream tom thumb for the kids, but the content is a dog puppet of some kind. So if you stream something and it looks totally different, you are not crazy. Also, service is much better with the WiFi adapter I purchased recently in case anybody is wondering.

Update, it appears the dogs name is ruffus and he may be playing tom thumb; however, the picture on the menu looks like the original tom thumb movie and description does not indicate puppets. So I was sort of wrong, but the picture associated with movie didn't do me any favors.