Computer Buffering Question

Early B.

I sometimes stream lengthy (1.5 hrs.) live lectures from the Internet to my laptop using Windows Media Player. I often run into annoying buffering issues where the audio stops for several seconds, then resumes. Sometimes it freezes altogether and I have to log on again. I'm told this is a buffering issue.

How can I fix this problem? Will an additional 1GB RAM help?

Thanks.

fatchowmein

Hey Early,
What's your processor (type and speed) and how much memory do you have?

Early B.

fatchowmein wrote: »

Hey Early,
What's your processor (type and speed) and how much memory do you have?

I dunno. I don't have the laptop here right now. But it's a Dell dual core processor with 1 GB RAM purchased about 6 months ago.

Systems

Sounds like a pure bandwidth issue. There may be several others downloading that at th same time which would hammer their bandwidth or it may be your internet connection not being able to handle the stream. Very very low chance it has anything to do with your computer. Your CPU is a million times faster then your internet connection which is the bottle neck in this senario.

Early B.

Silverti wrote: »

There may be several others downloading that at th same time which would hammer their bandwidth or it may be your internet connection not being able to handle the stream.

Yes, there are usually about 10 - 15 others who are downloading at the same time.

lomic

Buffering is performed by the program you're using to watch the video stream. For Windows Media Player (I'm using WMP11) right-click on the top of the WMP window, then select Tools -> Options -> Performance. You can increase the buffer here if you want, it may more may not make a difference. I wouldn't set it any longer than 10-20 seconds.

More memory won't make a difference, the amount of video being buffered is only a megabyte or two - even if your computer had to buffer it to the hard drive instead of to RAM, it wouldn't matter.

Best of luck.

phoneisbusy

Is it possible for you to use a steaming downloading program to pull the file over ? e.g. http://sdp.ppona.com/

I've had some success using this for some seminars that I want to view later. I imagine there are other such programs.

Good luck

Dave

fatchowmein

Early B. wrote: »

Yes, there are usually about 10 - 15 others who are downloading at the same time.

Early,
Do you have issues with YouTube? If not, the problem is probably on the other end.

Early B.

fatchowmein wrote: »

Early,
Do you have issues with YouTube? If not, the problem is probably on the other end.

I dunno. I haven't played any YouTube files on the laptop, but I'll try it.

Thanks.

snow

Iteresting thread. I have noticed at times myself that it will pause every so often during a stream. I think I have a fast enough download speed usally in the mid 8 to high 9 mb per sec. so I dont think thats an issue my pc is an older dell pretty basic model. 2.4 processing speed 1 gb of ram so perhaps thats it. or the server downloading to me is slow?

REGARDS SNOW

Systems

8 to 9 megs a second?

That’s like a dedicated T3 connection?

extremely high chance that no ones server but maybe google and Microsoft could keep that kind of transfer speed up.

But even at that, your computer with a 2.4 ghz proc would have absolute no problem processing that. Think of it this way.

Your PC probably has a gigabit card on it which can haul in 1000 mbit/second. A Sata 2 hard drive could theoretically write 300 m/bit per second to the drive. Most DDR ram can do 400 MPS, DDR2 up to 800 and DDR3 up to 1600. The proc is many many many times fast then that. a 2.4 GHZ proc can do up to 4500 MIPS/Flop. so kind of like this:


T1: 1.5 mb/sec
T3: 45 mb/sec
Gigabit Ethernet: 1000 mb/sec
DDR400: 400 mb/sec
Satas2 drive: 300 mb/sec
2400 ghz proc: 4500 mb/sec




Logically on a computer, what you are doing is limited by your slowest connection, your slowest “tube”. So you can have a quad core 3.0 ghz Proc and yet when you stick a floppy drive in the floppy disk drive, you will still wait just about as long to get that file as you did on a 386 16mhz PC.

I cant tell you how many users in the IT support world will sit there and tell you that they need a new faster computer becasue the 300 meg file they are downloading off a t1 is slow. Yes, we make fun of those people between all of us when a work order like that comes in.

snow

Silverti wrote: »

8 to 9 megs a second?

That’s like a dedicated T3 connection?

extremely high chance that no ones server but maybe google and Microsoft could keep that kind of transfer speed up.

But even at that, your computer with a 2.4 ghz proc would have absolute no problem processing that. Think of it this way.

Your PC probably has a gigabit card on it which can haul in 1000 mbit/second. A Sata 2 hard drive could theoretically write 300 m/bit per second to the drive. Most DDR ram can do 400 MPS, DDR2 up to 800 and DDR3 up to 1600. The proc is many many many times fast then that. a 2.4 GHZ proc can do up to 4500 MIPS/Flop. so kind of like this:


T1: 1.5 mb/sec
T3: 45 mb/sec
Gigabit Ethernet: 1000 mb/sec
DDR400: 400 mb/sec
Satas2 drive: 300 mb/sec
2400 ghz proc: 4500 mb/sec




Logically on a computer, what you are doing is limited by your slowest connection, your slowest “tube”. So you can have a quad core 3.0 ghz Proc and yet when you stick a floppy drive in the floppy disk drive, you will still wait just about as long to get that file as you did on a 386 16mhz PC.

I cant tell you how many users in the IT support world will sit there and tell you that they need a new faster computer becasue the 300 meg file they are downloading off a t1 is slow. Yes, we make fun of those people between all of us when a work order like that comes in.

Yes it is a ethernet connection. There has been times where depending on the time of day number of people online etc where it has slowed down to 6.5 mbps and been as high as 11 mbps.
The average does seem to be between 8-9 though. So your point is there is nothing more I can do at this end to improve things?
I am kind of a computer dummy so please bear with me on this.

REGARDS SNOW

bobman1235

First of all, it would be 11Mbps, not 11000 Mbps.

Still a nice fast connection, so most likely any problem is either
a) some kind of driver issue (doubtful, but possible)
b) junkware on your system causing things to run horrifically slow (more likely)
c) a bottleneck at the server your'e streaming from (most likely).

snow

bobman1235 wrote: »

First of all, it would be 11Mbps, not 11000 Mbps.

Still a nice fast connection, so most likely any problem is either
a) some kind of driver issue (doubtful, but possible)
b) junkware on your system causing things to run horrifically slow (more likely)
c) a bottleneck at the server your'e streaming from (most likely).

Oops lol. Told ya I was a pc dummy.:D

I think your absolutely right then. the drivers seem to be fine, and I run a CCleaner program to clean up any extra crap once a week or so.

Thanks to you and silverti both. I was actually thinking to myself the last couple of weeks it was time to buy a new faster pc but I guess I dont actually need it.

REGARDS SNOW

fatchowmein

Silverti wrote: »

I cant tell you how many users in the IT support world will sit there and tell you that they need a new faster computer becasue the 300 meg file they are downloading off a t1 is slow. Yes, we make fun of those people between all of us when a work order like that comes in.

LOL

Amen, brother.