HD streaming doesn't work with a 20down 2 up RR connection?

[fluid inferno]

Hi everyone,

 

I've been doing a lot of research and spent a lot of time working with Netflix and TWC tier 3 support trying to figure out what is wrong.  Basically, even though speed tests (speakeasy and speedtest.net) show expected bandwidth when I test (20 down 2 up) when I stream either Netflix or Vudu I can't get HD.  I have gone so far as to disconnect my entire network and connect my PC (brand new) diectly to the modem and try to stream.  TWC tier 3 support says everything looks good on their end.  The tech even bumpted my up to 30 down and 5 up to see if that helped and I sitll wasn't able to stream HD.  I also replaced my modem with a TWC unit just to make sure it wasn't my SurfBoard 6141.  So it has become clear that the speedtests were only giving me a peak or avg measurment on a fairly small packet of data and that I needed to try a larger file download to try and see how the connection held up over time.  I found testmy.net and started using their speedtest right away.  Customized to 200MB download and 2MB upload and watched the Test in Progress (TiP) chart.  As I feared the fast speed advertised and verified by TWC is only transient.  Although the download speed spikes initially, you can see how the variance would be a problem for streaming.  How do I go about getting TWC to address this?  It seems this has gotten worse over the last month or so, as well, because we used to watch Netflix in HD a lot and it would usually work, now it almost never works.  Netflix claims it is inconcievalbe that their Amazon cload servers could be slow due to traffic...at this point I'm taking their word for it.  Does anyone have any explanation as to why I would see this kind of variance?  TWC says their connection should be consistent but it clearly isn't.  Any technical expertise or advise on how to proceed would be welcome.

 

Thanks!

 

Todd (fluid inferno)

[mudmanc4]

Hi Todd,

 I'm going to go out on a limb and say it sounds like the typical TWC overloaded / bad card in the node. Keep talking with tech, they have gotten much better over the last several years. They will eventually come out and check for leaks in the main line and have a peek at the quality / integrity of the node you are on.

[Pgoodwin1]

I have TWC's basic Internet service 15 Mbpsdown, 1 Mbps up. I can stream HD off Netflix OK. My speeds on TestMy.net are pretty close to their advertised minimums. I'm with Time Warner Cincinnati. Their current service here is better than it used to be. In the past the service was 10 M down and 1 M up. It was very up and down too. I used to average about 8 Mbps down and 0.8, and it would vary from test to test by 50% and sometimes more. Since they upgraded at the beginning of the year to the 15 Mbps, it's more consistent, but is still typically all over the place. However, even under their older service I could stream HD video. BUT! I use wire Ethernet to my streaming devices. I have a good wireless system Apple's Extreme Base Station, but wired Ethernet is much better for streaming. I have 2 LG Blueray streamers and a Roku (top model with Ethernet) and they do stream HD video fine. Not sure if you're wireless or not, but if you are, try hard wiring it.

I did have a couple of periods in the past where the TWC equipment went out of calibration. Once it had a signal that was too high in amplitude. They didn't get that one fixed until they sent a real Tech out to check it out. Another time they had erratic operation with intermittent signal loss. They didn't resolve that one until a Tech came out to the house. So keep calling in your problem. Once you've called a couple of times, they will send someone out to check out their gear both inside and outside the house.

And their Speed Test is worthless. It'll say things are good even with intermittent operation. So keep pressing home the point that you're not able to stream HD. When the tech comes, he'll have an instrument that will show him what the datastream is doing. And talking to their help people about their inaccurate speed test is like talking to a cement block.

[TriRan]

It is pretty inconceivable for the amazon cloud servers to be overloaded simply to the way cloud hosting works. Keep pressing the isp about your problem they will most likely not care about testmy.net results though so just keep telling them about your issue and how it's not fixed