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IPTV 4k buffering

trawr said:
Coming to think of it, the sky channel is the one that I’ve been having issues with when watching the footie! This could well be it! I’ll give it a go later and report back ;)

Also - I thought it was best for the end user to use VPN to stay under the radar from your ISP whilst using IPTV?
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Don't need a VPN if the service works fine without it, it's preference rather than mandatory.

A VPN, depending on the location connecting to, could cause you more issues than it sorted (due to latency etc)

For UHD stuff it seems to be constant hit and miss. During events they seem better, maybe given more priority to the channel at that time, or swapping out for a better provider to cater for main events or something? Not sure, but they are just not stable.

Not the end of the world once the footy season is closed out, but it would be nice if they are reliable - first world problems and that.. :)

trawr said:
Yeah I guess. I think I’d still like to stick with a VPN but I will give it a quick test later out of curiosity. FHD Sky channels run perfectly, just the UHD which has issues. Running a speed test on the firestick during times of the stream lagging i’m getting like 300 download with ~13ms so I’m really thinking it’s not my connection.
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That doesn't mean you are getting that speed/latency to the location of the IPTV provider tho...that is just between you and the test server.

I'm on a 10Gig connection but routing to some locations is horrendous. It isn't just about the speed.
 
My experience (your mileage may vary)
  • No need for VPN
    • Disclaimer - some ISP's will perform IP Blocking at certain times of day (usually 3pm EPL kick offs). If you want to watch live 3pm KO, turn on a VPN. This is ISP dependant. Seems like Virgin Media and Sky are the main ones.
  • Enabling VPN will cause issues with Sky Sports UHD for me. Turn it off and it works. Like others have mentioned I treat UHD as a luxury. It can be up/down, so I often watch something in FHD to save the "blips" during a match.
 
Some good advice already shared here

No VPN
Decent spec device
Ethernet

Having those three set you in good stead for SS UHD

When I use the SS UHD feed it's around 27Mbps constant.
 
thebesh said:
My experience (your mileage may vary)
  • No need for VPN
    • Disclaimer - some ISP's will perform IP Blocking at certain times of day (usually 3pm EPL kick offs). If you want to watch live 3pm KO, turn on a VPN. This is ISP dependant. Seems like Virgin Media and Sky are the main ones.
  • Enabling VPN will cause issues with Sky Sports UHD for me. Turn it off and it works. Like others have mentioned I treat UHD as a luxury. It can be up/down, so I often watch something in FHD to save the "blips" during a match.
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Mate, this actually sorted it! It was the VPN and only happens with sky sports UHD! Thank you so much. Just went through the whole first half of a football match with no buffering, turned the VPN on just to test and buffered straight away. Legend!
 
trawr said:
Mate, this actually sorted it! It was the VPN and only happens with sky sports UHD! Thank you so much. Just went through the whole first half of a football match with no buffering, turned the VPN on just to test and buffered straight away. Legend!
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You are very welcome (y)
 
VPN is a great tool to keep in your toolset, but if you’re having issues with it switched on, then turn it off, if you are having issues and it’s off try switching it on.

Simple, and easy way to think about it when using IPTV, regardless of 4k and what not.
 
mikeyeah said:
VPN is a great tool to keep in your toolset, but if you’re having issues with it switched on, then turn it off, if you are having issues and it’s off try switching it on.

Simple, and easy way to think about it when using IPTV, regardless of 4k and what not.
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Well that is great informaton but sometimes provider may have vpn in place , but two pages later some of us have various providers not just one for different reasons and if using a vpn it may deprnd on where you are connecting to and what protocol you use openvpn is software based takes up resourses where as wireguard is hardware based and will give faster speeds but as @moshibeth said earlier on 30mb should be enough to stream most another point is there maybe other devices in use. But enough said not everyone is using firesticks or android devices. :smiley:
 
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trawr said:
Coming to think of it, the sky channel is the one that I’ve been having issues with when watching the footie! This could well be it! I’ll give it a go later and report back ;)

Also - I thought it was best for the end user to use VPN to stay under the radar from your ISP whilst using IPTV?
Click to expand...
I try not to use Sky for watching football but use EPL channel and go into the specific team I want to watch, and funnily enough its usually a Sky channel logo in the top corner but with no buffering.
 
Thanks everyone for your input! Some really great points here and ones that have really helped :-) For future reference for everyone, the issue was with using a VPN and with the 4k Sky channel (no other 4k channels were affected by using a VPN). The buffering improved MASSIVELY just by turning the VPN off for Sky 4k. Went from buffering every 15 seconds or so to a slight buffer every 30 minutes or so.
 
trawr said:
Thanks everyone for your input! Some really great points here and ones that have really helped :-) For future reference for everyone, the issue was with using a VPN and with the 4k Sky channel (no other 4k channels were affected by using a VPN). The buffering improved MASSIVELY just by turning the VPN off for Sky 4k. Went from buffering every 15 seconds or so to a slight buffer every 30 minutes or so.
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Tbh I only turn my vpn on when my subs don’t work which is only intermittently when the epl is on.
I think VM must put blocks in place.
Hopefully moving to City Fibre this year so will see what that’s like.
Anyway glad you have it sorted.
 
I see so many requests for help on the forum and the replies have no real substance or the original poster hasn't done much troubleshooting (not saying that was the case here). I stop myself from replying to these as the threads are often wild with unhelpful info.

Suggestion - maybe a sticky thread on troubleshooting? Direct people to this if they have issue and then failing that, they can post telling the community the results of their testing. I feel this would greatly reduce the duplicate posts and give people guidance
 
thebesh said:
I see so many requests for help on the forum and the replies have no real substance or the original poster hasn't done much troubleshooting (not saying that was the case here). I stop myself from replying to these as the threads are often wild with unhelpful info.

Suggestion - maybe a sticky thread on troubleshooting? Direct people to this if they have issue and then failing that, they can post telling the community the results of their testing. I feel this would greatly reduce the duplicate posts and give people guidance
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That would be helpful and some questions like this maybe.

Are you using a VPN? If so, have you tried turning it off?

Are all your channels not working correctly or just certain ones?
Is it a specific time or all the time?
E.g when the EPL football is on.

Do you have more than one sub and is your other subs having the same issue?

Does your supplier have a group that you can contact them on and other users to see if they are having a similar issue?

Have you tried your sub on another device or network?
E.g Phone,Tablet- Neighbours relative,friends house.


Just some the basic things to check first maybe.
 
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thebesh said:
I see so many requests for help on the forum and the replies have no real substance or the original poster hasn't done much troubleshooting (not saying that was the case here). I stop myself from replying to these as the threads are often wild with unhelpful info.

Suggestion - maybe a sticky thread on troubleshooting? Direct people to this if they have issue and then failing that, they can post telling the community the results of their testing. I feel this would greatly reduce the duplicate posts and give people guidance
Click to expand...
As a fairly new IPTV user, those things would have been super helpful :-) My first thoughts were it was the provider so spent way too long going between providers trials as a lot of the people on this forum and on reddit etc were saying in similar posts things along the lines of 'your provider sucks, try another' as it was only happening on that specific channel. Wasn't the case at all :astonished:
 
Aristotle said:
Tbh I only turn my vpn on when my subs don’t work which is only intermittently when the epl is on.
I think VM must put blocks in place.
Hopefully moving to City Fibre this year so will see what that’s like.
Anyway glad you have it sorted.
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pretty much exactly what i said above and like you said its make sense. switch on if there is a problem, switch off when there is a problem, stay geographically close to keep round time down.
 
I’ll create something to follow later on today. Site admins can edit and make sticky if they approve. I often feel the obvious is overlooked and people go down blind alleys. Basic sanity testing is usually overlooked. The answer is never that complicated, but many seem to want it to go that way.
 
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