Tech: Web music: catching up with feed

Subject: Tech: Web music: catching up with feed
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 10:49 AM

I am (increasingly, it seems) finding a problem on MySpace and YouTube, and maybe elsewhere. Maybe someone can explain, and maybe even show me how to cure this.

I'll get onto MySpace, for instance, and start listening to a song. But the playback is faster than the feed coming from the site, so when the playback catches up I'll either get a long pause or I'll even get thrown out of the playback of that piece. This is a real pain in the patootie!

In case my setup might be part of the problem, I'm on DSL, Compaq EVO W4000 workstation, running under XP Pro, total disk space 33.9Gb, free disk space 10.5Gb, physical memory size 511Mb, physical memory free 33%.

Can anyone recognize what may be happening, and hopefully what I can do about it?

Subject: RE: Tech: Web music: catching up with feed
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 11:12 AM

Same thing happens to me. I'm on BT internet and they feed 100gb. I'm told they could boost it to 300gb at the Exchange, but I see no signs of that happening. I live in the middle of nowhere on a hill in a little cottage.

You have to allow the whole thing to feed in, finish then replay... well that's what I do.

Sal

Subject: RE: Tech: Web music: catching up with feed
From: Nick
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 11:26 AM

My preferred option - if I think I will like it - is to use Real Player download or Orbit downloader to download the music and listen to it at my leisure. The Real Player one seems to give the option of downloading for a period of time after you have listened to all or part of the file without having to download it from the start - so I presume it is just retrieving it from Temp Internet files cached on the machine.

Same with Youtube. If you watch something once it plays it off the cached version on your machine it doesn't need to download again.

You've used the bandwidth so you might as well keep it!

Subject: RE: Tech: Web music: catching up with feed
From: treewind
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 11:44 AM

It's probably your broadband connection.
I don't know what that 100Gb/300Gb thing is about - broadband speeds are most commonly what's described as "up to" 8Mb, but there's two major limitations:

(1) depending on how far you are from the nearest telephone exchange, the actual maximum possible rate will be slower than 8Mb.

(2) You're sharing a chunk of broadband pipe with up to 50 other users. Most of the time it doesn't matter because broadband use is very intermittent and you aren't all grabbing data full speed at the same time, but once use of streaming services becomes common (YouTube and MySpace videos, BBC listen again and iplayer etc.) there's much more likelihood that you'll all be sharing that bandwidth between you and getting only a fraction of it each.

That 50:1 is called a contention ratio. A business broadband service may offer 20:1 contention ratio or less, at a higher cost. You might or might not get better service by switching providers, but in the end it will be only temporary relief.

If could also be congestion anywhere else in the network, right back to the MySpace server...

Anahata

Subject: RE: Tech: Web music: catching up with feed
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 05:21 PM

Oh maybe that's what I meant. I don't profess to know about these things. I just half listen to what the 'expert' on the phone tells me.

sal

Subject: RE: Tech: Web music: catching up with feed
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 09:02 PM

Those are sorta 'technical' explanations...but pretty good.

Basically, you connection IS slower than the current play-rate of the file...whether due to your connection or the rate they can supply it.

The pause is called 'buffering'..(sometimes it says so)... and there is some sort of minimum new bits required before it tries to play some more. It can be better or worse depending on the time of day, the bandwidth of the server or the popularity of the file.

Only things to do are 1)wait till later, 2)hit 'pause' in the window (the file keeps downloading, but doesn't play) and try playing AFTER it gets further along. 3)see if there is a way to download it without playing it(some programs/sites claim to do this...success varies).

Subject: RE: Tech: Web music: catching up with feed
From: Nick
Date: 23 Dec 08 - 09:09 PM

Not only claim, Bill, but do it very successfully. I've yet to find a problem downloading things.

Subject: RE: Tech: Web music: catching up with feed
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 04:19 PM

Bill D:

I have often used the pause button "successfully", but it's unsatisfactory to say the least. A piece that is 5-1/2 minutes long means waiting about 5-1/2 minutes before you can listen, which is trying. Otherwise, listening in jerks, separated by pauses. Of the two, I'd rather wait until the progress bar is nearly to the end, so that I can hear the entire piece in one swell foop.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Tech: Web music: catching up with feed
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Dec 08 - 05:10 PM

Nick... for 'most' files, I just find them in my cache. YouTube tries to be clever and name them 'temp', but a little examination of the time & size and a quick re-name will get them.

Uncle Dave... it sure is unsatisfactory! DSL is not quite as fast as cable, but it should do better than THAT. Hard to say what set of factors is working against you.

I am lucky these days, in that Comcast works well most of the time. I can 'almost' always get a video file when I want it.

Subject: RE: Tech: Web music: catching up with feed
From: GUEST,Chris P.
Date: 25 Dec 08 - 04:46 PM

Have you checked your broadband download speed? You can check it online usually via your account or somewhere. I briefly had that problem when I changed my router. Checked the speed and it was less than 1Mb. Turned the router off and on again a couple of times and Hey Presto, checked the speed again and it was now 6Mb! Something had synchronised.