There is a Watford supporter on FB suggesting buying a version of the Amazon TV fire stick from him http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...re tv stick&qid=1454336872&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2 Charging £72 for his version of it... which is fixed to get streams of matches free Any thoughts???
Risk with these "Jail Break" devices Yorkie is if something goes wrong with them, who do you go to? Amazon will not honour any warranty, so you are reliant on this bloke.
Yes..... exactly Do you know if you can use such devices to connect with streaming sites off your own back with less buffering ?
Don't know Yorkie, a little too techy for me. Amazon states that the device learns which Amazon movies & TV shows you watch and starts them straight away i.e. pre-buffers them. But not sure if the changes made to the device will extend that to non-Amazon content.
We have an Amazon box for the main telly and several firesticks. The firesticks work admirably and cost about £35 so far as I'm aware. Had SSN on the go earlier. Would never buy second hand / privately.
It depends on the feed. Best speak to Toby about that kind of thing. Mrs H-F is the techno wiz in our house, not me! However we have watched matches successfully. Buffering does happen but I don't think she's made that much of an effort to overcome the issue as yet. Toby is your best bet and I would be keen to know what he says.
I'll answer here then. The streaming issue you're facing (constant buffering) is more to do with your connection to the server. As long as your PC/tablet/etc isn't overworked, it won't make a difference which device you use, the Amazon firestick will still be using the same connection to the same servers. One of the advantages of these slightly dodgy TV-receiving devices (firestick/dodgy box/etc) is that you can access most channels in the world, and some countries don't have the same restrictions as us when it comes to televising matches so will show them all on their own channel (which means it's a completely different server that's providing the data). I've never looked into it before as I generally refuse to watch TV, but I'll have a quick read of how to jailbreak a Firestick and PM you if it's not that tricky. The buffering issues you've been having are most likely down to your ISP, either they restrict connections to a certain server/country/etc or your internet speed isn't that fast. To check how you're computer is performing when streaming a game (to ensure it's not your PC that's struggling), right click on the taskbar and choose Start Task Manager, then select the Performance tab. Streaming isn't resource-heavy so I honestly doubt it's that but you never know...(if it is your PC that's struggling let me know, you've probably got a virus/malware in there somewhere) Mick the site owner was talking about an online subscription you can get to a similar service (TV channel streaming), can't remember the name of it but I'll ask when he's about! Feel free to fire any questions you have this way, not got a job at the mo so it'll keep the old brain working!
What as a non-techy person I cannot quite understand, is why in a large city with faster broadband than I receive there should be these problems. I live in a very rural area and fibre is unlikely to hit this area for sometime to come. I had a dicky ISP where the stream would go up and down and I received loads of buffering when trying to watch a game. I changed my ISP and now receive a very even stream from them of only 2MB, but get very little buffering when watching a game. Just looked in on the Monaco game which is currently on and with my laptop in full screen it is perfect. I usually watch our games and listen to Jon Marks at the same time, so would have thought it was using a fair amount of it's resources. I have noticed on some streaming sites there are different feeds streaming with different k/bit values and where there was a choice went for the lowest one, although now since I changed ISP I do not bother. My guess is that speeds in cities might go up and down depending on the number of people logged on, or that computers are over-filled with stuff. When someone has several devices on the go at the same time this will also slow everything down, but as I say this is guesswork on my part.
That explains the main buffering I had the other week (Southampton) as Mrs H-F was doing whatever it was she was dong on t'internet (probably bbcspor, perez hilton and shopping) to escape me from screaming at the telly (I know, I know...) which almost sent me into a fit due to the buffering - let alone the game and I was ill and didn't manage to sell my ticket so I was in a really cheery mood, and the performance of the team that night helped no end - and I had my kindle fire going on Not606.... Cheer's Toby, that's cleared that up! Generally it's pretty good.
There are lots of variables when it comes to ISPs, and as you said, it can also depend on the other devices connected to your network/wifi. Generally internet browsing (this site, the news, shopping, etc...) barely uses any bandwidth. It's only your PC making a request to the server (so a tiny amount of data) and that server sending you the page you want to see (yet again a tiny amount of data for basic browsing). Streaming is different, as it requires a constant chunk of your bandwidth to be available at all times. Some ISPs aren't very good with this...It can also depend how many people are connected to the same telephone exchange box, the quality of the line to it, where you're located compared to it (if you're in between two of them sometimes they flick to each other). Where the servers are located can also be an issue, for some ISPs will throttle traffic to certain sites if they notice high activity on them and they're not one of the Big Sites (netflix, amazon video, etc). Also don't forget that those streaming sites have 6430754057208473082430863025 ads/popups on them, and although Adblock does a good job of hiding most of it, they're still making requests to your PC/browser and being denied by Adblock. It all adds up... Then there's the issue of Upload/Download speeds. Download is the most frequently used, as most people pull data off the internet rather than upload it. Which means that most ISPs will give you a significantly larger chunk of bandwidth for downloads and uploads. I can't remember off the top of my head what the recommended internet speeds are for streaming (think it's 2Mb down and 0.5 up), but it's normally the upload part that blocks/goes wrong/causes buffering. Check this site out http://www.speedtest.net/ It'll give you a proper estimation of your internet speed. So basically, it could be loads of stuff One thing I'd always recommend is to turn off Wifi on any Apple devices (or avoid buying them in the first place...), as they're notorious Upload hogs and will happily use up as much bandwidth as possible to upload all your personal data/sync files/photos/etc... To try and explain it with a simple example, imagine that streaming is a road, you need both directions to be moving, if there's a traffic jam either way your stream will be disrupted. Sorry a bit of a ramble there...Hope it makes sense!
Perfect Toby, this is what I came to believe. I used the http://www.speedtest.net/ site when I was having problems with SFR who refused to believe the results I sent them. They were so bad I couldn't even make a phone call some days. Went back to Orange who maintain the system, saved money and get a far better service.
Bouygues Telecom give us a shocking service here, but the parents aren't too willing to change (last time they had no phone/internet for 3 weeks) and I'm moving back to London for work soon so not going to do anything radical too soon...
I read a lot of the SFR forums before changing and worked out there was a strict order to make the change. Make sure you have a new provider before you cancel the old one is rule 1.
Lot here to digest ..... thanks folks... I will follow up... Toby thanks.... and interested on what you find out about jailbreaking firesticks too
Just to report, last night I watched the game with the sound off and full screen, listened to Jon Marks and had the match thread open without the picture buffering once. Adblock was working in the background which will use up a small amount of the resources I believe, but Mme did not have her laptop working at the same time.
