Download speeds

[Alan Milewczyk]

I'm with Virgin and my 200 Mbps connection has typically achieved
download speeds of around 50 Mbps from the hlshd CDNs.

As quite a few TV programmes are no longer available in hlshd, I decided
reluctantly to switch to the 50fps option so I can still get HD content.
However, hvfhd downloads (using hvfhd1 CDN) are typically only achieving
download speeds of around 20 Mbps. This, combined with the fact that the
downloads themselves are double the size of hlshd, means that my
download times are 5 times longer than hitherto! Not good! :-(

Sigh...

A


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[RS]

Post by Alan Milewczyk
I'm with Virgin and my 200 Mbps connection has typically achieved
download speeds of around 50 Mbps from the hlshd CDNs.
As quite a few TV programmes are no longer available in hlshd, I decided
reluctantly to switch to the 50fps option so I can still get HD content.
However, hvfhd downloads (using hvfhd1 CDN) are typically only achieving
download speeds of around 20 Mbps. This, combined with the fact that the
downloads themselves are double the size of hlshd, means that my
download times are 5 times longer than hitherto! Not good! :-(

I have just downloaded two episodes of the second series of Salamander
from hvfhd1/bi (Azure?) at 148Mbit/s. That is similar to the HLShd
speed. It does vary with time of day, and can go down to 60Mbit/s.

Best wishes
Richard

[RS]

Post by RS

Post by Alan Milewczyk
I'm with Virgin and my 200 Mbps connection has typically achieved
download speeds of around 50 Mbps from the hlshd CDNs.
As quite a few TV programmes are no longer available in hlshd, I
decided reluctantly to switch to the 50fps option so I can still get
HD content. However, hvfhd downloads (using hvfhd1 CDN) are typically
only achieving download speeds of around 20 Mbps. This, combined with
the fact that the downloads themselves are double the size of hlshd,
means that my download times are 5 times longer than hitherto! Not
good! :-(

I have just downloaded two episodes of the second series of Salamander
from hvfhd1/bi (Azure?) at 148Mbit/s.  That is similar to the HLShd
speed.  It does vary with time of day, and can go down to 60Mbit/s.

Are you using WiFi? That will slow your connection.

Does all your equipment support Gigabit LAN? Your network will run at
the speed of the slowest component. You can use Cat5 cable, but Cat5e
is better. When I was upgraded from 100Mbit/s to 200Mbit/s I knew this
machine had a 10/100 built in LAN card so I disabled it.

I first bought a PCI-E USB3 card and a USB3 Gigabit LAN device. I then
replaced it with a PCI Gigabit LAN card. I replaced my TP-LINK 5-way
10/100 switch with an 8-way Netgear Gigabit LAN switch. I could connect
directly to the PC at 210Mbit/s, but only 90Mbit/s through the switch.
I found a post in Netgear's forum from someone with a similar problem so
I concluded the switch was faulty.

I replaced it with a TP-LINK switch only to find the same problem. I
eventually realised I had set the LAN card in the PC to the default of
auto speed detection. Also I had a 1.5m Cat5 patch cable between the PC
and the switch. The patch cable was being auto-detected as only capable
of 100Mbit/s. I replaced the patch cable with Cat5e and set the LAN
card to force a 1000Mbit/s connection. It then worked as it should.

I hope this gives you some idea of where to look.

Best wishes
Richard

[Alan Milewczyk]

Hi Richard, many thanks for the reply.

Post by RS
I have just downloaded two episodes of the second series of Salamander
from hvfhd1/bi (Azure?) at 148Mbit/s.  That is similar to the HLShd
speed.  It does vary with time of day, and can go down to 60Mbit/s.

Wow, that's amazing. I never got much above 60 Mbps even with hlshd.

Post by RS
Are you using WiFi?  That will slow your connection.

No, the only thing I use wifi for is my phones. I'm old school,
everything is hard wired Gigabit with a mix of Cat5/5e cables. I get 220
Mbps on speednet and, as I said, was typically getting around 50 Mbps on
hlshd a few days ago (and nothing has changed hardware-wise in the
meantime).

Since posting, I tried hvfhd2 and got 50 Mbps initially, but a while
later it was maxing out at around 25 Mbps. I do most of my downloading
overnight, so it's not crucial. I've rescheduled the timing of my
download batch files and I'm forcing hvfhd2 for now, so I'll keep an eye
on transfer speeds.

Best wishes

Alan

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[RS]

Post by Alan Milewczyk
Hi Richard, many thanks for the reply.

Post by RS
I have just downloaded two episodes of the second series of Salamander
from hvfhd1/bi (Azure?) at 148Mbit/s.  That is similar to the HLShd
speed.  It does vary with time of day, and can go down to 60Mbit/s.

Wow, that's amazing. I never got much above 60 Mbps even with hlshd.

Post by RS
Are you using WiFi?  That will slow your connection.

No, the only thing I use wifi for is my phones. I'm old school,
everything is hard wired Gigabit with a mix of Cat5/5e cables. I get 220
Mbps on speednet and, as I said, was typically getting around 50 Mbps on
hlshd a few days ago (and nothing has changed hardware-wise in the
meantime).
Since posting, I tried hvfhd2 and got 50 Mbps initially, but a while
later it was maxing out at around 25 Mbps. I do most of my downloading
overnight, so it's not crucial. I've rescheduled the timing of my
download batch files and I'm forcing hvfhd2 for now, so I'll keep an eye
on transfer speeds.

Hi Alan

If you are getting 220Mbit/s on a speed tester it seems your connection
is not the problem. When my connection was limited to 100Mbit/s I was
getting HLShd download speeds up to 70 or 80Mbit/s, and they have
increased with the 200Mbit/s limit.

Speeds do vary enormously between CDNs and between modes and
occasionally some programmes are slower. In general I have found Akamai
to be faster than Limelight. I don't know about Bidi.

Where I am (and I think it may vary geographically)
hvfhd1 is Bidi
hvfhd2 is Limelight
hvfhd3 is Akamai

hlshd1 is Akamai

I see that the latest version of get_iplayer has a two-letter code to
identify the CDN without having to use --info --verbose

Best wishes
Richard

[Alan Milewczyk]

Hi Richard

Post by RS
Speeds do vary enormously between CDNs and between modes and
occasionally some programmes are slower.  In general I have found
Akamai to be faster than Limelight.  I don't know about Bidi.

Yes indeed. I just downloaded two programmes on hvfhd2, one came through
at 70 Mbps, the other around 35 Mbps. Up to now, I've found that Bidi is
much slower than Limelight. I haven't yet tried Akamai, but will do so,
in view of your comments.

Post by RS
Where I am (and I think it may vary geographically)

That's understandable.

Post by RS
I see that the latest version of get_iplayer has a two-letter code to
identify the CDN without having to use --info --verbose

Yes, I noticed that, it's helpful.

Kind regards

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