Is anyone else's running slooowwwwlllyyy?

[Clive]

Last few days, my get_iplayer downloads from R4 and R4Ex are painfully
slow - often slower than listening in real time. Then, sometimes, if I
close the dos box and try again, it comes down like a train. Anyone else
experiencing problems like this? And I had enormous problems getting one
of the Afghanistan programs in HD - and I tried on two computers.

Clive

[Kevin Reilly]

Post by Clive
Last few days, my get_iplayer downloads from R4 and R4Ex are painfully
slow - often slower than listening in real time. Then, sometimes, if I
close the dos box and try again, it comes down like a train. Anyone else
experiencing problems like this? And I had enormous problems getting one
of the Afghanistan programs in HD - and I tried on two computers.

Can't help but notice you're another Virgin Media customer. There were a
couple of us saying something similar a few days ago.

I had my suspicions that someone, either the BBC or Virgin, were
throttling the speed of iPlayer downloads. The longer this has gone on and
the more evidence has presented, the more inclined I am to think it's Virgin.

It might not be deliberate. I have had issues in the past with YouTube
buffering at insanely low speeds, which a network trace has confirmed was
because of something in the Virgin network, either a bad peering
arrangement or a transparent proxy.

I think they might be doing something similar with iPlayer. Closing and
re-starting the session does sometimes improve the speed, suggesting that
there are a pool of proxy machines and/or peering routers and that it's
pot luck whether or not you get one that's on a go-slow.

Of course it will be almost impossible to get Virgin to acknowledge, or
even assist in confirming, this as their first-tier support are
notoriously ill-informed on technical matters. And they could always
counter with the argument that as long as iPlayer is buffering at
real-time speeds or slightly better, it's up to the task. In fact it may
be that it's only those of us trying to slurp programmes at maximum speed
that are seeing this as a problem.

For what it's worth I had this problem a couple of mornings back and
switched from my 20Mb Virgin connection to an HSPA connection on a 3G MiFi
and the speed went UP marginally. It'll be interesting to hear if anyone
with an ISP other than Virgin is seeing these slowdowns. As far as I can
cell so far it's been 100% Virgin customers.

[Kevin Reilly]

Post by Kevin Reilly
For what it's worth I had this problem a couple of mornings back and
switched from my 20Mb Virgin connection to an HSPA connection on a 3G MiFi
and the speed went UP marginally. It'll be interesting to hear if anyone
with an ISP other than Virgin is seeing these slowdowns. As far as I can
cell so far it's been 100% Virgin customers.

It's just taken nearly 40 minutes to download the HD (flashvhigh) version
of Top Gear. Not only was the maximum throughput 3.2Mbps on a 20Mbps
connection, the data was flowing in a very unusual pattern of peaks and
troughs, almost a sawtooth with regular spikes.

Loading Image...

Something screwy is definitely going on with Virgin's connection to the
back end servers for the iPlayer.

[ZULU]

I am also having huge problems with Virginmedia speeds!

My d/l of The Horizon Guide-Moon was apparently compromised by it taking too
long.

Now, I want to re-download it, but I cannot find the *.swfinfo* file to
dump.
There is no such file on this computer!!

Now what?

Rog



----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Reilly" <***@denali.org.uk>
To: <***@lists.infradead.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 11:36 PM
Subject: Re: Is anyone else's running slooowwwwlllyyy?

Post by Kevin Reilly

Post by Kevin Reilly
For what it's worth I had this problem a couple of mornings back and
switched from my 20Mb Virgin connection to an HSPA connection on a 3G MiFi
and the speed went UP marginally. It'll be interesting to hear if anyone
with an ISP other than Virgin is seeing these slowdowns. As far as I can
cell so far it's been 100% Virgin customers.

It's just taken nearly 40 minutes to download the HD (flashvhigh) version
of Top Gear. Not only was the maximum throughput 3.2Mbps on a 20Mbps
connection, the data was flowing in a very unusual pattern of peaks and
troughs, almost a sawtooth with regular spikes.
http://www.denali.org.uk/virginmedia/graph.jpg
Something screwy is definitely going on with Virgin's connection to the
back end servers for the iPlayer.
--
Kev
__________________________________________________________________________
"Frozen tasteless smoke treated tuna steak."
Label on frozen fish box, Indonesia
_______________________________________________
get_iplayer mailing list
http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer

[Clive]

Post by ZULU
I am also having huge problems with Virginmedia speeds!
My d/l of The Horizon Guide-Moon was apparently compromised by it taking
too long.
Now, I want to re-download it, but I cannot find the *.swfinfo* file to
dump.
There is no such file on this computer!!
Now what?
Rog
----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Reilly"
Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 11:36 PM
Subject: Re: Is anyone else's running slooowwwwlllyyy?

Post by Kevin Reilly

Post by Kevin Reilly
For what it's worth I had this problem a couple of mornings back and
switched from my 20Mb Virgin connection to an HSPA connection on a 3G MiFi
and the speed went UP marginally. It'll be interesting to hear if anyone
with an ISP other than Virgin is seeing these slowdowns. As far as I can
cell so far it's been 100% Virgin customers.

It's just taken nearly 40 minutes to download the HD (flashvhigh) version
of Top Gear. Not only was the maximum throughput 3.2Mbps on a 20Mbps
connection, the data was flowing in a very unusual pattern of peaks and
troughs, almost a sawtooth with regular spikes.
http://www.denali.org.uk/virginmedia/graph.jpg
Something screwy is definitely going on with Virgin's connection to the
back end servers for the iPlayer.
--
Kev
__________________________________________________________________________
"Frozen tasteless smoke treated tuna steak."
Label on frozen fish box, Indonesia
_______________________________________________
get_iplayer mailing list
http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer

_______________________________________________
get_iplayer mailing list
http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer

Rog,

I have Horizon Moon so fear not - if you can't get it, I can provide. I
don't think it went out as HD, but I have a respectable vhigh copy.
Email me if you want a copy:

roadcone
at
uk2
dot
net

Clive

[Andy Bircumshaw]

Post by ZULU
I am also having huge problems with Virginmedia speeds!
My d/l of The Horizon Guide-Moon was apparently compromised by it taking too long.
Now, I want to re-download it, but I cannot find the *.swfinfo* file to dump.
There is no such file on this computer!!

There is one, somewhere, but it's got nothing to do with forcing re-downloads.

Just delete the bad or partial file and run:

get_iplayer "the horizon guide" --get --force

aB.

[Rog]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Bircumshaw" <***@networkned.co.uk>
To: <***@lists.infradead.org>
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 11:32 PM
Subject: Re: Is anyone else's running slooowwwwlllyyy?

Post by Andy Bircumshaw

Post by ZULU
I am also having huge problems with Virginmedia speeds!
My d/l of The Horizon Guide-Moon was apparently compromised by it taking too long.
Now, I want to re-download it, but I cannot find the *.swfinfo* file to dump.
There is no such file on this computer!!

There is one, somewhere, but it's got nothing to do with forcing re-downloads.

Hi Andy...
I truly do not understand!
Deleting this and also the partial d/l has always worked in the past.
What is the *.swfinfo* file for?

Post by Andy Bircumshaw
get_iplayer "the horizon guide" --get --force

I am using the Web PVR Manager (Winndows XP P[ro), not the command line box,
so how do I implement this please??
i.e. where do I paste *get_iplayer "the horizon guide" --get --force* into?
I tried the *Run* box but that doesn't work..

Rog

Post by Andy Bircumshaw
_______________________________________________
get_iplayer mailing list
http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer

[Nigel Taylor]

----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy Bircumshaw"
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 11:32 PM
Subject: Re: Is anyone else's running slooowwwwlllyyy?

Post by Andy Bircumshaw

Post by ZULU
I am also having huge problems with Virginmedia speeds!
My d/l of The Horizon Guide-Moon was apparently compromised by it taking too long.
Now, I want to re-download it, but I cannot find the *.swfinfo* file to dump.
There is no such file on this computer!!

There is one, somewhere, but it's got nothing to do with forcing re-downloads.

Hi Andy...
I truly do not understand!
Deleting this and also the partial d/l has always worked in the past.
What is the *.swfinfo* file for?

See rtmpdump man page...

.....When this option is used, the SWF player is retrieved from the
specified URL and the hash and size are computed automatically. Also the
information is cached in a .swfinfo file in the user's home directory,
so that it doesn't need to be retrieved and recalculated every time
rtmpdump is run. The .swfinfo file records the URL, the time it was
fetched, the modification timestamp of the SWF file, its size, and its
hash. By default, the cached info will be used for 30 days before
re-checking.

Post by Andy Bircumshaw
get_iplayer "the horizon guide" --get --force

I am using the Web PVR Manager (Winndows XP P[ro), not the command line
box, so how do I implement this please??
i.e. where do I paste *get_iplayer "the horizon guide" --get --force* into?
I tried the *Run* box but that doesn't work..

Under start -> programs -> get_iplayer
Your find get_iplayer which opens a cmd window, in the get_iplayer
environment, then you should be able to type the command

In the cmd window you should see c:\Program Files\get_iplayer> as the
prompt. It may update the index of available programs first before
giving the prompt.

Rog

Post by Andy Bircumshaw
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get_iplayer mailing list
http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer

_______________________________________________
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http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer

[Rog]

Sorry guys, but i really _cannot_ see to use that <deleted> CMD interface.
When I (painfully and slowly) typed *get_iplayer "the horizon
guide" --get --force* I got something like *command not reckognised either
internally or externally etc.*
I'll accept that I did something wrong, but I really HATE trying tu use CMD.
:-(((
I can't even copy from or paste to it.

Sooooo..............
How can I fix things so that I can _re_ get a file directly using Web PVR
manager?

Or, better still...how about adding *Force Re-record* to the Actions options
:

Play
Record
Force Re -record
Queue
Add Series


Rog

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nigel Taylor" <***@asterisk.demon.co.uk>
To: "Rog" <***@ntlworld.com>
Cc: <***@lists.infradead.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2011 5:37 PM
Subject: Re: Is anyone else's running slooowwwwlllyyy?

Post by Nigel Taylor

----- Original Message ----- From: "Andy Bircumshaw"
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2011 11:32 PM
Subject: Re: Is anyone else's running slooowwwwlllyyy?

Post by Andy Bircumshaw

Post by ZULU
I am also having huge problems with Virginmedia speeds!
My d/l of The Horizon Guide-Moon was apparently compromised by it taking too long.
Now, I want to re-download it, but I cannot find the *.swfinfo* file to dump.
There is no such file on this computer!!

There is one, somewhere, but it's got nothing to do with forcing re-downloads.

Hi Andy...
I truly do not understand!
Deleting this and also the partial d/l has always worked in the past.
What is the *.swfinfo* file for?

See rtmpdump man page...
.....When this option is used, the SWF player is retrieved from the
specified URL and the hash and size are computed automatically. Also the
information is cached in a .swfinfo file in the user's home directory, so
that it doesn't need to be retrieved and recalculated every time rtmpdump
is run. The .swfinfo file records the URL, the time it was fetched, the
modification timestamp of the SWF file, its size, and its hash. By
default, the cached info will be used for 30 days before re-checking.

Post by Andy Bircumshaw
get_iplayer "the horizon guide" --get --force

I am using the Web PVR Manager (Winndows XP P[ro), not the command line
box, so how do I implement this please??
i.e. where do I paste *get_iplayer "the horizon guide" --get --force* into?
I tried the *Run* box but that doesn't work..

Under start -> programs -> get_iplayer
Your find get_iplayer which opens a cmd window, in the get_iplayer
environment, then you should be able to type the command
In the cmd window you should see c:\Program Files\get_iplayer> as the
prompt. It may update the index of available programs first before giving
the prompt.

Rog

Post by Andy Bircumshaw
_______________________________________________
get_iplayer mailing list
http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer

_______________________________________________
get_iplayer mailing list
http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer

[Christopher Woods (CustomMade)]

Are you starting from the correct directory? You can't invoke get_iplayer
unless you're already in its working directly, this is because get_iplayer's
folder is not included in Windows' "PATH" variable. (you can manually
specify it - a quick Google will show you how - then invoke get_iplayer from
any command prompt starting in any directory).

Alternatively you can create a string which will automatically set the
working directory to C:\program files\get_iplayer\ like so (copy and paste
the following):

C: & cd "program files\get_iplayer" & get_iplayer --options-here...

Obviously substituting "--options-here..." with ... all of your options.

I only use the command prompt to invoke get_iplayer and download stuff, it's
faster and I can be more specific as to exactly what I want to download
(plus you get handy realtime feedback and you can crank up the error logging
to see if you have any problems during the download). The Web UI feels slow
and clunky in comparison; I have a few pre-defined strings which include all
of the environmental variables for quality, download location etc - all
saved in a text file on my desktop next to a DOS prompt which is set to open
in the get_iplayer directory. All I have to do is add the PID to the end of
the string and hit enter... Not quite one click, but pretty good.

Post by Rog
Sorry guys, but i really _cannot_ see to use that <deleted>
CMD interface.
When I (painfully and slowly) typed *get_iplayer "the horizon
guide" --get --force* I got something like *command not
reckognised either internally or externally etc.* I'll accept
that I did something wrong, but I really HATE trying tu use CMD.
:-(((
I can't even copy from or paste to it.

You can, you just have to enabled it: click once on the top-left icon, go to
Options, then enable Quick-Edit Mode. You can right-click to paste in
clipboard text; click & drag then left-click on the selection in an MS-DOS
window to copy text to the clipboard.

Brucie Bonus: if you're in a DOS prompt and want to change drive letter AND
go to a specific folder in one go, type

cd /d x: y\z

(where x: is your drive letter and y\z is the subfolder within the root).
The /d slash denotes you want to change both drive and directory. The joys
of virtualised MS-DOS with Command Extensions. ;-)


(Real men use Real Mode - think I might get that on a t-shirt)

[Andy Bircumshaw]

Post by Rog

Post by Andy Bircumshaw

Post by ZULU
...
Now, I want to re-download it, but I cannot find the *.swfinfo* file to dump.
There is no such file on this computer!!

There is one, somewhere, but it's got nothing to do with forcing re-downloads.

Hi Andy...
I truly do not understand!
Deleting this and also the partial d/l has always worked in the past.

I suspect you were doing something else in addition.

It's probably possible to edit the .get_iplayer/download_history in Notepad, for instance (or maybe even delete it).

Post by Rog
What is the *.swfinfo* file for?

AIUI the .swfinfo is a cache of the authentication token used by RTMPdump. Something like that. If, when you find it, you look at it in Notepad you'll find it's just 4 lines of text: a URL, a couple of dates and a long "magic" number.

I think the .swfinfo file will be at "%userprofile%\.swfinfo" on Windows.

Post by Rog

Post by Andy Bircumshaw
get_iplayer "the horizon guide" --get --force

I am using the Web PVR Manager (Winndows XP P[ro), not the command line box, so how do I implement this please??
i.e. where do I paste *get_iplayer "the horizon guide" --get --force* into?
I tried the *Run* box but that doesn't work..

Sorry I don't use the WebPVR manager and I can't support it.

aB.

[Rog]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Bircumshaw" <***@networkned.co.uk>
To: <***@lists.infradead.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2011 5:24 PM
Subject: Re: Is anyone else's running slooowwwwlllyyy?

Post by Andy Bircumshaw

Post by Rog

Post by Andy Bircumshaw

Post by ZULU
...
Now, I want to re-download it, but I cannot find the *.swfinfo* file to dump.
There is no such file on this computer!!

There is one, somewhere, but it's got nothing to do with forcing re-downloads.

Hi Andy...
I truly do not understand!
Deleting this and also the partial d/l has always worked in the past.

I suspect you were doing something else in addition.
It's probably possible to edit the .get_iplayer/download_history in
Notepad, for instance (or maybe even delete it).

!!! Well I'll be blowed!
I just did that about 20 minutes ago <g>
I used Texrpad, which I have permanently set to a bold 36 font, which I can
just read with a 3x magnifying glas....<sigh>

I _knew_ there had to be an easy way to do it.!!
I got a good file this time.

Thank you all

Rog

Post by Andy Bircumshaw

Post by Rog
What is the *.swfinfo* file for?

AIUI the .swfinfo is a cache of the authentication token used by RTMPdump.
Something like that. If, when you find it, you look at it in Notepad
you'll find it's just 4 lines of text: a URL, a couple of dates and a long
"magic" number.
I think the .swfinfo file will be at "%userprofile%\.swfinfo" on Windows.

Post by Rog

Post by Andy Bircumshaw
get_iplayer "the horizon guide" --get --force

I am using the Web PVR Manager (Winndows XP P[ro), not the command line
box, so how do I implement this please??
i.e. where do I paste *get_iplayer "the horizon guide" --get --force* into?
I tried the *Run* box but that doesn't work..

Sorry I don't use the WebPVR manager and I can't support it.
aB.
_______________________________________________
get_iplayer mailing list
http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/get_iplayer

[Clive]

It seems to have settled down to totally unusable. Either the connection
establishes very slowly and invariably times out or it establishes very
quickly and at random points in the download either re-starts itself
with the error messages:

RTMP_ReadPacket, failed to read RTMP packet body. len: nnnn
INFO: Connection times out, trying to resume

or

I get a couple of WARNING: Stream does not start with requested frame,
ignoring data...

and it re-starts

or

I get the same stream warning as above, but for screen after screen
after screen and I have to close the dos box or Ctrl + C

It took me over an hour with dozens of attempts to get the radio
Torchwood and I have totally failed to get Falco.

I have tried both my aged (though previously reliable) Vista laptop over
both wireless and wired and my wife's much newer W7 over wireless and
wired. Initially I thought my wife's machine was working and mine not,
but now her's is having the same problems.

Can anyone offer and advice please? I'd be most grateful as I'd hate to
go back to mp3 and Radio Downloader or use the variable files found on
usenet (some are good, but some ... well, you know).

Clive

[Christopher Woods (CustomMade)]

-----Original Message-----
Sent: 13 July 2011 20:29
Subject: Re: Is anyone else's running slooowwwwlllyyy?
It seems to have settled down to totally unusable. Either the
connection establishes very slowly and invariably times out
or it establishes very quickly and at random points in the

What the rest of us need to see is some comparative analysis of transfers
done over your connection direct, and some downloads done through a
(reliable, fast) proxy server using a VPN or SSH tunnel. If someone geeky
fancies doing some testing but is short of a good bandwidthed UK server to
route through for testing, I can give them a lend of my machine in
Maidstone. (contact me off-list if you want to organise.)

The speed test / results should then help narrow down the root cause -
whether it's poor routing, congestion in your area, obvious traffic shaping
or whether it's being done by the Beeb based on the behaviour of get_iplayer
itself. (or perhaps all four...?)


To confirm, everyone suffering is on Virgin Media cable?

[Clive]

Post by Christopher Woods (CustomMade)

-----Original Message-----
Sent: 13 July 2011 20:29
Subject: Re: Is anyone else's running slooowwwwlllyyy?
It seems to have settled down to totally unusable. Either the
connection establishes very slowly and invariably times out
or it establishes very quickly and at random points in the

What the rest of us need to see is some comparative analysis of transfers
done over your connection direct, and some downloads done through a
(reliable, fast) proxy server using a VPN or SSH tunnel. If someone geeky
fancies doing some testing but is short of a good bandwidthed UK server to
route through for testing, I can give them a lend of my machine in
Maidstone. (contact me off-list if you want to organise.)
The speed test / results should then help narrow down the root cause -
whether it's poor routing, congestion in your area, obvious traffic shaping
or whether it's being done by the Beeb based on the behaviour of get_iplayer
itself. (or perhaps all four...?)
To confirm, everyone suffering is on Virgin Media cable?

I can't help with that. But to provide a little bit more information -
which does not lead anywhere - is that I just tried Falco using the PVR
interface and it came down like a train. I immediately tried one episode
of Vanity Fair and it failed and failed with the same set of error
messages displayed on the PVR web page interface.

Does the use of a proxy avoid the problems if they are VM network issues
or traffic management? After all, the traffic still uses VM for the
first/last let of the journey.

Clive

[Robin Guest]

Post by Christopher Woods (CustomMade)

-----Original Message-----
Sent: 13 July 2011 20:29
Subject: Re: Is anyone else's running slooowwwwlllyyy?
It seems to have settled down to totally unusable. Either the
connection establishes very slowly and invariably times out
or it establishes very quickly and at random points in the

What the rest of us need to see is some comparative analysis of transfers
done over your connection direct, and some downloads done through a
(reliable, fast) proxy server using a VPN or SSH tunnel. If someone geeky
fancies doing some testing but is short of a good bandwidthed UK server to
route through for testing, I can give them a lend of my machine in
Maidstone. (contact me off-list if you want to organise.)
The speed test / results should then help narrow down the root cause -
whether it's poor routing, congestion in your area, obvious traffic shaping
or whether it's being done by the Beeb based on the behaviour of get_iplayer
itself. (or perhaps all four...?)
To confirm, everyone suffering is on Virgin Media cable?

I can't help with that. But to provide a little bit more information - which does not lead anywhere - is that I just tried Falco using the PVR interface and it came down like a train. I immediately tried one episode of Vanity Fair and it failed and failed with the same set of error messages displayed on the PVR web page interface.
Does the use of a proxy avoid the problems if they are VM network issues or traffic management? After all, the traffic still uses VM for the first/last let of the journey.
Clive

FWIW I'm on Virgin cable 50 meg, and not seeing any throttling at all.

Just tried Afternoon Play: Torchwood pt 1 and speed peaked at
44119.270 kB / 2700.02 sec (99.9%) (it basically finished while the
speed was still climbing).

Tried Horizon - Moon and speed peaked at 345861.904 kB / 3541.12 sec
(99.9%) (was still climbing when it finished too).

So it's not Virgin cable per-se, or perhaps they're only throttling
the cheaper subscriptions?

Am happy to provide some more stats/tests, if you can tell me what to look at.

Cheers, Robs

[ZULU]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Reilly" <***@denali.org.uk>
To: <***@lists.infradead.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 11:36 PM
Subject: Re: Is anyone else's running slooowwwwlllyyy?

Post by Kevin Reilly

Post by Kevin Reilly
For what it's worth I had this problem a couple of mornings back and
switched from my 20Mb Virgin connection to an HSPA connection on a 3G MiFi
and the speed went UP marginally. It'll be interesting to hear if anyone
with an ISP other than Virgin is seeing these slowdowns. As far as I can
cell so far it's been 100% Virgin customers.

It's just taken nearly 40 minutes to download the HD (flashvhigh) version
of Top Gear. Not only was the maximum throughput 3.2Mbps on a 20Mbps
connection, the data was flowing in a very unusual pattern of peaks and
troughs, almost a sawtooth with regular spikes.
http://www.denali.org.uk/virginmedia/graph.jpg
Something screwy is definitely going on with Virgin's connection to the
back end servers for the iPlayer.

My d/l of The Horizon Guide-Moon was apparently compromised by it taking too
long.

Now, I want to re-download it, but I cannot find the *.swfinfo* file to
dump.
There is no such file on this computer!!

Now what?

Rog