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Howdo! 🙂
Spent the last hour trying to sort my connection speed out from the very poor performing talk talk and i've got no where.
The problem I have got is when trying to stream BBC I Player from the Smart TV it's just constantly buffering, now my speeds are between 1 and 2mbps which for smart tv (from what google is saying) is ample to stream without buffering.
But i found something on routers which has confused me. I currently have a 150mbps router, and they're saying on t'internet, can't remember the website, that a 300mbps would benefit my speed?
How does this work, and more importantly will it work does anyone know??
I've just spent a good half hour on phone to talk talk and as a good will gesture for "slow interupted speeds" they'll send me a 300mbps router which comes with the plus package FOC.
That's all good but if it doesn't work i am screwed as i'm tied in to this internet speed for the next year and half which means i can't take advantage of the gadgets and widgets on the tv. 🙁
If anyone can offer some advice i would greatly appreciate it!
Thanks all 😉
P.S - [url= http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/led-tv/UE40D5520RKXXU ]this is the telly[/url]
I've currently got a samsung wireless dongle hanging out the back as it doesn't have built in wireless, tried hard wiring it and it didn't change the buffering issue at all. 🙁
I've a 6 series samsung internet tv and we use it a lot for iplayer.
It generally works very well but we still get some buffering delays if you pick HD options at peak viewing times and that's with a speed checked braoadband rate that fluctuates between 2-4 mbps.
I was going to suggest you ditch the dongle and hard wire it but saw you've tried that so I think you need to see if you can increase the bandwidth rather than worrying about the router - which at 150 mbps is not the limiting factor IMHO.
Woudlnt of thought a new router would make any difference. As above, if you've tried hard wiring it and its still slow then there's something else going on. Can you stream OK from a laptop? How does streaming from youtube and vimeo go from the TV?
TBH iplayer is rubbish for streaming! im on 30meg fibre optic (verified) and it still gets buffering issues!
Strangely, iPlayer works fine on my shonky internet connection, at the other end of the house and upstairs from the router and played via the Wii
Hmm not good was looking at one of those tv's for after xmas
Iplayer Buffers fine on the laptop, Infact no probs at all! It's just I player that has issues, YouTube and Vimeo are fine. The other buffering problem is the MUTV app which is music videos, plays for 10secs then buffers for five!
I picked it up as a bit of a spontaneous buy, went to buy a media player from the Best Buy closing down sale and haggled the manager down to £360 on it so it was a hell of a bargain, got the 40", well it was a bargain at the time but not liking the fact this smart tv is turning out to be not so smart!
I've plugged the external hdd in it to play movies off and that part is brilliant. I'm just not able to use the main reason I bought the thing, smart tv and I player for the family to catch up on tv!
Grrrrr 🙁
I've got a 6 series TV, and although it does have the odd stability issue streaming is generally excellent. I wonder if your iplayer it's configured for a higher quality level than the laptop. There's a video quality settings under the setting menu at the bottom of the screen.
As an aside, if you can get serviio installed on a PC somewhere you can stream films etc to the TV, which is nice.
I've got the same tellybox and wish I'd got it for £360 now - ace price! I didn't bother with the WiFi dongle though, just moved my router and hard-wired it in and most times I get no problem and can watch anything on iPlayer in normal resolution and occasionally HD too. My broadband is about 3mbs apparently and luckily the telly sits by the main phone line. I got a USB WiFi adaptor for my PC instead.
Strangely, what I did notice is that I now get much better connection speeds with the router in the main BT line-in socket rather than a phone extension socket (download speeds now ca. 400kbs instead of 150kbs) so it might be worth trying that.
My router is nothing special - a 54mbs one which is still way faster than the broadband connection so I doubt thats your issue.
Only other thing I do is if the connection is a bit clunky I just switch the router off and on again. Seems to help clear the decks or something!
Might also be worth running a broadband line test to see what download speed you're actually getting - e.g. [url= http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/ ]http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/[/url]
best of luck! Andy.
Edit: hadn't noticed the bit about iPlayer working fine on your laptop - that does seem odd..
Amended the settings to normal and it now works fine! You lose the ability to watch anything in HD in this mode though which kind of defeats the object of having a nice tv! Oh well, atleast the missus gets her soaps now and romster gets his cbeebies!! 🙂 Music TV app is still painfully slow. I'll wait for the router to see if it changes anything. I think I'll give Samsung a call tomorrow so I'll update then!
cheers all 😉
Gingerrs do I need any hardware to stream to the tv???
If it's the same as mine then no. Serviio is a free download so I'd install it on a PC then see if it appears in your sources list under the DLNA heading. If it does you'll need a custom profile but I can send you the one I use.
1-2 mbps broadband isn't enough for HD streaming. My broadband just went up from 7mbps to 14, and prior to that I wouldn't get reliable HD streaming.
You shouldn't need servio. If you have win7 and the std MS video act as a dlna server with a couple of clicks just google "dlna" lots of tutorials there. I used the samsung dlna server download but standard stuff in win7 is much more reliable.
I've got the 40C7000 and a validated 8+ mbps as I can see the main exchange from my house but on HD iplayer still buffers more the bbc than either the tv or you isp imho.
Well I have the exact same TV as the OP and HD Freeview works a treat, our tinternet is a reliable 15meg + though.
That's interesting to know that the Samsung TV works with w7, so definitely the better option.
I have a 2008 server so for me Serviio is best.
our tinternet is a reliable 15meg + though.
Ok ok don't rub it in!! 🙁 hehe
Well - the new router has arrived (300mbps), and it has fixed the problem!!!
Having connected both up altnatively over the last hour or so, it seems the old router only gave off a 3 bar wireless signal where the new one is giving off 5 bars which i am assuming is meaning a more consistent internet connection is going to the TV!!! HD is still a little bit iffy but now watchable, MUTV streams fantastic, and the general I player can be wached in high quality. So far so good!!!
Wooop wooop!! 🙂
Signing off - one very happy chappie.
P.S - credit where credit is due on this one - absolute thumbs up to talk talk for despatching a FOC router in super dooper fast time, and the added bonus is it has fixed the problem!
Talk talk have pretty good customer service in my limited experience.
Talk talk have pretty good customer service in my limited experience.
Absolutely diabolical in mine.....[EDIT] - until now 🙂