Virgin Media Community

[Bolehill]

Hi,

I'm experiencing random dropouts when watching streaming content (Prime/Netfix/Britbox).  There is no pattern to the dropouts - sometimes they happen immediately the programme has started, sometimes over an hour later.  The orange network light illuminates and the buffering 'circle of death' starts followed shortly by a message stating that the content is unavailable and to try again later.

In most cases the network light goes out after a while, sometimes things persist and need to be fixed by forcing a network reconnection.

The V6 box is wired connection (Cat 6 cables) to the Superhub 3 over powerline (Netgear 1200mbps).

Does anyone have any advice on how the connection to streaming services can be improved?

Thanks

Chris

[japitts · Accepted solution]

Do you have any problems with VoD content accessed directly from the EPG/menu system?

The internet connection is common to all of these, so ruling that out is the first test.

The gold-standard of connectivity is Ethernet directly to your router, with reliable wireless closely behind. Powerlines have been known to cause issues.

[Bolehill]

No problems with any of VM's regular programming.  Reliability is 100%.

I don't have an ethernet cable long enough to reach from the router to the V6 box, so I'll try switching to wireless and see how that works and report back.

Thanks for taking the time to reply - much appreciated!

[japitts]

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@Bolehill wrote:

No problems with any of VM's regular programming.  Reliability is 100%

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Just to be clear, I don't mean live linear broadcast channels but content accessed via the OnDemand & Catchup menus.

All these services use the net, but VoD is "in-house" to VM whereas the apps have more of an external element to them.

[Bolehill]

Thanks for the qualification - we do have very occasional issues with catch-up, but nothing on the scale we see with Netflix etc.

I'll run a trial over wireless and report back.

Chris

[Bolehill]

I switched the V6 box from a wired to wireless connection as suggested.  Streaming services seem much better: Britbox is a bit quicker to negotiate a connection, and in five hours viewing, no dropouts.

[Zach_R]

Hi @Bolehill,

Thank you for your posts and welcome back to our community forums. We're here to help.

I am so sorry to hear you appear to be having some dropouts when streaming On Demand and Catch Up content. Are you having issues with your connection dropping on any other device or service, or is it just when watching this TV content?

Thanks,
 

[Bolehill]

Thanks for getting in touch Zach_R.

I've switched from a wired ethernet (cat 6 cable / powerline) to wireless on the V6 box.  Dropouts when streaming seem to have been eradicated - no droputs over about ten hours of programmes.

There is still quite a bit of buffering when opening up a programme on Britbox, which is slightly irritating (the blue circle overlays the content), but not the end of the world.

Chris

[ozsat]

Within the Netflix app is a Network checker and speedtest - many be worth seeing what the speed is there.

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@Bolehill wrote:

Thanks for getting in touch Zach_R.

I've switched from a wired ethernet (cat 6 cable / powerline) to wireless on the V6 box.  Dropouts when streaming seem to have been eradicated - no droputs over about ten hours of programmes.

There is still quite a bit of buffering when opening up a programme on Britbox, which is slightly irritating (the blue circle overlays the content), but not the end of the world.

Chris

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[Bolehill]

Thanks Ozsat.

Speed within Netfix app reported as 109.43Mbps

Chris