# Disappointing experience with the stream



## fjser (Feb 18, 2014)

I am a happy tivo user, having switched back to tivo after being frustrated with the cable co dvrs. Recently, I took my annual business trip to India and didnt want to miss my favorite shows so I purchased a stream.

Setup was fairly simple, and I downloaded a bunch of shows in my house before i left to watch on the plane. Transfer speed were slower than i would have expected, but not totally unbearable. I watched all the downloaded shows on my flight with no issues whatsoever.

Once i reached India, the troubles began. Internet speeds in India are not near as good as in the US, but they are fair (DSL level speeds on average). I tried downloading shows from two of my offices, and my hotel. In all cases, transfer speeds were utterly abysmal. I could have lived with this, but whenever a show finished downloading, and i would then watch it, it would lock up at some point in the middle of the show while watching. It was definitely an issue with the downloading show as I could rewatch it and it would freeze/lockup at exactly the same point.

Any good app/hardware should have the ability to avoid issues such as this (corrupt files) Of the 20+ shows i downloaded during my trip, less than 5 were able to be watched all the way through. Soon as I got home, i downloaded again, and they worked fine. I also tried downloading a shot from a friends house in the US and it worked fine.

This was highly disappointing to me. Does anyone have any idea why the download recovery/reparing/file checking is so bad on the stream? I feel like I wasted my money on this device...

I have Verizon fios as my internet provider, so my connection is solid..


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

I doubt that the stream was your problem, nor your internet connection, but rather the connection overseas were the cause. Lost packets, interference, etc can cause countless issues. When you returned home, you could download the same show with no issues, hence can blame either India's internet connection, or even the connection over countless oceans.


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## fjser (Feb 18, 2014)

I have to disagree with you here. When I grew tired of the bad downloads, i switched to other methods of getting my tv fix (network sites, torrents, newsgroups) and had zero issues. The issue is in the software. The system should be able to detect the issues you described and retry until it gets it right. If other software programs can succesfully download the files correctly, so should tivo..


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## jimmypowder (Oct 24, 2013)

fjser said:


> I have to disagree with you here. When I grew tired of the bad downloads, i switched to other methods of getting my tv fix (network sites, torrents, newsgroups) and had zero issues. The issue is in the software. The system should be able to detect the issues you described and retry until it gets it right. If other software programs can succesfully download the files correctly, so should tivo..


I agree.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Well, it would have been much more helpful to have asked for help while you were in India. Clearly it was an issue in part with your location if it is working fine now, and the folks on this site could have helped see if adjusting settings or features would have caused it to work better for you.


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## Austin Bike (Feb 9, 2003)

As basic troublesooting, take your ipad down the the street to a neighbor's house and try to download a show. If you don't have issues, then it was probably the multiple handoffs from your house to india and not necessarily the SW. Remember that when you access your tivo from a hotel, there is essentially one path, but when you are accessing a torrent or other (potentially) cached data stream, you may be connected to a server in your local country. 

When I use VPN at home it is really fast, but when I use VPN to access a server and I am in a foreign country it takes a lot more time, but facebook is still just as fast. That is because facebook has data centers around the world, closer to me, but the VPN server is still in the same location.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Places like McDonald's, Starbucks, etc has Wi-Fi, which you can try downloads, or even just try your Cell's internet, if possible.


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