# Continually buffering...



## mkazen (Jan 24, 2002)

Some background - Two TiVo's in the house (a Roamio Plus and a Premiere XL4). They're hardwired into my Gigabit ethernet network. I have a wifi access point with a/b/g capable, and when I check my network connection speed (using speedtest.net) from my tablets (Samsung Tab 3), I get over 20mbps up and down.

I just installed the TiVo applications on both the tablet and my phone (Samsung Galaxy S5), and I get the same problem on both. When I start to watch a show, every few seconds it pauses - sometimes just for a second, sometimes for longer with the "spinning circle."

The thing is, my home network has plenty of bandwidth - the TiVo's are hardwired via Gigabit connections (and I can stream from one TiVo to the other without a problem). Every other application doesn't seem to have a problem - I can stream using my media server to my tablets using SubSonic without a problem. How can I debug this problem? Please let me know.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

How many devices are connected wirelessly? If you don't have multiple APs to spread thinsg out then every device connected to an AP can reduce the amount of bandwidth you have over WiFi. 802.11g already has limited bandwidth. And if sveral devices are connected there can be issues. A more modern AP with 802.11n would be a better solution. As well as having multiple APs.


----------



## mkazen (Jan 24, 2002)

aaronwt said:


> How many devices are connected wirelessly? If you don't have multiple APs to spread thinsg out then every device connected to an AP can reduce the amount of bandwidth you have over WiFi. 802.11g already has limited bandwidth. And if sveral devices are connected there can be issues. A more modern AP with 802.11n would be a better solution. As well as having multiple APs.


Actually, I do have two AP's; one is 802.11 a/b/g/n, and the other is a/b/g. I get the same problem regardless of which one i'm connecting to. Also, i'm able to get 20mbps consistently over either. Which is why i'm confused that it's having these problems.


----------



## burdellgp (Mar 28, 2008)

I am seeing something similar, but not quite the same. My tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab S) works great on wifi. My phone (Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G) does not; it continuously stutters. Everything is wired gigabit except for the phone and tablet, which are 802.11n wifi (so there's no wifi contention or anything like that, and the network is basically idle). I ran iperf between my phone and my desktop, and I got 41Mbps both directions, so the phone's wifi has plenty of bandwidth.

If I disable wifi and go cellular, the phone doesn't stutter.


----------



## mkazen (Jan 24, 2002)

I stutter regardless of wifi or cellular - and my connection to the internet is 125mbps down and 25 mbps up, so bandwidth should NOT be the issue. I'm thinking it's just my TiVo's... Anyone have any suggestions?


----------



## mkazen (Jan 24, 2002)

The only thing I can think of is for some reason the TiVos aren't sending data fast enough - any way to make it faster? The network should support it.


----------



## mkazen (Jan 24, 2002)

I should also remark that the TiVo's have no problem sending data back and forth if I transfer a show from one to the other...


----------



## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

Try this and see if it has any effect. 

Tune every tuner in your TiVo to channels that have no signal on it so that there is a black screen showing. Then try streaming with the app.


----------



## mkazen (Jan 24, 2002)

waynomo said:


> Try this and see if it has any effect.
> 
> Tune every tuner in your TiVo to channels that have no signal on it so that there is a black screen showing. Then try streaming with the app.


Worth a shot... BRB...


----------



## mkazen (Jan 24, 2002)

And.... No difference... Tuned all 6 tuners to a station I didn't receive, but that didn't stop the stuttering... Any other ideas? I'm rebooting to see if right after a reboot it helps...


----------



## lgnad (Feb 14, 2013)

I'd reboot everything in your networking loop as well. Your router or an access point or whatnot might be needing a refresh.

Also, stream something that's SD and see if that's able to stream...


----------



## mkazen (Jan 24, 2002)

lgnad said:


> I'd reboot everything in your networking loop as well. Your router or an access point or whatnot might be needing a refresh.
> 
> Also, stream something that's SD and see if that's able to stream...


Regardless of SD or HD, they both buffer. Also everything has been rebooted... Something else I just noticed, however (and I don't know if this has anything to do with it). I just transferred a HD movie to my Roamio, and it actually took about 6 hours to transfer (only about 7fps transfer rate, 2.79Mb/s). I have gigabit Ethernet in the house and these TiVo's are hard wired. Is it possible that they don't do well connected to a gigabit Ethernet switch?


----------



## lgnad (Feb 14, 2013)

There have been a few problems with compatibility for a few people with specific devices, particularly "green" gigabit switches, but the reports of that with the newer tivo software versions have died down.

You don't have Moca+ Ethernet both enabled on the boxes? This creates a network "loop" that will cause havoc and slow things down to a crawl. (Or, another Moca bridge, plus both enabled on one box)

It's also possible that your switch(es) has gone bad, or an Ethernet cable.


----------



## mkazen (Jan 24, 2002)

So I traced the signal from my media computer to the TiVo - it went through 4 different switches - one of them was generating a huge amount of extra traffic - took that switch out of the equation, and boom - no more streaming buffering! That was what the problem was (apparently). Thanks for everyone's advice!


----------



## hookemhorns12 (Mar 13, 2014)

Can you explain how you traced packet traffic and isolated the problem to a particular switch?


----------

