# Background downloads ??



## LouB (Jan 8, 2009)

I am new to the stream but it looks to me like the iPAD app does not continue to download in the background. I know IOS is not really a multitasking OS but I would have thought with the IOS 7 release the app work a bit in the background like the APP,iTunes and music apps


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

I think it's technically possible to implement but the App is not designed to do it right now. Sure would be a great feature addition if it did. With current version, OOH downloads even in foreground mode stop every 5 minutes, so if nothing else that needs to be fixed 1st.


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## mr_smits (Dec 17, 2009)

moyekj said:


> I think it's technically possible to implement but the App is not designed to do it right now. Sure would be a great feature addition if it did. With current version, OOH downloads even in foreground mode stop every 5 minutes, so if nothing else that needs to be fixed 1st.


This is a problem.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Apple has a limit on how long an app can continue to run while in the background. I think it's 10 minutes. At that point the app is suspended no matter what it's doing. There is a new feature in iOS7 that allows apps to run longer in the background, but TiVo hasn't implemented it yet.


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## mr_smits (Dec 17, 2009)

Hopefully the Tivo app will fix the 10 minute problem. 

I have yet to troubleshoot, but my first attempt to download a show from Tivo Roamio Pro to my ipad, the rate was dial-up, so I simply quit after I noticed the issue minutes later. I will have to reboot everything this weekend and see if it is working properly now.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

mr_smits said:


> Hopefully the Tivo app will fix the 10 minute problem.
> 
> I have yet to troubleshoot, but my first attempt to download a show from Tivo Roamio Pro to my ipad, the rate was dial-up, so I simply quit after I noticed the issue minutes later. I will have to reboot everything this weekend and see if it is working properly now.


 For OOH downloads there is currently a bug where it stops downloading after about 5 mins or so seemingly no matter how good or bad your connection is.


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## mr_smits (Dec 17, 2009)

moyekj said:


> For OOH downloads there is currently a bug where it stops downloading after about 5 mins or so seemingly no matter how good or bad your connection is.


From within the home wifi network? If I recall, the progress of download was dial-up or even slower. I chaulked it up to Tivo still getting things in order (inordinately long time before everything works properly).


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Downloads inside the home should take between 25-40 minutes per hour of content depending on the parameters of the source video. (720p shiws seem to be the fastest)


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## mr_smits (Dec 17, 2009)

Dan203 said:


> Downloads inside the home should take between 25-40 minutes per hour of content depending on the parameters of the source video. (720p shiws seem to be the fastest)


25 minutes seems high, so 40 minutes seems extreme for 60 minutes. Any indications this will be improved with future software, or is this a "Get used to it" situation?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

mr_smits said:


> From within the home wifi network? If I recall, the progress of download was dial-up or even slower. I chaulked it up to Tivo still getting things in order (inordinately long time before everything works properly).


 The bug is for OOH=Out of Home downloads. As Dan mentioned the download speeds within the home are pretty slow. But "slow" is relative. Compared to going the alternative TTG route where you download, re-encode and then copy to your iPad it is still much faster.


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## mr_smits (Dec 17, 2009)

moyekj said:


> The bug is for OOH=Out of Home downloads. As Dan mentioned the download speeds within the home are pretty slow. But "slow" is relative. Compared to going the alternative TTG route where you download, re-encode and then copy to your iPad it is still much faster.


I haven't even been able to test OOH downloads or streaming yet.

The good news is it can only get better.


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## LouB (Jan 8, 2009)

bummer... an all fronts.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

mr_smits said:


> 25 minutes seems high, so 40 minutes seems extreme for 60 minutes. Any indications this will be improved with future software, or is this a "Get used to it" situation?


I ran a bunch of tests the other night. The fastest one I saw was 22 minutes for a 720p show. The slowest I saw was 38 minutes for a 1080i show. The reason I think the bottleneck is the scaler/deinterlacer is because the 480i show actually took about the same amount of time as the 1080i show. The final output on the iPad is 720p so both files had to be scaled and deinterlaced, whereas the 720 source file did not.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Dan203 said:


> The final output on the iPad is 720p so both files had to be scaled and deinterlaced, whereas the 720 source file did not.


 That's only the case for "Best" downloads though. Medium downloads are 540p and Basic 400p.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

All my tests were at Best except one where I downloaded the same show at Best and Basic and it took exactly the same amount of time for both.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Dan203 said:


> All my tests were at Best except one where I downloaded the same show at Best and Basic and it took exactly the same amount of time for both.


 So then I don't think scaling to different output resolution has much impact on encoding time. Looks like perhaps the deinterlace is a major factor.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I should try a 720p show at Medium or Basic and see if it's slower then at Best. That would tell us if the scaler is slowing things down at all.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Nope, 720p at Basic was significantly faster then Best. So must be the deinterlacer.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Dan203 said:


> Nope, 720p at Basic was significantly faster then Best. So must be the deinterlacer.


 Agreed. Might be interesting to upload a 1080p mpeg2 sample and a 1080i mpeg2 sample of same clip to TiVo and then compare downloading those to Stream. Theoretically the 1080p sample should download much quicker. (I guess same experiment of 480p vs 480i could be done as well).


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