^Same way I feel about my service, protect everyone's Freedom to voice their conscience.
We may disagree, but we need not be disagreeable.
We may disagree, but we need not be disagreeable.
Atlantic Broadband
- Thread starter awol
- Start date
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
So we FINALLY got around to using the "new" DVR - the TiVo - that Atlantic Broadband replaced our old hot mess of a DVR with. Actually, they removed three and just gave us one. Some COVID excuse. Like, the tech will spend too much time in your home - he was here two hours.
So imagine our surprise while trying to watch a "recorded" show only to find it continually buffering about every two seconds - I am not kidding - while we watched. We finally gave up and watched the SAME SHOW on Hulu - with no buffering.
And it easily dawned on me - while the old DVR actually RECORDED the shows - on the machine - this one does nothing of the kind. It just creates a pointer to ABB. It's all streamed. Ok, that's a goddamned ripoff. So instead of having a local recording that I can speed through commercials, all I get is a pointer to a limited amount of episodes for a limited amount of time. And I PAY FOR THE DVR.
The SAME THING a streaming service provides - except they don't CHARGE me extra for it. Used to be with the old DVR we could always go On Demand and pick shows recently broadcast. Well that's all this thing does.
I'm pissed. If their TV service doesn't get any better, there's really no point to keeping them.
So imagine our surprise while trying to watch a "recorded" show only to find it continually buffering about every two seconds - I am not kidding - while we watched. We finally gave up and watched the SAME SHOW on Hulu - with no buffering.
And it easily dawned on me - while the old DVR actually RECORDED the shows - on the machine - this one does nothing of the kind. It just creates a pointer to ABB. It's all streamed. Ok, that's a goddamned ripoff. So instead of having a local recording that I can speed through commercials, all I get is a pointer to a limited amount of episodes for a limited amount of time. And I PAY FOR THE DVR.
The SAME THING a streaming service provides - except they don't CHARGE me extra for it. Used to be with the old DVR we could always go On Demand and pick shows recently broadcast. Well that's all this thing does.
I'm pissed. If their TV service doesn't get any better, there's really no point to keeping them.
luvmygdaughters
Well-Known Member
Had the same thing happen to me. I tried to watch a show I recorded, I hit "My Channels" clicked on the recorded show and "Loading Video" started...and continued...EVERY FREAKING 3 SECONDS!!!!
I've said they should do away with DVR's and just do this ....... too bad it sucks so much
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
And now you know why. Like I said, we found it on Hulu and watched it without a hitch although we still had commercials.
What pisses me off is, they're charging me money for a device which is little more than a Roku connected to their obvious underpowered servers.
Haven't tried it yet, but I bet it doesn't pause live TV.
luvmygdaughters
Well-Known Member
Would a wifi booster help with the buffering?
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Problem isn’t wi-fi. We got Hulu just fine. It’s THEM.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
Some LED lights have piss poor power supplies and I have found they can interfere with things that they should not. Anything in your house on during that time frame?
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
And think of all the money you give them that would be saved by a couple streaming services and a $40 Roku stick.
So far, knock on wood.
I haven't had any real problems with "Them".
But given their track record I didn't want to sign up with "them" for internet service.
But DSL wasn't cutting it and there were no other alternatives.
Now, I only have internet, no TV or phone. Though phone is just VoIP.
I should say that I think TV and internet have some conflicts in their system.
But I think it's the internet signal that screws the TV up.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
I don't think so. We had zero problem with every other streaming service and no problems with any Internet access.
It's like when a site just gets swamped or overloaded with requests and it's being serviced with a Commodore 64. It just can't do it.
The only sensible culprit is ABB and its ability to upload the programs we want.
But my primary complaint was, this isn't a DVR at all. I can clearly see there's no local recording being done at all.
My wife has also noticed that functionality of it is much worse, because it really can't scan anything at all or set recordings on a season like the last one could. It doesn't appear to connect to any kind of DVR service either (as in updates to show schedules and content).
What I suspect is happening is that ABB doesn't actually have any storage at all - that it merely redirects its computers to point elsewhere online.
That's absurd - I would have MUCH better luck just recording it with a 30 year old VCR.
No sure what you are saying, or what you your problem is.
Is it with streaming services? Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc.?
Because your DVR isn't gong to capture those.
Are you having an issue with ABB and buffering the download on a streaming service?
That would directly relate tot the bandwidth, both the speed and quality of the signal reaching your modem.
If the network is slow because it is busy, then you might have to cough up more money for the higher bandwidth packages.
But even if you had gigabit speed, if the signal quality reaching your house has noise, the there would be a lot of rejected packets and retries.
That effectively lowers your speed (bandwidth).
I have not had either problem (knock). What I did see was a problem with the TV service coming in on the same copper.
They try to separate the feeds, but outbound traffic seems to interfere with the TV signal, even if nothing else was going on, there is a heartbeat message that you could see, periodic noise on the TV screen.
When in doubt, remove all the paths but one. Direct connect the TV to the modem. Skip the WiFi / Router and have only the one device online.
Then add the Wifi / Router back and stick to a hard line connection.
Then go to Wifi.
Slowly add stuff back on to the network connection that could slow down traffic.
TPD
the poor dad
There have been trucks in Dameron all week stringing a new line on the poles along 235. I did see an ABB sign on one of the trucks. Either they are adding additional bandwidth or replacing the old cable - not sure which one. The fiber optic (I'm assuming that is what it is) was laid a number of years ago along 235 for Ridge Elementary School. Wondering when the citizenry will be allowed to tap into this...
yep
One set of townhomes, that small group of townhomes on Wildewoode Parkway are the only residential units with Verizon FiOS.
Because they were never in the master plan and recently constructed, they somehow got fibre.
I have friends who live north of Ridge MS and they had to pay to have copper run into their development, small development.
We are talking thousands of dollars per home to have the cable run.
Plus I love how they hang the copper on the poles near the power lines, on a wet day like today I can feel those lines buzzing.
I know the SMECO doesn't run the cleanest signal either, so the cable line are getting hit with all the EMI from the power lines.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
Guys - I don't know how to make it more clear - we don't have buffering problems with even one other Internet connected device in the house.
And we have a lot of them. ZERO problems. And we have Wi-fi everywhere. The TiVo has buffering problems even when we connect to my wife's mobile access point, which isn't part of the house Wi-Fi. The extremely logical conclusion is it's on ABB's end. Even when we link to the "recorded" material it presents text calling it On Demand. When we resorted to On Demand previously on the old DVR, we sometimes had the same problem.
Basically, my device is calling ABB and it's giving us a busy signal.
Moreover - there's nothing wrong with the TiVo. It is functioning as it was designed - what I am learning is, it has zero local storage unlike every other DVR I've ever owned - but not unlike what many streaming services offer - "unlimited" storage capacity because technically it never stores anything - it just keeps pointers to already recorded material - I don't have a "personal" storage in ABB - businesswise, that would be stupid to have 10,000 customers with the same thing stored on their servers.
The device isn't much bigger than a hardcover book. WOULD tend to indicate, there's no drive storage in there (unlike the previous one which had a published limit on storage - the promise of "unlimited" storage SHOULD have been my first clue - ain't no such thing IF you have a local disk. Let me repeat - it is physically impossible to provide unlimited storage on a disk)
My "complaint" is not that the TiVo isn't working - it's because it doesn't do what I thought it was supposed to do. If I knew how to install the full complement of TiVo's and mini's (that actually HAVE disks) I'd buy them outright and do it myself. As it is even if I connected them up, I am sure someone would have to show my how to get them to play nice with ABB.
Edited to add: Ok, NOT unlimited - but a value much higher than a local disk could likely hold. The benefit of a bona fide DVR with local storage is, you DON'T NEED the Internet at all to watch it once it's recorded.
And we have a lot of them. ZERO problems. And we have Wi-fi everywhere. The TiVo has buffering problems even when we connect to my wife's mobile access point, which isn't part of the house Wi-Fi. The extremely logical conclusion is it's on ABB's end. Even when we link to the "recorded" material it presents text calling it On Demand. When we resorted to On Demand previously on the old DVR, we sometimes had the same problem.
Basically, my device is calling ABB and it's giving us a busy signal.
Moreover - there's nothing wrong with the TiVo. It is functioning as it was designed - what I am learning is, it has zero local storage unlike every other DVR I've ever owned - but not unlike what many streaming services offer - "unlimited" storage capacity because technically it never stores anything - it just keeps pointers to already recorded material - I don't have a "personal" storage in ABB - businesswise, that would be stupid to have 10,000 customers with the same thing stored on their servers.
The device isn't much bigger than a hardcover book. WOULD tend to indicate, there's no drive storage in there (unlike the previous one which had a published limit on storage - the promise of "unlimited" storage SHOULD have been my first clue - ain't no such thing IF you have a local disk. Let me repeat - it is physically impossible to provide unlimited storage on a disk)
My "complaint" is not that the TiVo isn't working - it's because it doesn't do what I thought it was supposed to do. If I knew how to install the full complement of TiVo's and mini's (that actually HAVE disks) I'd buy them outright and do it myself. As it is even if I connected them up, I am sure someone would have to show my how to get them to play nice with ABB.
Edited to add: Ok, NOT unlimited - but a value much higher than a local disk could likely hold. The benefit of a bona fide DVR with local storage is, you DON'T NEED the Internet at all to watch it once it's recorded.
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PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
Except they now copy protect their signal, I use to use a DVD recorder until they embedded the copy protection about 10 years ago.
PeoplesElbow
Well-Known Member
That isnt really a smoking gun believe it or not. Streaming services like Hulu will buffer minutes in advance, you can shut off your wifi and often still have several minutes of viewing.
It is possible your latency us high and the TIVO relies on more of a "live" signal. Flat out bandwidth isnt the only component to a good internet connection.
Have you ran a speed test to check your numbers?
Go to fast.com and hit the show more info button. How does your loaded vs unloaded latency compare?
I would say that that is the root of your evil. You aren't watching a recorded show you are watching the show on demand.
From what I have read Tivo's have onboard recording, about 1000 hours of SD or 150 hours of HD. Maybe it is time to clear some of the older recordings.