[clug] [WOT] iView performance

[Daniel Rose]

On 04/19/10 11:25, steve jenkin wrote:
> Something that's Way Off Topic [WOT]...
>
> What sort of results do others get from streaming video - like iView??
>
> With "Dr. Who" being released first on iView, I had to have a go...
> Wasn't all that impressed.
>
> My old 1.3Ghz PPC Mac couldn't hack it.
> Played tolerably well on dual core 2.5Ghz Intel with NVIDIA 9400.
>
>   

Personally I don't think the problem you saw was on your end.  Iview has
been having some trouble keeping up lately, esp. for ISPs who get it
unmetered (internode and I'm not sure who else).

But not always perfectly, especially near the start.
> Didn't try for Full-Screen.
>
>   
We use it full-screen often, across a number of older machines.  The
compression of course yields artifacts that are not in the original
digital broadcast.
> Is this just an issue with Adobe Flash?
>
>   
It doesn't help, IMHO, but I don't know.
> Is it my (slow) 1.5Mbps link and ISP?
>
>   
I doubt it.  It *might* be if the link is in use by other things, or
your ISP doesn't give sufficient backhaul; ABC do recommend 1.1Mb.
> Do things like VLC work significantly better?
>
>   
VLC will play back flash video in general if you can fiddle things. 
Watching traffic will show the flash making a HTTP GET, then you can
plug that URL into VLC (or wget) and you might get lucky.  I haven't
tested with iview.
> If the NBN ever rolls out at an affordable price, video streaming has
> gotta Just Work, and consumer equipment to do that has to be sub-$500.
>
> Any ideas on how they're going to make it work?
>
>   
Lower resolution maybe?  ABC iView never tried to be backwards
compatible, IMO 1.1Mbit is a lot to ask.