iFollow Questionaire

Should you need 1gb broadband n order to watch decent quality streaming? Every other live streaming platform I've ever used seems to manage it without such a stupidly high speed needed. And remember it's not even in ultra HD or anything.

 

I have noticed myself that iFollow has ridiculously high bandwidth usage for the quality of video. I keep meaning to reverse engineer it and find out why, but I’m normally too busy watching the game and forget. And the archived videos don’t have the same issue.

I’ll try and have a go during half time today if I remember.

 

I've completed the survey and couldn't be anything but positive about iFollow. I won't be returning to the stadium until access and comfort improve, so it will remain the only way of following the Reds for me when they aren't available on Sky or red button.

Terry Nutkins/Barnsley Reds: Techie question. My laptop works brilliantly with iFollow, but when I try to wirelessly relay it to my smart telly the picture buffers. Is this because the telly can't handle the signal from my laptop? Can anything be done with that?

 

Me too - perfect

 

I have no moans at all about I Follow infact I would go as far as to say it has been excellent , when we get back to normal I will obviously be at Oakwell for home matches but I will certainly subscribe to Ifollow for away games , no complaints from me .

 

That's the crux of the problem for me. All other streaming services (iPlayer, Sky Go, Youtube etc) work perfectly in high quality on my laptop connected to my TV via HDMI. Even iFollow works well outside games. Only during live games do I get problems. I'm going to try it again this aft and see what happens.

 

I am afraid you could be wrong on that assertion as I used to have frequent issues relating to pixelation, freezes, dropped frames, buffering (albeit last season hence I did not renew this time). Whilst I live in a rural area and rely on microwave signal from the dish attached to the church bell tower across the valley, except on very rare occasions, it has not been at my end since I have occasionally run speed check software during a game and found I was getting around 25-30 Mb/s download (you only need around 20-25 to get 4K streaming!). On at least one occasion, I ended up abandoning the match as it was unwatchable and trying Netflix on my Smart TV whilst simultaneously using the internet on 2 other PCs. Whilst I know QoS for video input separates some of the data stream packets I was getting reasonable load speeds on the PCs and a perfect buffer free HD picture and sound on the TV. Back toiFollow and the picture was awful. The PC used was fairly high end with dedicated graphics cards and 3.2 GH processor so not down to any hardware issues. 300Mb /s wireless network router too so no issue there.

So in summary, certainly in my case (and I am sure it is not just me) 99 times out of 100 the problem down to the remote infrastructure e.g.the iFollow server(s) capacity. Since you have never had issues the problems do not appear to eminate from the output feed from the individual football grounds.
EDIT: Expecting High Speed 1 Gb connection later this year as the fibre cable has been laid up our country lane (only 5 houses!!). Checked and it is FTTH not FTTC. That will be an interesting test!

 

I suffered problems several times with the video just refusing to play on Wednesday night on my iPad. It usually has just worked this season.
What I find really annoying though is when they overlay some id number, especially when it’s drawn over the pitch, presumably to deter illegal streaming.

 

I'm FFTP and its revolutionary mate. Ping is consistent which I reckon is half the issue with what people are finding. Live feeds are different to Netflix as well. Netflix will download in advance so if you do get some buffering its happening further down the line and can catch up.

Live feeds can't download in advance for obvious reasons.

 

I've watched live feeds of football from by sport, live feeds of TV from many channels, live concerts, live YouTube broadcasts, Facebook broadcasts etc but the not one which judders and is generally consistently **** for me is ifollow. Why does it require 1gb in order to work to an acceptable standard when none of the others do?

 

I don’t know. I’m just saying mine works perfectly.

And I’ve given my set up.

 

Mirroring is what I assume you are referring to. There is no universal standard so Smart TVs can be inconsistent when mirroring. I ave a 100Hz Panasonic Viera 3D TV which often cannot be detected when I try to pair with a laptop. Other times it connects fine and other times it connects but with huge delay between what appears on the laptop and on the TV screen the sound does not transfer either. Wireless networking for video should work but often other signals given the frequency that Wi Fi works at interferes. I have a Benq 4K home cinema and use a 'line of sight' 4K wireless connection that functions on a much higher frequency independent of the Home Wi-Fi network.That said the Blu Ray connects to Netflix and Amazon prime via Wi-Fi and there are no issues albeit the Blu ray does connect to the AV receiver via HDMI. Cable connections for video and audio are still better- more reliable , resilient and stable than wireless in spite of the advances made in the past few years. I believe you posted that if you connect the tv to the laptop via HDMI cable then there were no problems

 

Thanks Tekky - will give that a try. Would be nice to see us on bigger screen.

 

Having just reread my original post, given all the typos, (i had a very...ahem...heavy..... lunch ) I am amazed you understood it.

Anyway just to add...
I believe ( someone may correct me on this if I am wrong) in spite of HDMI connections being duplex i.e.' two way' (depending on the connected device protocols connecting an external device via HDMI slot to a TV means the TV effectively becomes a 'dumb' monitor. Therefore I would not expect an incoming broadcast streamed on laptop such as iFollow to detect if another device connected (like the TV). Therefore any difference between what you see on the laptop/PC monitor and the TV should be entirely down to the connection . Bear in mind that HDMI passes data at around 100mb/s then any latency should be minimal. Final point. You may or may not get sound through the TV speakers so if you dont you will need to set the sound option on the laptop to 'digital device' or HDMI. Good luck ...let me know if it works.

 

It doesn’t, I don’t have fttp and don’t see juddering nor is it consistently ****. Seems others find the same. I note you’ve not tried this season? Maybe things have improved. I’ve no experience of previous seasons.

 

That and adverts for both team’s sponsors over the pitch and a scrolling anti piracy banner across the bottom of the pitch. Ironically, the whole thing makes me feel like I am watching a dodgy stream with crap popping up on the screen (although at least on YouTube you can click on the x to close them after a second or two) and it cutting away to loud adverts sometimes the second the final whistle is blown. No other paid for system treats customers so shabbily.

 

One of the treasons I have never subscribed to SKY. Independent terrestrial channels like ITV sourced their revenue from advertising, BBC via subscription i.e. licence. Never the twain shall meet! Along came SKY and tore up the rule book and how!! I remember watching in a pub early days and the advert breaks were absolutely ludicrous ... at teh end of a Star Trek they went to adverts for 3-4 minutes and then came back for the final minute of the programme and credits then went to another long commercial break before the next programme, SO not only are you bombarded with adverts, you pay a subscription greater than the BBC tv licences pay more for additional channels...sport, films etc. and then they go and bring in 'box office' to pay even more for one off events. No wonder they can afford to outbid the traditionally funded broadcasters.
My choice not to contribute to their coffers as it is the choice of those who do. My own personal view is that SKY have ripped people off for years . You only have to look at what happens when people state they are leaving, and suddenly they offer huge discounts to get them to stay. If people who DO subscribe are happy then fair enough, but , again, IMO, they have hugely damaged many sports long term by depriving them of a mass audience. Cricket, F1, have become minority sports etc. many result in dwindling numbers of people participating in those sports, both as spectators or competitors resulting in a long term decline or, in the case of some sports like F1 making it elitist.

 

What makes you think I haven't used ifollow this season?

 

Everyone blames sky but if you look at history it was actually the BBC and ITV who started the whole sorry mess. They were the ones who founded BSB with paid channels and paying huge amounts for football rights and had ads and paid channels together. Sky simply merged with them to form BSkyB.