Dish on Demand Questions/Problems

[Skyhi]

I'm trying to figure out if anybody else is experiencing these issues or if they are isolated to my box....

1. When I go to TV Shows----->Browse By Network, the network list is blank about 50% of the time.....no rhyme or reason.

2. When I download a show to watch, it takes forever....HD can take 3-4 hours for it to buffer enough for me to begin watching. My internet connection is not that slow and I never have ths problem when I stream netflix.

I'm looking forward to hearing other users' experiences.

 

[lparsons21]

1. I don't go there very often, but mine seems populated every time.

2. Yep, painfully slow is a good way to describe the download. I have a 15mb cable service and can download from anywhere but Dish very quickly. I think Dish throttles the download.

 

[TheKrell]

Yup; same here. Downloads are painfully slow: they seem to run 1-2Mbps max with long pauses between bursts. My Networks "On Demand" menu is likewise sometimes blank.

 

[mikeH_dishNetwork]

After going there on the receiver (VIP722) I was able to notice the SD/HD shows and the buffer for my SD/HD shows was around 25 minutes, and after checking through my connections I have the connection setup for the highest speed possible. There are different times and speed rates depending on your connection, I will send a link so you can compare your speed to the chart. about network speed - kbps explained - HomeNetHelp.com

 

[lparsons21]

Your link is way old (2000) and the speeds given for a given connection are way lower than what are out there these days. I'm on a 12Mbs cable modem and the download times from Dish are pathetic. Nowhere near what I get with an HD stream from Amazon, Apple and Netflix.

 

[JM42]

I've never seen the browsing options be blank - but I have to admit I donlt look all that often any more. The download times are indeed pathetic. Calling it "On Demand" borders on fraud.

If you know you want to watch something in two or three hours (if your lucky) then it may be OK. If you want to sit down, browse, select and watch something NOW- forget it.

 

[TG2]

Your link is way old (2000) and the speeds given for a given connection are way lower than what are out there these days. I'm on a 12Mbs cable modem and the download times from Dish are pathetic. Nowhere near what I get with an HD stream from Amazon, Apple and Netflix.

Actually .. old yes.. but *only* because it bothers to still reference dial-up modems ...

The information at that link is 100% correct though. The numbers *are* the numbers .. it just doesn't reference *your* connection speed, but the numbers are all easily determined with standard math (+ - x /).

You're getting 12,000,000 / 8 = 1.5 MB ... and this is just the BitRate or Data Link Rate, this is not your Throughput rate.

The throughput rate varies incredibly depending on your area of the country, the amount of connections near you, the area near your end point (dish.com lets say), and then there's the overhead from the number of supported users at the end opposite you. Even just accessing the data has overhead.

In general though, the greatest limitation is the network and the slowest common link between you and your end point.

Here's an example I can put two pc's side by side, cabled through a 100 Megabit switch, and even then, because of the operating system and networking overhead, the data rate is still way less than perfect ... I just did this with my network hard drive, and to copy a 290 megabyte file took 75 seconds from beginning to end -- 3.8 megabytes per second ....

75 seconds 3.8 megs per second ... and that's more than twice the speed of your 1.5 meg internet connection, yet *everything* in my test is networked at 100 meg. ... so why didn't I get at least 12 megabytes per second? ("overhead")

And this speaks nothing to the compression of the data ... I've got a 820 meg video file of a concert that lasted 2 hours 21 minutes and 22 seconds very good quality ... yet according to my DVR, a 1 hour episode of House monday night is 1024 megs. 200 megs more in data but less than half the recorded time!

Dish is probably not compressing enough for "On Demand" content, if they did you'd have better time to start, and faster download completion times, but you would probably complain for the video not being as good on quality.

This doesn't mean that Dish couldn't get faster network connections, work with caching service like Akamai and have multiple datacenters to feed the video out from ... but its just to understand that its more than just point and click, and that Dish is probably not doing everything yet like those other companies.. give them more time to figure it out.. hopefully they would integrate their DishOnline offering ... which would then be more like watching Netflix through the box, though expect the video quality to be less than their best.

 

[JM42]

Dish is probably not doing everything yet like those other companies.. give them more time to figure it out.

Dish on Demand has been around for a couple of years now if memory is correct. How much more time do they need to at least to at least spool content at a reasonable speed?

I can (at least) run two vudu "HDX 1080p" streams (which look better than just about anything dish puts out) and a Netflix HD stream simultaneously without issue, but for Dish I still have to wait an hour or two before I can start watching something (and then hope I don't overrun what's been buffered).

On demand is pathetically slow, has a painfully awkward interface, and is more expensive than most any other service. I love my Dish service overall, but Dish on Demand stinks.

 

[MikeMoss]

Hi

I posted elsewhere that On Demand didn't connect, but it seems that it just downloads stuff so slow it seems like it.
I do sometimes get the Can't Connect message but I think that just because it takes so long to do it that it throws the message.

I started downloading Shrek Forever After, yesterday and decided it wasn't working and gave up.
Today I saw that it said that I could watch it now!

About 3/4 of the way through I got a message that it was still downloading and I'd could watch the rest of it when it finished.

This afternoon I went online to dish on my computer and discovered that I could watch it almost instantly and could also fast forward it.
So later I'll watch the rest of it through my computer.

Both my computer and the Hopper are connected by cable to the same router.

But it's 100 times faster through my computer.
I have a 100mbs connection.

Mike

 

[TG2]

Hi
I posted elsewhere that On Demand didn't connect, but it seems that it just downloads stuff so slow it seems like it.
I do sometimes get the Can't Connect message but I think that just because it takes so long to do it that it throws the message.
<snip>
Both my computer and the Hopper are connected by cable to the same router.

But it's 100 times faster through my computer.
I have a 100mbs connection.

Mike

What do you get on average speedtests using a site like speedtest.net?

"connected by cable" meaning hard wired all the way through, back to your cable modem? (meaning, you're using an ethernet wire back to a router and ethernet from the router to the cable modem, and that no where in the path to/from the hopper's connection is wireless or slinglink/ethernet over power used)

if you have a netflix subscription, I would be interested in what experience you have using the Netflix app on the hopper.

There's two types of "On-Demand", the lines are blured between what content was truly streamed using good compression (like you get with the HD version of Netflix) and content that was standard Mpeg/mpeg2 files which needed more space as they were less compressed, and couldn't stream as well. Usually now the difference is visible up-front with a "watch now" and the Info button during stream may bring up bit rate information.

Since I've been back with dish, and have mostly used Netflix, I don't do as much on-demand. For any shows I do on-demand, I usually start them downloading and go onto other stuff, coming back later to view.

To get a better comparison, I'd need to do the same download for Shrek that you did. Tell me where you went to DL on the hopper and I'll see if its in my subscription. If so I'll set-up some monitoring to watch how much data (it would tell us which type on-demand, streaming, or download) it occupies. But by the description, and if netflix streaming works at hd levels, I would suspect the on-demand was the older larger file version.

 

[Skytrooper]

I wonder if Dish on Demand is being throttled by internet providers. I have a 25 mps connection. I noticed say when using HBO on Demand for example, the connection slows to 2 or 3 mps at times causing buffering. Very annoying.

I don't use the Netflix app because of the lack of 5.1 sound. Instead I use my PS3's Netflix app. I have no buffering issues using this method.

I used to have issues with Netflix til there was an agreement between my provider (Comcast) and Netflix was made. Yes, Comcast was throttling Netflix. Netflix had to pay Comcast to stop the throttling. What happened to Net Neutrality? And yes, my connection is hard wired.

 

[Skytrooper]

Out of curiosity, I am watching Rob Roy on the Netflix app. There does not seem to be any buffering issues. I don't know how to check download speed when using this app. You can see the download speeds on the other On Demand apps by pressing the info button.

 

[ChadT41]

Menu>settings > network setup> tests. Run the test and it will tell you below that.

 

[Skytrooper]

Menu>settings > network setup> tests. Run the test and it will tell you below that.

Unfortunately while using the Netflix app, this cannot be done. So you will never know the download speed, unless someone here knows another way.

I know how to do the speed tests using the method you described. When I do the speed test, the speeds are above 25 mps. I used HBO On Demand as an example. The speeds are averaging 2 to 3 mps.

 

[ChadT41]

Should be the speed your box is getting period... But I guess there could be a difference in Netflix and on demand. Shouldn't be any difference in HBO on demand and any other dish on demand as the servers would be Dish, not HBO.

 

[Hall]

I wonder if Dish on Demand is being throttled by internet providers.

He has no issues watching it from his PC, so that rules out any ISP-throttling towards Dish.

But I guess there could be a difference in Netflix and on demand. Shouldn't be any difference in HBO on demand and any other dish on demand as the servers would be Dish, not HBO.

Regarding Netflix vs Dish On Demand, there is definitely a difference. My internet is only 15Mb/s download and if we watch Netflix through our TV's app, a Roku box, computer, etc, it's damn near flawless. Quality is excellent and it never buffers. I get buffering all the time when using Netflix through the Hopper, FWIW.... Back to streaming video, Dish's on-demand stuff is hit or miss but usually does fine. Since we moved and have this 15Mb/s service, it's much improved over what we saw with 6Mb/s DSL. With that, we pretty much had to resort to "Watch later" for everything.

Regarding HBO's on-demand service, is it possible that Dish actually re-directs the download to HBO's network ? They could and the user would be oblivious to this. If HBO OnDemand service works real well and Dish on-demand stuff doesn't, that could explain that.

 

[Skytrooper]

I don't watch Netflix on my PC. All I'm saying is my On Demand stuff from Dish is slow, except for Netflix, so far. My next test is to watch Rob Roy again on my PS3 and compare picture quality.

As far as me suspecting Comcast to be throttling, I think its a real thing. Do you think they like me using Dish's TV service over theirs? Remember Netflix is paying Comcast to stop the throttling.

 

[Hall]

I said "he has no issues" when using a PC. He = MikeMoss.

That rules out his ISP throttling Dish's on-demand.

I do know that many ISPs will, and have, throttled video streaming services.

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