# Directv on Demand----SLOW



## atfree (Feb 1, 2007)

My DOD has been SLOW over the past month. For example, I've tested a 1/2 hour cartoon from Boomerang.....took 2 hours to download. An HD movie download took over 24 hours. This has only started to be a problem over the past month or so. Before that, I've been able to download pretty much 1:1, and was able to start watching within a few minutes with no delays while watching.

Here's my network settings:

Directv HD-DVR HR20/100, software 0x368, which was downloaded on 10/29/09

Running wireless G network with Netgear WPN824v3 router, connected wirelessly to DVR with Linksys WGA600N wireless adapter.

I've got 3 laptops connected to the network with no speed problems. I've got Bellsouth DSL Extreme 6.0, and all my speed tests on the laptops show I'm getting 5+ Mbps download speeds. All my other downloads work fine and fast.

The router is set automatically process UPNP, and the DVR shows on the router with ports 27161 and 27162 ports forwarded as TCP.

I've reset the router, wireless adapter and DVR with no improvement. 

Any ideas as to why my DOD download speeds have suddenly become so slow??????


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

I haven't downloaded anything in the past few weeks, but I was getting HD in amost real time. For a 30minute program, I only needed to wait about 2 minutes. SD would start immediately.

I have Comcast with 12MB down.

EDIT: Okay, just queued up a 2:26 HD movie. In 11 minutes, I am 7% of the way through, and the progress bar is green. You can extrapolate that to mean that it would take about 157 minutes to donwload the entire movie (or only 11 minutes longer than the movie itself).

EDIT #2: Couple more time/percentage checks puts the total time at more like 135 minutes, or even shorter than the movie itself. I am not seeing the slow VOD performance that you are experiencing.


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## atfree (Feb 1, 2007)

Your connection is faster than mine, but still doesn't explain the slow downloads I'm experiencing. I used to get the same speeds you're getting (taking into account your faster Comcast service) but all of a sudden it's slowed to a crawl.

For example, I started a test download of a 30-minute Tom and Jerry cartoon at 8:30 tonight.....it's 10:12 and it still hasn't finished.

Somethings wrong, I just can figure out what.....


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

Can you wire your receiver directly just to test?


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## netraa (Mar 28, 2007)

Your ISP my be traffic shaping away from D*'s VOD service to save bandwidth on their side.


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## zudy (Jul 23, 2009)

I also have Bellsouth DSL 6.0. I have my recievers hard wired and it is very fast that way, I also just bought the wireless kit so I am wondering what kind of speed I will get with that one. Hard wired is your best be for speed.


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## dodge boy (Mar 31, 2006)

I have AT&Ts top DSL package and a wireless N wrt160n router with DDwrt feeding to wireless DVRS, 1 connected to a wire less G bridge and 1 connected to a wrt54g running DDwrt in repeater/bridge mode and I can start watching anything almost as soon as it hits the que, as soon as it gets to 5% the bar is green, and they are only connected at G speeds, 54mbps on one and 36mbps on the other. Infact it downloaded 4 movies lastnight while I was sleeping....


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

Even "g" wireless is up to 54Mb/sec, way faster than a 6Mb/s DSL ISP connection....as long as its reliable wireless, it will not be the bottleneck for DoD stuff from Direct.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

The speed of the DOD download is based on:

1) Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) transmission speed (DSL, cable, etc.)

2) The HD DVR Ethernet port speed (10/100)

3) Any devices through which the transmission must pass, which may impact the direct stream itself (router, switches, etc.

Wireless "G" will never get you more than 54MBps speed, which is less than what the HD DVR itself can handle.

An "upgrade" to a WET610N wireless adapter (I use one of these) can improve that performance exponentially...but the speed will not exceed what is handled by the 10/100 port itself on the HD DVR. There is a First Look on the WET610N here:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=167138


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## dodge boy (Mar 31, 2006)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> The speed of the DOD download is based on:
> 
> 1) Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) transmission speed (DSL, cable, etc.)
> 
> ...


I'm going to go look for 2 of those at Best Buy tonight...... They should work ok with my WRT160N router......


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> Wireless "G" will never get you more than 54MBps speed, which is less than what the HD DVR itself can handle.


But 54Mbs is way faster than anyone's internet connection. As long as the network is fatser than the internet download speed, how much faster is irrelevant. Since the question is regarding VOD (and not MRV), network speed faster than even 802.11b is unnecessary.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

atfree said:


> Your connection is faster than mine, but still doesn't explain the slow downloads I'm experiencing. I used to get the same speeds you're getting (taking into account your faster Comcast service) but all of a sudden it's slowed to a crawl.
> 
> For example, I started a test download of a 30-minute Tom and Jerry cartoon at 8:30 tonight.....it's 10:12 and it still hasn't finished.
> 
> Somethings wrong, I just can figure out what.....


Downloaded two HD recordings last night with my AT&T 6 Mb/s [tests @ 5] DSL. The connection paused once and needed to manually be "resumed". Other than this, my speeds were "normal". Since these were 1080p, they came at about 1.5:1 [1.5 min to download 1 min of program].
Before I changed to DSL, my cable would do just what your having. I could download from any other site fine, but VOD could take days. This was all due to the crappy cable company.


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## atfree (Feb 1, 2007)

Thanks for all the replies. I'm kinda stumped....the only thing I wonder about is the Netgear router.....my old Linksys router didn't have UPNP or QOS but the Netgear one does. I enabled both and I wonder if that is something that's affecting DOD download speeds. Just grasping at straws. I'm gonna turn these off tonight on the router and re-boot everything and see if it makes a difference. I wouldn't think so but stranger things......

I wish the HR-20 had more of a user interface for networking.....


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## dodge boy (Mar 31, 2006)

atfree said:


> Thanks for all the replies. I'm kinda stumped....the only thing I wonder about is the Netgear router.....my old Linksys router didn't have UPNP or QOS but the Netgear one does. I enabled both and I wonder if that is something that's affecting DOD download speeds. Just grasping at straws. I'm gonna turn these off tonight on the router and re-boot everything and see if it makes a difference. I wouldn't think so but stranger things......
> 
> I wish the HR-20 had more of a user interface for networking.....


That would be a good start. I put DDwrt on my linksys and turned on UPnP so they could open their own ports and it trashed everything on my network....


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## Guesst925XTU (Jan 29, 2004)

I just downloaded (2pm Eastern / Tuesday) "Billy & Mandy Save Christmas" (animated, standard definition) from channel 1296 (Cartoon Network). Total run time is 39 minutes.

Took me 27 minutes to download.

3MB down / 768KB up DSL connection (Verizon), hardwired Ethernet from modem to HR-20/700 receiver. (I was also surfing the 'net on my laptop in the meantime)


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## PHL (Jul 15, 2004)

I have a 25 megabit/sec FIOS, and I download HD content only slightly faster than real time. I have a 100 mbps ethernet connection to my HR23. I think D* must do some throttling at the server end.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

IMHO, DirecTV does use bandwidth management on the DoDo service to help limit their costs for network bandwidth. The thinking probably is to make it fast enough so that folks can get the GREEN on the download timeline so they can start watching fairly quickly, but not so you can download the entire movie in 10 or 15 minutes. They probably feel that folks will watch the program in 'real time' and not be skipping into the program so why pay for big bandwidth pipes if not necessary for most customers use?


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## dodge boy (Mar 31, 2006)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> The speed of the DOD download is based on:
> 
> 1) Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) transmission speed (DSL, cable, etc.)
> 
> ...


Just did 1 better, ordered 2 brand new WRT160Ns $79.99 ea. as opposed to $99.99 for the bridge. I will be putting DDWRT on them both and use them as repeater/bridges and will have 4 wired ports in each location....


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## dshafer (Dec 15, 2006)

Keep in mind that even thought 802.11g is "rated" at 54mbps, real performance will be nowhere near that. Wireless is CSMA/CA and involves a handshake (RTS/CTS) before transmission can begin. Add in RF interference and building walls, etc and the usual range for 802.11g is around 20mbps. Still faster than your connection to the ISP. The standard rate for a HD stream is 19.2 mbps. Do not be suprised if you see pixalation/drop outs with 802.11g.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

dshafer said:


> Keep in mind that even thought 802.11g is "rated" at 54mbps, real performance will be nowhere near that. Wireless is CSMA/CA and involves a handshake (RTS/CTS) before transmission can begin. Add in RF interference and building walls, etc and the usual range for 802.11g is around 20mbps. Still faster than your connection to the ISP.* The standard rate for a HD stream is 19.2 mbps.* Do not be suprised if you see pixalation/drop outs with 802.11g.


This would be OTA MPEG-2.
While downloading isn't that affected, since if a bad packet is missed, it simply is resent, if you are streaming DirecTV over wireless [using DirecTV2PC], you will find different rates.
I monitored my network yesterday while watching a 1080p VOD and while it does vary, it was over 20 Mb/s and with a trick play could be as high as 40 Mb/s. "I'd say" the average was 20-25 Mb/s.
Compared this to an HBO movie off the SAT feed and it was about half of this at about 12 Mb/s. Both of these were MPEG-4.


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## zudy (Jul 23, 2009)

Well I got the wireless kit in the mail today from D* I will hook it up when I get home today. Any tip's


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## dodge boy (Mar 31, 2006)

zudy said:


> Well I got the wireless kit in the mail today from D* I will hook it up when I get home today. Any tip's


I hope it is plug and pray.... :lol:


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## freerein100 (Dec 14, 2007)

I am currently downloading an HD movie and am getting roughly 1% per minute with an 8meg cable connection


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

freerein100 said:


> I am currently downloading an HD movie and am getting roughly 1% per minute with an 8meg cable connection


Seems like the servers max out @ about 7 Mb/s, so it doesn't matter if you have higher speeds or not.


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## atfree (Feb 1, 2007)

I went back and played around again (rebooted everything, disabled/enabled UNPN and QoS) and reinstalled WGA600N.....still incredibly slow.

I've come to believe that the Linksys adapter and the Netgear router aren't playing nice for some reason. I never had this problems when I had a Linksys router, downloaded at least 1:1 (even HD) and most of the time better. 

Unfortunately Netgear doesn't make a wireless ethernet adapter (they discontinued their last one a couple of years ago). My only option via Netgear seem to be either getting another WPN824v3 router and setting it up as a repeater (which, based on what I've read, is a complicated process involving MAC addresses, etc) or the WGPS606 Print Server which also works as a bridge. That is the simplest Netgear product....I may buy one, set it up and if it doesn't improve things I can always return it.

Has anyone else ever had conflicts between devices made by different manufacturers? That seems to be my last thought since the slow speed issue with DOD only started after I replaced the Linksys router with the Netgear one....

Thanks again for all the responses....


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## zudy (Jul 23, 2009)

Ok I got the WET 610N in the mail today and I just have 1 question. I already have the 1 HD DVR hard wiered and i want to change it to the WET 610N. Do I have to do anything before I swap them out, or jst plug it in and configure it the way it say's


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## atfree (Feb 1, 2007)

Oh....the strangeness of the wireless world.

As you know, my WGA600N had started downloading DOD VERY slowly and I thought I was going to have to get an adapter more compatible with my new Netgear router.

Well, tonight I was rummaging through my "tech box" and found my old WGA54G adapter I originally used with DOD when it first debuted a few years back. I thought, what the hell I'll hook it up. And I did......and now my DOD is working great again! I test downloaded a 1/2 hour cartoon and a 2 hour movie and it all completed in less than 2 hours....better than a 1:1 ratio.

Weird......


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## zudy (Jul 23, 2009)

Well I hooked up the WET 610N and it was a breeze. Now to test out the speed.


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## dshafer (Dec 15, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> This would be OTA MPEG-2.
> While downloading isn't that affected, *since if a bad packet is missed, it simply is resent, *if you are streaming DirecTV over wireless [using DirecTV2PC], you will find different rates.
> I monitored my network yesterday while watching a 1080p VOD and while it does vary, it was over 20 Mb/s and with a trick play could be as high as 40 Mb/s. "I'd say" the average was 20-25 Mb/s.
> Compared this to an HBO movie off the SAT feed and it was about half of this at about 12 Mb/s. Both of these were MPEG-4.


I am fairly certain that streaming video uses the UDP protocol, that means that dropped packets are not resent, there is no time for the handshaking and packet count that is done in TCP. Real time applications like audio, video streaming or VoIP use UDP.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

dshafer said:


> I am fairly certain that streaming video uses the UDP protocol, that means that dropped packets are not resent, there is no time for the handshaking and packet count that is done in TCP. Real time applications like audio, video streaming or VoIP use UDP.


"You're right" but VOD [DoD] is downloaded and not streamed.
You're correct with DirecTV2PC as it is streamed.


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

veryoldschool said:


> "You're right" but VOD [DoD] is downloaded and not streamed.
> You're correct with DirecTV2PC as it is streamed.


IIRC when I did a Wireshark trace of a DirecTV2PC session data was TCP not UDP.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

RAD said:


> IIRC when I did a Wireshark trace of a DirecTV2PC session data was TCP not UDP.


You may be right, I was more trying to point out DoD is a download and not a streaming app.


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