I'd be interested to know if others have recently been having similar
experiences as myself with the BBC aac iPlayer not working correctly.

Since 'Wimbledon' started I have found the following.

1) Before about 9am each day the iPlayer (both live and 'listen again')
works fine.

2) After about 9am each day the stream becomes subject to repeated delays.
The result being bursts of about 1 sec of music/sound with gaps of up to a
few seconds in between.

3) if I then try listening to a non-BBC net radio stream this plays fine.
For example various European and USA 256kbps and 192kbps streams play
with no problems.

So far as I can see (3) implies my connection and my ISP's machine are able
to provide the necessary data rates with no problem. But given that (2)
that somewhere in the BBC side of things the data is being held up during
the day by something that isn't happening earlier.

My assumption has been that so many people are going to work and using
their office computers to watch people in Wimbledon play with balls that
the BBC radio streams are being disrupted.

Have others had similar experiences recently? Or is my choice of ISP or the
fact that I live some way from London mean I and other 'provincials' are
being affected when softy southerners are not?  :-)

If my diagnosis is correct I wonder if we will be able to listen to radio
via the iPlayer during the Olympics. If so, another reason for my wishing
it hadn't been 'won' <sic> by the UK.  :-)

Slainte,

Jim

-- 
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics  http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio  http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc  http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

"Jim Lesurf"  wrote in message 
news:5078369579noise@audiomisc.co.uk...
> I'd be interested to know if others have recently been having similar
> experiences as myself with the BBC aac iPlayer not working correctly.
>
> Since 'Wimbledon' started I have found the following.
>
> 1) Before about 9am each day the iPlayer (both live and 'listen again')
> works fine.
>
> 2) After about 9am each day the stream becomes subject to repeated delays.
> The result being bursts of about 1 sec of music/sound with gaps of up to a
> few seconds in between.
>
> 3) if I then try listening to a non-BBC net radio stream this plays fine.
> For example various European and USA 256kbps and 192kbps streams play
> with no problems.
>
> So far as I can see (3) implies my connection and my ISP's machine are 
> able
> to provide the necessary data rates with no problem. But given that (2)
> that somewhere in the BBC side of things the data is being held up during
> the day by something that isn't happening earlier.
>
> My assumption has been that so many people are going to work and using
> their office computers to watch people in Wimbledon play with balls that
> the BBC radio streams are being disrupted.
>
> Have others had similar experiences recently? Or is my choice of ISP or 
> the
> fact that I live some way from London mean I and other 'provincials' are
> being affected when softy southerners are not?  :-)
>
> If my diagnosis is correct I wonder if we will be able to listen to radio
> via the iPlayer during the Olympics. If so, another reason for my wishing
> it hadn't been 'won' <sic> by the UK.  :-)
>
> Slainte,
>
> Jim
>
> -- 
> Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
> Electronics 
> http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
> Armstrong Audio  http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
> Audio Misc  http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

Well Jim, I only use iPlayer for Radio 2 live stream usually without any 
interruptions but today I've experienced several breaks lasting a few 
seconds to many minutes. As other internet radio stations stream without 
breaks I can only assume the problem is at the BBC end.
You mind find this link helpful:
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/about_iplayer/tech_report

Regards,
Godfrey

Funny you should say this, as the other evening, I decided to listen to the 
Torchwood radio plays from R4, and the last two of them showed exactly te 
effect you described toward the end of the items, indeed the final one gave 
up completely during the closing announcements.

As you say, other streaming content seemed to prove the broadband link was 
fine both before and after for some hours.

Could just be a dodgy  machine in between, as never did a trace or anything, 
but also very strangely, no speed tracking went on in real player as one 
would expect if the stram was too fast for the link.

Brian

-- 
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
 graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email: briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________


"Jim Lesurf"  wrote in message 
news:5078369579noise@audiomisc.co.uk...
> I'd be interested to know if others have recently been having similar
> experiences as myself with the BBC aac iPlayer not working correctly.
>
> Since 'Wimbledon' started I have found the following.
>
> 1) Before about 9am each day the iPlayer (both live and 'listen again')
> works fine.
>
> 2) After about 9am each day the stream becomes subject to repeated delays.
> The result being bursts of about 1 sec of music/sound with gaps of up to a
> few seconds in between.
>
> 3) if I then try listening to a non-BBC net radio stream this plays fine.
> For example various European and USA 256kbps and 192kbps streams play
> with no problems.
>
> So far as I can see (3) implies my connection and my ISP's machine are 
> able
> to provide the necessary data rates with no problem. But given that (2)
> that somewhere in the BBC side of things the data is being held up during
> the day by something that isn't happening earlier.
>
> My assumption has been that so many people are going to work and using
> their office computers to watch people in Wimbledon play with balls that
> the BBC radio streams are being disrupted.
>
> Have others had similar experiences recently? Or is my choice of ISP or 
> the
> fact that I live some way from London mean I and other 'provincials' are
> being affected when softy southerners are not?  :-)
>
> If my diagnosis is correct I wonder if we will be able to listen to radio
> via the iPlayer during the Olympics. If so, another reason for my wishing
> it hadn't been 'won' <sic> by the UK.  :-)
>
> Slainte,
>
> Jim
>
> -- 
> Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
> Electronics 
> http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
> Armstrong Audio  http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
> Audio Misc  http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html
>

In article <bNC5m.54088$OO7.8042@text.news.virginmedia.com>, Brian Gaff
 wrote:
> Funny you should say this, as the other evening, I decided to listen to
> the Torchwood radio plays from R4, and the last two of them showed
> exactly te effect you described toward the end of the items, indeed the
> final one gave up completely during the closing announcements.

FWIW My ISP is investigating as they've had a number of reports similar to
our experiences, but at present my diagnosis seems plausible. No idea if
this means the problem will clear up once 'Wimbledon' vanishes from the
iPlayer, though. Hope so - but if it does, what does that imply about when
we have other popular events? 

Your report is interesting as - IIUC - you were using the 'Real' streams
whereas I am using aac.

BTW The problem also seems to evaporate around 6pm as well as being absent
before about 9am. Rather a marked correlation with 'working day'.

Slainte,

Jim

-- 
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics  http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio  http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc  http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

On 10 Jul, noise@audiomisc.co.uk wrote:
> In article <bNC5m.54088$OO7.8042@text.news.virginmedia.com>, Brian Gaff
>  wrote:
> > Funny you should say this, as the other evening, I decided to listen
> > to the Torchwood radio plays from R4, and the last two of them showed
> > exactly te effect you described toward the end of the items, indeed
> > the final one gave up completely during the closing announcements.

> FWIW My ISP is investigating as they've had a number of reports similar
> to our experiences, but at present my diagnosis seems plausible. No idea
> if this means the problem will clear up once 'Wimbledon' vanishes from
> the iPlayer, though. Hope so - but if it does, what does that imply
> about when we have other popular events? 

I've now had a response from a contact involved in providing the iPlayer.
This is to the effect that the problems seem to be a bottleneck with some
specific ISPs collecting streams from the BBC servers, not the servers
themselves. So I am following this up with my ISP and asking them to check
the situation with their upstream suppliers, etc.

Slainte,

Jim

-- 
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics  http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scots_Guide/intro/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio  http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc  http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html