Afrihoax: Just Keeping Promises

Graph of extended watching of a 720p channel on 4Mb business. Had major stutter every 10 seconds (slide show):

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Looks like we'll need to continue looking into this until we can get satisfactory answers. From my side I still see heavier bandwidth consumption from YouTube than on Twitch, but I guess it really seems to depend on the individual video and exactly how the compression and encoding are setup. Will continue to test and will post once we have some meaningful findings.
 
21stcn said:
Thanks AfriMan for the feedback on your testing. I think we can lay the shaping to rest (though I don't know when anyone said business was being shaped).



That 900KBps sounds like 1080p+ (the + means the exact resolution the broadcaster is broadcasting at) which is the absolute maximum of any stream.

I have spent a lot of time monitoring bandwidth usage while trying to watch twitch, and on the accounts from other ISPs which worked flawlessly on 720p, the bandwidth usage averaged at ~220KBps. Currently monitoring bandwidth on 720p on a 4MB uncapped, the average is 196KB/s - the stream is stuttering badly.

If the problem is the bandwidth intensity of twitch, I don't understand why a) the stream is flawless on other ISP accounts and b) the stream is stuttering badly yet the downstream is using half the line capacity?

To be honest I have never heard of bandwidth 'peaks' being an issue, but don't know much about the technicalities.

Is the theory you are suggesting that the other test accounts which worked did not 'rate-limit' the speeds and thus accommodated the peaks and/or that potential exchange congestion prevents the allowance for peaking?

In other words, sufficient bandwidth to allow for the peaks is necessary for stutter free streaming? So if a 720p stream stutters every 20 seconds, it means every 20 seconds the required downspeed peaks above the line capacity (or limited rate), say 420KB/s and thus the stutter, yet on average the stream only requires 200KB/s?

This however wouldn't explain why the same problems are present on Afrihost capped accounts (see 7hCH3353's post below)
Click to expand...

If I understand your question correctly, it's not possible to peak beyond your line's capability. Remember that there are two factors that affect your "ideal" throughput. Firstly, telkom takes an overhead on ADSL, for them to manage and do their accounting etc. I'm not sure what the exact amount is, I think it varies according to how well your line can perform. So practically speaking, an ideal 4Mbps line (for example) could only achieve around 3.4-3.6Mbps at max. Secondly, your physical factors like distance from the exchange, copper quality, area congestion, affect your actual speeds at any specific point in time, also subject to physical conditions like moisture, temperature etc.

Now, having said that, if one account works (over an extended period) and another does not, we need to see what the differences are. How is the traffic being routed. Are there significantly higher latencies at common points which can indicate that there need to be changes made to bring the performance back to the same level. If we can start to look into these areas, I think we can find a solution that will suit everyone.
 
I ran some tests here, I did a screen capture of my results to show you what I was talking about regarding the bandwidth consumption. Strangely the bitmeter graph didn't show the same as what the counter what showing, something to do with how I've sized the graph I think. Check it out and give me your comments:

[video=youtube;h2gFSkZuGA0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2gFSkZuGA0&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
Plugg_Afrihost.jpg

Just a short example but the difference is pretty clear.This is on a 1080p stream. Seems like something is holding the afrihost account back, maybe the way it connects to twitch or something? I don't know.
 
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7h3Ch3353 said:
Plugg_Afrihost.jpg

Just a short example but the difference is pretty clear.This is on a 1080p stream. Seems like something is holding the afrihost account back, maybe the way it connects to twitch or something? I don't know.
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I'm not sure. I was streaming 1080p on the video seamlessly, not a single instance of buffering, but the bandwidth spikes were fairly high. I haven't tested if the experience is different on a 4Mbps line (I tested on 10Mbps)
 
AfriMan said:
I ran some tests here, I did a screen capture of my results to show you what I was talking about regarding the bandwidth consumption.
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That's a 1080p video not a live channel with a peak of 640kB/s on a 10Mbps line. Don't know if it complicates things or clarifies.
 

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Hmm i do hope afriman is doing his tests on a live 720+/1080p stream and not just a highlight/archive video, which work perfectly fine btw.
 
21stcn said:
That's a 1080p video not a live channel with a peak of 640kB/s on a 10Mbps line. Don't know if it complicates things or clarifies.
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I'll keep testing with different vids and streams, just wanted to share what I was talking about previously. So far live vids have been similar for me, but I'll try to grab some more screens
 
AfriMan said:
I'll keep testing with different vids and streams, just wanted to share what I was talking about previously. So far live vids have been similar for me, but I'll try to grab some more screens
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Ok thanks. When I find some time (either later tonight or this weekend) I'll capture some video of what's going on my side and post the results here.
 
21stcn said:
Ok thanks. When I find some time (either later tonight or this weekend) I'll capture some video of what's going on my side and post the results here.
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Awesome. Comparative traceroutes will also help so we can see what's happening behind the different ISP accounts.
 
Busy weekend. Currently uploading 640Mb video to youtube. Could take a while... (like 4 hours)
 
PurSpyk!! said:
There seems to be lot of buffering when watching any videos on the Supersport website. These videos aren't even high quality.
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We've had other clients post comments on this, and most seem to think it may have something to do with the Supersport player. Other streaming services run perfectly.
 
40 second video showing my typical twitch experience on 720p, 4Mpbs line, Business Uncapped. Line speed testing at 3.4 at time of the test.

That stuttering you see is the live stream stuttering and has nothing to do with the video capture software which is capturing at 30fps.

Sorry about the quality and shortness (this performance is consistent across longer periods as well) but it takes too long to upload bigger files.

[video=youtube;yMUBjrTluTc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMUBjrTluTc[/video]
 
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21stcn said:
40 second video showing my typical twitch experience on 720p, 4Mpbs line, Business Uncapped. Line speed testing at 3.4 at time of the test.

That stuttering you see is the live stream stuttering and has nothing to do with the video capture software which is capturing at 30fps.

Sorry about the quality and shortness (this performance is consistent across longer periods as well) but it takes too long to upload bigger files.

[video=youtube;yMUBjrTluTc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMUBjrTluTc[/video]
Click to expand...

I'll run some more tests on my side on our DSL line. Can you give me the links to the specific streams you're watching (by PM)?
 
A few questions about the tests you've run

Have you identified a problem between twitch live streams and afrihost accounts?

Where are you in evaluating the situation and what is your thinking about the situation?

Thanks
 
21stcn said:
A few questions about the tests you've run

Have you identified a problem between twitch live streams and afrihost accounts?

Where are you in evaluating the situation and what is your thinking about the situation?

Thanks
Click to expand...

We're still busy running tests, I've got the guys from Critical Care involved. From my side everything seems to work fine, they're testing on a different line, so will let you know what they find.
 
Would like to get a concise view here. Maybe AfriMan can clarify for me.
What line / package should we be able to watch the following vids on?
480p
720p
1080p
 
Sazelza said:
Would like to get a concise view here. Maybe AfriMan can clarify for me.
What line / package should we be able to watch the following vids on?
480p
720p
1080p
Click to expand...

It depends on the individual video compression, a lot of people use these terms loosely not referring to the correct resolution, aspect ratio or HD quality. My personal experience is that up to 4Mbps, 480p is perfect and streams nicely without hiccups. 720p starts to give issues, especially if there are any services. 10Mbps does 720p pretty nicely, and can mostly do 1080p decently, but again it depends on the actual quality and not the label.

I would say anything over 6Mbps will play 720p flawlessly and battle a bit with 1080p, but 10Mbps is generally OK - in my experience.
 
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