[Showmax] Stuttering/Buffering on Fibre connection

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kwaggawerner

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Hi Guys,

I have a 20mbps Telkom Fibre connection, with a speedtest result of 1ms latency, and 19.5mbps down, and 9.9mbps up.

Watching Showmax last night, every minute or so, the video will pause for up to 8 seconds while buffering, has anyone else experienced this? - Bandwidth capping was off, but changing it to "High" didn't improve the buffer delays much, I didn't try lower quality settings, since that defeats the purpose.

Showmax was playing on my NUC, Windows 10 with Chrome x64, connected to a Full HD TV - so I assume Showmax automatically streams between 720p and 1080p depending on the content...

Logging into my EdgeRouter, there was no other traffic on the link, and I even disabled Smart QOS just for funsies - traffic never peaked more than about 2 - 5 mbps.

For reference, streaming Youtube at 1080p or higher, has NO buffering delays.

Any advice?
 
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I have the same issue on my 50MBit fibre line. Showmax's network is horrendous. Eventually gave up, and just used the other streaming services which work at full HD all the time without buffering.
 
Showmax likely didn't provision for the extra demand from their free offer, they are the same people that bring you SuperSport "streaming" after all.
 
Can't help you but it maxes out my 40Mbps line with the initial buffer.

I've yet to encounter any buffering or drop in quality during playback.

My ISP is Vox for what it's worth.
 
We have a 50Mbps fibre connection and on a good night, Showmax usually buffers for the first 30s or so of whatever we watch. Last night was horrendous though and we stopped watching after a while.

Netflix never has any issues on our line.
 
kwaggawerner said:
Hi Guys,

I have a 20mbps Telkom Fibre connection, with a speedtest result of 1ms latency, and 19.5mbps down, and 9.9mbps up.

Watching Showmax last night, every minute or so, the video will pause for up to 8 seconds while buffering, has anyone else experienced this? - Bandwidth capping was off, but changing it to "High" didn't improve the buffer delays much, I didn't try lower quality settings, since that defeats the purpose.

Showmax was playing on my NUC, Windows 10 with Chrome x64, connected to a Full HD TV - so I assume Showmax automatically streams between 720p and 1080p depending on the content...

Logging into my EdgeRouter, there was no other traffic on the link, and I even disabled Smart QOS just for funsies - traffic never peaked more than about 2 - 5 mbps.

For reference, streaming Youtube at 1080p or higher, has NO buffering delays.

Any advice?
Click to expand...

Rest assured it is NOT your line, or ISP. The problem as always has been with dsTV who now run the showmax as well. Their servers and the way they route traffic to and from those servers is and has been the problem since dsTV started delivering CU plus content. Until MC gets to grips with and improves their side , users will continue to experience these problems.
 
Yes, the network is poor. Also poor is the video quality, all blocky and smears.

I suppose that is what you get "for free". A waste of time really. Netflix and Amazon are much better. 1080p movies and soon to be 4k
 
Do some people still bother with ShowMax ??? WTF Serves them well. Ever heard of Kodi (free service) or Netflix (paid subscription) ?
 
We had issues as well. I asked Showmax support to look into it and the guy said he could definitely see buffering issues on our account on their side, button diagnose it I'll need to contact them as it happens.

Anyway, don't have a Showmax account anymore.
 
100meg line through CISP and also get constant buffering with showmax. Def server issues
 
50mg ftth with vox fat pipe. Buffers continiously - I’ve had to cancel as well, took on sub so that my wife could binge Revenge.
Playing via ethernet connection to nvidia shield android tv
With no problems on Netflix.
 
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No problems with showmax or netflix on a 4Mbps fibre line here.

[and my wifi distribution router is antique]
 
I upgraded to a 10megabit wireless connection from my 2Mb Telkom ADSL line. Netflix works fine on both the 2 and 10Mb connections (Both are still active) but Showmax pretty much only works on the slow connection. It is unusable on the 10Mb connection. No matter how many times I switch between the 2Mb and 20Mb connections, it works fine on the slow one and poorly or not at all on the fast connection. Speed tests on the two lines consistently gives the correct download speeds. Can it be that the Showmax server automatically detects your line speed and adjusts the data stream accordingly but messes it up in the process? Can I manually select a lower re stream (other than the data cap setting in “app preferences” under “settings” ?
 
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