Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

Yeah, NetFlix asked me about this.

I was looking around on NetFlix website trying to figure out how to report video problems of instant viewed material. But, couldn't find anything.

At one point during the play back the video broke up and was green...and somewhere after that the audio/video sync was off. Tried pause, ff, rev, stop and restart, but it stayed out of sync.

The only thing I didn't try was switching broadband service. I stayed on Cox for the 3 that I watched yesterday. Even though I have a TiVo HD on Cox and the other TiVo HD on DSL, so it would've been a simple move.

Though both TiVo HDs are direct attached to the cablemodem router...there are two gigabit switches between the cable modem router and the dslmodem router, but wouldn't expect that to have much impact.

Cox should be the faster...pretty I'm supposed to be getting 7Mbps with up to 12Mbps with PowerBoost....though speedtests seem to indicate I get faster speed with my 6MBps DSL service (a fairly consistent 5Mbps). Haven't watched an HD stream on NetFlix, but those had worked better on Cox than DSL. DSL on the other hand is much more reliable. Last lights storm, Cox was out for a few hours. DSL never went down, in fact I managed to stay online during it as well (though I had to make various network configuration tweaks, since most of my home network has Cox as the default gateway)...and had to work fast, since DHCP server has no redundancy and that machine's UPS has short life.

Probably next on my list to get a big UPS for...

Last night I experienced another Kansas Weather Event. Starting to wonder if I had known about these things, would I have called Manhattan, Kansas home?

Last night it was rain, and lots of it. I may as well have been a solid water coming down everywhere....almost the instant it started....I could hear water pouring into my living room. I had towel handy, and the put empty trash containers along the patio door and that kept most of the water at bay.

Carpet was dry by morning.

But, then the inevitable next happened. The power flickered and then went away. I was watching TV at the time (L&O: Criminal Intent). Guess I'll have to pick up the ending later. Things were humming on the UPS. Though somethings bounced...I turned off the TV and the V880N. Seems my HDVI5 switcher isn't on a UPS. So, there was no using things while the UPSs beeped. I thought I had disabled the beeper in the UPS, but maybe it only disables if it knows there's a computer attached....there isn't so...hmmm.

The UPS handling 'lhaven' died immediately. So, no IRC. So, even though the cable modem was still working and lasted more than half an hour. And, the DSL modem never went down. I was quickly without Internet, as computers ran down. And, my wireless access points are connected to desktop UPSs. I think I should move the access point to the PowerSource 400 that was backing up my phone/VoIP/router/dsl.

I went around shutting down some other computers to help stretch the UPSs....

Seems the Lasko floor fan and the Kenmore Envirosense air purifier didn't like being on the UPS...probably the TRIAC to make low speed fan and the simulated sine wave of the UPS output not getting along. I turned these things off. And, then after pacing around for a while, and checking various light sources. And, finding it getting warm and stuffy indoors. I went out and listened on my HT to the weather spotters, and checked out the area.

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Link: http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Rumor_Has_It/70039168?trkid=226871

I rated this 3 stars.

At first I was gonna watching it on my DSL connected TiVo HD, but saw that it was trying to stream in HD quality....but dropped down to not. So, I switched to my Cox HSI connected TiVo HD where I could get an HD stream.

Many months ago, I was looking at the slow WDS bridge from my main desktop to the rest of the network. The rest of my network which includes both of my Internet gateways, as well as numerous multimedia devices (include my TiVo HD and AppleTV)...so I wanted to speed up the transfer of media to these devices from my main computer.

I then decided that I would do it....I would buy a length of Cat5 and a bunch of command adhesive wireclips and plan a route from one corner of my living room along the wall/ceiling edge to the opposite corner of the living room and then back track behind furniture to where my switch for the main computer was.

At some later point I started putting up the wireclips, but stopped once I reached furniture. I was putting the clips in place by standing close to the wall on my toes...so it was a problem where the furniture was.

I stopped and to put things off to another day....many months passed.

Read more »

Link: http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Ratatouille/70045269?trkid=226871

I rated this 4 stars.

Used the Netflix Instant on my TiVo HD (connected to Cox HSI Preferred). Initially the quality was 9 bars, but it degraded quickly to only 6 bars.

Maybe I should've used the TiVo HD on my DSL connection?

Speed testing seems to confirm that I should've.....

I was bored and playing around with my AppleTV, I'm way behind on my video podcast viewing...but there's only so much I can take in at once.

So, I was playing around with other parts of it, and looked at Trailers. Finally saw the Star Trek trailer. I tried it in HD format. And, it keep stopping to buffer. But, watching SD format trailers were okay. Maybe Cox can't deliver the consistent speed I need for HD streaming, wonder if this'll be a problem when NetFlix HD streaming comes to my TiVo HD....except that the TiVo's are on DSL. Though I had contemplated flipping them over.

Later I was looking at my MRTG graphs, and saw that once again the transfers were considered Bulk. Guess I should set QoS marking for the AppleTV to Express. We'll see if that makes a difference next time.

I was kind of hoping that NetFlix Instant viewing would be available on my TiVo's this long weekend, but I guess it'll be sometime next month. Wonder if I'll have time off to inflict damage of watching too much NetFlix during the Xmas break

I thought of asking to borrow a NetFlix instant viewing device again, but now see that there's a limit of device activations that I can have on my account. And, I've already burned one. And, I think the plan is to activate both my TiVo HD's, so that I don't have to think of which one I'm on when the urge strikes. Even though, of course, they are both right next to each other and connected to the same display

Link: http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/Monty_Python_s_The_Meaning_of_Life_Special_Edition/60029676?trkid=226889

I rated this 3 stars.

This is the first show I've watched using NetFlix Instant, it was okay. The lack of subtitles was kind of annoying, and it was difficult to reverse. There was only one spot where the picture broke up.

Pretty good considering that QoS on my router flagged it as a bulk transfer and gave it the Bulk priority.

I'll make a note to increase QoS priority to Express for when I have my own Instant View devices. Namely, the anticipated ability to use my TiVo HD's for NetFlix Instant Viewing.

It is day two of the latest DSL upgrade. No change in sync rate, since its already reached the upgraded rate. But, DSLreports spectrum analysis gives somewhat more room on the downstream. Guess that'll ensure a stable connection.

Downstream Maxrate (Estimated): 6708
Upstream Maxrate (Estimated): 952

Bit tones with notches/missing bits:

bit(s) 38:43   		163.875   - 189.75    KHz
bit(s) 49      		211.3125  - 215.625   KHz
bit(s) 59:60   		254.4375  - 263.0625  KHz
bit(s) 67:68   		288.9375  - 297.5625  KHz
bit(s) 88:90   		379.5     - 392.4375  KHz
bit(s) 92      		396.75    - 401.0625  KHz
bit(s) 100:104 		431.25    - 452.8125  KHz
bit(s) 106     		457.125   - 461.4375  KHz
bit(s) 118     		508.875   - 513.1875  KHz
bit(s) 120     		517.5     - 521.8125  KHz
bit(s) 133:137 		573.5625  - 595.125   KHz
bit(s) 147:150 		633.9375  - 651.1875  KHz
bit(s) 162     		698.625   - 702.9375  KHz
bit(s) 169     		728.8125  - 733.125   KHz
bit(s) 172     		741.75    - 746.0625  KHz
bit(s) 176:186 		759       - 806.4375  KHz
bit(s) 190:191 		819.375   - 828       KHz
bit(s) 197     		849.5625  - 853.875   KHz
bit(s) 199:200 		858.1875  - 866.8125  KHz
bit(s) 203:212 		875.4375  - 918.5625  KHz
bit(s) 218:219 		940.125   - 948.75    KHz
bit(s) 228:255 		983.25    - 1104      KHz

No change in Line Attenuation, but S/N Margin is now ~8.5

Woke up this morning, and checked my DSL modem.

At around 5:20am, my DSL upgraded.

The Sync Rate is now 6016/768 (Line Attn jumped from 48.5 to 49.5 and S/N went from ~12 to ~7.5).

Looks like I get it all, and they upgraded the line to such that it can just down the downstream and little bit more for the upstream.

Here's my Cacti graphs on the matter:

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Last time I pulled the trigger on upgrading my DSL, I was just hoping to get them to bring me up to the speed I had been paying for (originally they said I could only get 1.5m/384k, and they did deliver that for the first month....when after a storm they then locked me down at 768/384. And, no amount of calling or emails, would make them think to let me back up.)

When I had last looked, both tiers were offered...but I was pessimistic, so I only ordered the 3.0m/512k tier. But, since sync rate is almost always this rate now....and DSLreports tools suggests that 768k upstream is possible. And, should be able to get another 1-1.5m on the downstream. I had started wondering if I shouldn't have gone for the higher speed.

Then the Roku NetFlix player was announced, and that seemed like something I would want to have. Which would make the need for more speed that much more desirable.

So, I had drafted a plan to get the NetFlix player last month and upgrade my DSL last month. Only as time went on, and reviews of the NetFlix player came in....my interest faded. The lack of subtitles or CC capability in the player is a big negative.

Especially since I've been catching up on my TV recordings, and the big thing I miss is that they weren't recorded with CC enabled. Of course, I suppose it might have something to do with the fact that some of the people behind ReplayTV are now behind Roku. Though to be fair, part of the lack of CC on my ReplayTV recordings is the transition to digital....

Anyways...I was online today to check my account information....couldn't remember if I had seen the bill or not. Decided to go ahead and order the upgrade to see how close to 6.0m/768k they can actually deliver.

I'm more likely to be holding out for the LG/NetFlix combo device now....than the Roku. Even though the LG device is apparently no more capable than the Roku for NetFlix. But, I've been wanting Blu-Ray since the beginning, and now that its the winner...it might be time to finally pull the trigger on that. Guess it'll depend on whether NetFlix streaming improves....and whether I see enough Blu-Ray now to justify it.

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