Is Revision3 having bandwidth problems? [Archive]

nunman62

09-11-2010, 07:02 PM

The reason I ask is here lately, I've been having streaming HD video problems with Revision3.com along with HD video streaming at Cnettv.com (it's even worse there!). For example, playing a HD video from the show Geekbeat.tv (from the revision3.com website) during playback, I encountered 6 "freeze ups" with each freeze up lasting about 10 seconds each for a 5 minute and 23 second video. On the 6th freeze up, the video didn't come back playing at all! Even when I pause the video for about 1 minute, I still have freeze up issues (unless I pause it for a long time!)

All of my drivers are fully updated (especially flash player and my video card drivers) and I have no viruses or malware (everything else works ok anyway, so I really didn't suspect that to begin with). I was even suspecting my ISP (Comcast) of throttling my internet speeds, but doing numerous speed tests, I'm getting more than enough bandwidth to do whatever I want to do.

Yet, I can go to a HD video site like Vimeo, and have NO streaming HD video problems at all! A 24:45 HD video took 3:09 to fully load WHILE playing the video. After trying to find some answers,I found this Streaming/Buffering Thread (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/youtube/thread?tid=48cceaf2c6360595&hl=en).

If revision3 is encountering this type of problem, when will it be fixed? If I'm wrong about this, then why am I having this problem?

Edit: I should add I don't have this problem all the time, the other morning when I played (from revision3 website) the latest Tekzilla episode in HD, I didn't have any freeze up/buffering problems at all. But it seems to be a problem most of the time.

eugaetkt

09-13-2010, 08:10 PM

You aren't alone in your question about Revision3 bandwidth speeds. I usually download their content by using a podcast catcher program, and I have also noticed a dramatic reduction in the download speeds. My tests show that my ISP is not throttling my download speed, as I can download content from other sites with the same podcast program at top speeds. I used to download the HD formats from Revision 3, which still works if I want to wait 4-6 hours for the download to complete. I have changed my format to the smallest formats to save time. I hope this is temporary, there are other content sites to choose from if Revision 3 has lowered the speeds.

eugaetkt

09-13-2010, 08:24 PM

I forgot to mention, I also tried to stream the shows using the online features, and I had problems with it stopping during playback often. Very frustrating.

1) Core 2 Duo 2.4 - Top knotch setup back in 2007
2) 2 Gig's
3) Win7 64

tokenuser

09-13-2010, 08:39 PM

Revision3 doesn't have bandwidth.

They have a CDN - a content distribution network, that is supplied by BitGravity. Now, the problem is that the route from your computer to the nearest distribution point will be different for just about everyone ... and therein lies the problem. Its freaking hard to replicate.

BUT, Revision3 are aware of that. There is a problem ticket open at BitGravity to report these issues to.

Here is a good place to start ...

http://bitgravity.com/netdebug/

At the end of the tests, you will be asked to submit a problem report.
Submit the results and reference ticket #6052.

nunman62

09-14-2010, 01:06 AM

Thanks for the info tokenuser! Have submitted a problem report and hope BitGravity finds a solution soon.

netscan

09-21-2010, 11:13 PM

any idea on when it's going to be fixed, waiting 10 minutes to watch an 8 min diggreel is kind of annoying.

rylab

09-22-2010, 10:42 PM

netscan

09-23-2010, 10:12 AM

Netscan, have you submitted a ticket to BitGravity as Tokenuser explained? If you're having bandwidth issues with the actual videos, they can assist you directly, we can't do much about it from our end since things appear to be functioning perfectly from all our available test locations.

Yep, submitted a ticket referencing the open ticket as suggested, according to the test I'm only pulling an average 700k from their TX datacenter.

I'm on a 40Mb connection and can hit the high 30's with ease from various locations up and down the east coast and mid-west with drops into the mid 20's out to the west coast so my connection appears to be working correctly.

Spose I'll just have to suck it up or go do something else. Thanks for the reply.

nunman62

09-23-2010, 01:01 PM

Netscan, have you submitted a ticket to BitGravity as Tokenuser explained? If you're having bandwidth issues with the actual videos, they can assist you directly, we can't do much about it from our end since things appear to be functioning perfectly from all our available test locations.

I've submitted my ticket (referenced the ticket number from tokenuser) and its been almost 10 days now without any direct assistance from anybody at BitGravity. I got a automated email reply when I first turned in a ticket, but nothing else since then.

netscan

09-24-2010, 02:13 AM

Well I hope it gets sorted soon ...loading... can't take ...loading... much more ...loading... of the ...loading... buffering pauses

Leo's TWiT is coming through just fine, cachefly, food for thought.

nunman62

10-02-2010, 10:03 PM

Ok, so it's 9 days after my last post, and frankly, I don't see anything BitGravity is doing to resolve this problem. Like netscan, my patience is starting to wear thin and I'm not getting any younger! Maybe it's time to look for another CDN to distribute Revision3 content.

aborro

10-06-2010, 04:53 PM

I have been experiencing the same issue for over a month now! I used to be able to watch the HD MP4 feeds over wireless without any hiccups. Now there are constant "Buffering" messages and watching my favourite Revision3 shows has become an exercise in frustration. And yes, I am getting the same pauses watching over a wired Gigabit connection as well. No issues streaming from other sites. I have resorted to downloading individual shows which isn't ideal, but at least I can avoid the dreaded "Buffering" message!

metsallica

10-28-2010, 08:09 PM

My Rev3.com usage is a bit different from the norm: I download each new episode manually for the shows I'm interested in. For the past week my speeds have been terribly slow.

I have a ~15 megabit connection to the internet, here's a speed test I just ran:
http://i53.tinypic.com/2utn6ok.jpg

Here's a shot of my active Rev3.com downloads:
http://i52.tinypic.com/1zc5zd.jpg

A couple weeks ago I was getting 600-800 kB/s per download from Rev3.

metsallica

10-29-2010, 03:25 AM

Because I'm bored, here's a comparison between a Rev3 download and an IGN download:
http://i56.tinypic.com/2cbrtj.jpg

aborro

10-30-2010, 06:20 AM

Like they say, "the proof is in the pudding". Thanks metsallica for sharing the screen shots. This thread had become quiet and I was beginning to think I was the only one left with slow downloads and buffering issues.

promike

10-30-2010, 12:33 PM

Add me to the list. All of the channels on my Roku work great except for Revision3. I know they also were have a lip sync issue for a while. Something has changed in the last week for me and it's not on my end.

tokenuser

10-30-2010, 12:46 PM

Ultimately the problem is Revision3's, but they are not the cause.
Follow the instructions above and log a problem ticket through bit gravity.
You will find a number of routes that grind to a halt.
Complaining here won't get anything fixed ... You need to complain to bit gravity. Keep logging problem tickets. Sooner or later they will get the picture.

latrine

10-30-2010, 06:29 PM

Yeah, I haven't been able to watch anything this week. Usually this kind of problem clears up after a day or two, but this has taken a while. Just submitted a ticket to Bit-Gravity.

metsallica

10-31-2010, 06:00 PM

dman007

11-09-2010, 07:28 PM

My problem just started a few days ago. I download select shows on Revision3 using Google Reader. What used to take 2-3 minutes now is taking 35 minutes...

I submitted my results to bitgravity using the ticket provided in a previous post.

For Revision 3 to wipe their hands of this problem and point to bitgravity doesn't say much for their customer service or concern for their customers.

tokenuser

11-09-2010, 08:17 PM

For Revision 3 to wipe their hands of this problem and point to bitgravity doesn't say much for their customer service or concern for their customers.You don't complain to Ford that the freeway you drive on to get to their dealership has potholes.

Revision3 haven't wiped their hands of the problem, but - other that breaking their CDN contract with bit gravity- they can't do much about how the packets are routed to your specific location.

Keep raising problem tickets with bit gravity.

By all means log that you have done so here (maybe even post the results of the test), but understand that the Internet can take many paths.

As a suggestion, maybe try changing your DNS server to googles dns servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4). It could be that your ISP is throwing your packets out of their networks at non optimal locations to hook into the bit gravity routes.

metsallica

11-11-2010, 05:47 PM

Speeds are getting worse. Submitted multiple tickets to bitgravity. Anyone from the mothership care?

dman007

11-11-2010, 06:45 PM

You don't complain to Ford that the freeway you drive on to get to their dealership has potholes.

Nice attempt at an analogy but it Fails!
Revision3 has a contract with bitgravity to supply shows to their customers, if bitgravity is not living up to the contract then Revision3 should do something. Pretty simple!

I'll keep submitting tickets to bitgravity but a little support from REVISION3 would be nice.

danbiz3

11-12-2010, 03:44 AM

Hello, I have been a loyal Rev 3 viewer for years and this is my first post, only to say there is definitely something wrong with your bandwidth. Every show has had problems loading, including the flash and H.264 versions. I have 10Mbps down and streaming content on any other webpage is not an issue, and it was never on on Rev 3 until a couple months ago.

Please fix this.

I Do really appreciate the content and would love to continue watching!

promike

11-12-2010, 01:43 PM

Unfortunately no one from Revision3 seems to care enough to take the time to address the issues. I would be happy to hear "We're having problems and we're on it. Please be patient." When all of your posts and emails are ignored it it is frustrating. Oh well, I suppose it was too good to be true.....a free channel that offered great shows.

metsallica

12-10-2010, 08:05 PM

Speeds are still awful. It has been months.

jhd

12-14-2010, 02:21 AM

Pretty excruciating

deppeler

12-14-2010, 02:46 PM

I just bought a new Roku XD|S and I can get all (99%) of the streams to work except Revision3.
I get this message:
'Unknown error encountered. An unexpected problem (but not server timeout or HTTP error) has been detected '

Any ideas or is anyone else having issues with Roku and Revision3??????

coderx

12-17-2010, 03:19 AM

Not pointing fingers, as an end user, I could honestly care less who is at fault here. Weather it be Revision3 or Bit Gravity, something is f'd to the up, and someone needs to fix it. I have submitted a ticket with Bit Gravity.

To address the previous comment re: ford, and complaining about traffic. That's what Ted Stevens did ( The internet is a series of tubes, not a truck. ) What I'm saying is closer to this. I'm going to your store to buy something ( In this case, we're consuming the content produced by rev3. ) I select the item I want to buy ( select a show, say diggnation ). Then I get to the checkout counter, however, there are so many other people checking out that it takes 10 times as long as it should take. This forces the person into a reaction of :

A) Deal with bad service. Do we care that the cause is because a customer or a employee? No.

B) Put the product back on the shelf, and walk out. ( Just say forget it and stop the download. )

C) Try and do something about it, perhaps alerting the manager to the situation. <--- this is what I'm doing here, because I want things to improve.

Hopefully this helps fix things. Again, I'm not here to point fingers or call anyone out. I'm just asking Rev3 to look into a solution. At the end of the day, your content ( and ad's ), need to get to me, the consumer. Right now, that's not happening in an efficient way.

Keep up the good work on the shows, I love watching them. Even if you did cancel systm. :( Thumbs up for Ben Heck!

Thanks,
coderx

digiti

12-20-2010, 02:28 AM

The last few weeks viewing HDNation and Tekzilla has been very frustrating because instead of my usual 4 dots of resolution the player only give me 1 dot which is painful to watch. I don't know if the fault lies with Roku, Revision3, or my ISP [RR through TWC]. Netflix, Huluplus and other channels are fine.Please advise.

tokenuser

12-20-2010, 02:47 AM

CDN.

Search the forums for bit gravity.

File a problem ticket.

myroncastleman

01-20-2011, 11:30 PM

I've tried watching several Revision3 shows on my Google TV and the buffering makes it impossible. I have a 20+mbps connection. Amazon VOD, Netflix and Youtube all stream fine with HD content. Very frustrating.

sholling

01-21-2011, 08:53 PM

I love Revision 3 but I give up on it. For weeks it's just been dog slow. I'm on a 35/35Mb FIOS connection and it's unwatchable at any resolution. 3-5 minutes of buffering for 30 seconds of video and then we're back to 3-5 minutes of buffering. I've been a tech and network admin for 20 years and I've checked my end from top to bottom and run speed tests the problem is at your end. Either rewrite your steaming application to be less bandwidth intensive or find a host that's not relying on soup cans and string for bandwidth.

I'll check back in a few months but for now I'm not wasting any more of my time.

metsallica

01-28-2011, 02:26 PM

I feel your pain, sholling. I've sent dozens of support tickets to bitgravity and my speeds are still atrocious. They're great everywhere else except Revision3. But hey, not Rev3's problem, so it's a non-issue!

nite_monkey

02-11-2011, 04:13 AM

Is Bitgravity even doing anything about this issue? I haven't been able to watch anything on revision3.com because of this issue for several months now. I have to wait until the shows that I watch show up on youtube, because most of the time, I can stream from youtube perfectly.

staticblake

02-17-2011, 11:03 PM

I am averaging 300kb/s for my download speeds when downloading any Revision3 show. I used to be averaging 1-2MBps. I've submitted several tickets to Bitgravity and haven't heard anything. I am connected via ethernet and my average download speed is 20Mbps. My speeds are consistent on everything else. Bitgravity sucks.

rylab

02-18-2011, 07:26 PM

Guys, I don't have anything concrete to show you yet, but I promise these CDN complaints aren't being ignored. Stay tuned for something a little less vague in a few weeks :)

nite_monkey

02-18-2011, 09:31 PM

well as long as they are doing something about it. I have having to wait for my favorite shows to show up on youtube.

nightstormwolf

02-19-2011, 03:11 AM

Just dropping in to say i'm having issues on my end as well. My connection starts fast but within 10 secs i'm down to 50kbps every time, almost like its throttled. Downloading or streaming, they are both slow as snails.

davo1111

02-21-2011, 03:46 AM

glad to hear i'm not the only one having issues. I just sent a very angry email to the IT department here, now i feel like an ass.

(Australia/aarnet)

15kb/s for me

Can download files @ 10MB/sec from twit.tv

rylab

02-22-2011, 06:50 PM

The problems are usually edge cases at specific ISPs, Australia seems to have a lot of the worst ones -- but other CDNs can potentially still have good coverage. We're looking into selectively using different CDNs besides BitGravity to give everyone the best speeds possible, be expecting to get asked to help test some options in a few weeks :)

davo1111

02-23-2011, 06:49 AM

The problems are usually edge cases at specific ISPs, Australia seems to have a lot of the worst ones

Thanks for your response. In the meantime i'll get my rev3 from youtube.

zakgrim

03-23-2011, 06:36 PM

So I'm glad that I'm not the only one that's having problems. Mine just seemed to start this past week, so hopefully I came on the tail end of the whole situation.

I've submitted a ticket to BitGravity, but (as was previously suggested) I wanted to post my results here.

BitGravity says my average speed is 516kbps

Speedtest:

ping = 11ms
download = 10.51Mbps
upload = 0.86Mbps

tokenuser

03-23-2011, 06:41 PM

Suggest you also visit:
http://revision3.com/blog/2011/03/22/help-us-help-you/

Revision3 are asking us to blind test a number of <CDN sites? they never really say ...> and rate how the appear to you from where ever you happen to be located around the world.

Streaming and downloading are tested.

zakgrim

03-23-2011, 07:13 PM

@tokenuser

Just did the test and I'm hoping that my information can help.

At the risk of skewing others results, 1 of the videos defiantly represented the EXACT problems I've been having with streaming and downloading shows.

xtremesniper

04-02-2011, 06:18 PM

Just wanted to chime in here saying that I'm also experiencing some terrible download speeds (200 KB/s average, sometimes max) whereas ever since the beginning of my Rev3 viewing (the first episode of Diggnation) my downloads from here have always maxed out my connection (10mbit / 1.2 MB/s down).

At first, I thought it was someone seeping my router, then I thought it was my ISP either having some issues in the area or throttling my connection for some reason. Then I realized that I was able to download a large package from Microsoft (the best real-world speed test) and it maxed my connection the entire way through.

I've narrowed it down, and it's thankfully not my problem. I'm going to do the bandwidth survey now to help out, but really, what could have changed in the past few weeks that caused this to become such a huge issue in such a short period of time?

Rev3 must have changed CDN servers... My location is Toronto.

stevecan

04-04-2011, 08:35 PM

Woke up this morning, and speeds have seriously taken a hit. Last show I watched was Friday, episode of Diggnation & TRS. Speeds were fine then.

My max download speed for Rev3 content is now <100 kBps. If I want to stream, from any browser and in Plex, it freezes every 5-10 seconds. Pretty frustrating.

I, too, thought it was my router. Unplugged every computer except for one, problem persisted. Tried downloading large video files elsewhere & loading HD YouTube clips, and I was downloading at over 1000 kBps. So the problem isn't on my end, it's Rev3.

Location: Newfoundland, Canada

m3wse

04-05-2011, 03:03 AM

They're all CDN sites. If you're curious, a little nslookup is surprisingly helpful in finding out which is which! (Once you've done the test of course to avoid screwing results...) (actually I figured out which one was bitgravity beforehand because the URL was a slightly different format to the others)

one of them was about 200kb/s slower than the others for me. I'll let you guess which one... heh...

xtremesniper

04-06-2011, 04:56 AM

When I did the test, only one of the three servers were extremely slow and unbearable. I suppose that is the one that I am being forced to download from when I try to download actual episodes.

Is there a way to force the connection to use a different data provider that would get me faster speeds? It must just be choosing the wrong one for Canadian connections.

rylab

04-06-2011, 06:40 PM

davo1111

04-09-2011, 04:12 AM

Is there a way to force the connection to use a different data provider that would get me faster speeds?

grab youtube downloader addon for firefox, and download them from youtube.

micksanchez

04-09-2011, 05:26 AM

Absolutely horrific speeds here in Australia (Telstra Bigpond). It's taking Zune literally 2 hours to download a Small-MP4 for DiggNation. :(

xtremesniper

04-09-2011, 04:59 PM

Not all of our media is at all of the CDN test sources, so no there's no way to use a specific "best" connection for everyone. But we will be using the results of this CDN test to set things up the best way possible to improve speeds for everyone within reason.

There have been a ton of responses to the CDN survey, and we really appreciate them! All your lingering bandwidth problems will be more than resolved in another month or so, thanks to all the help we've received via user input -- these things take time, when you're dealing with massive amounts of data, but we're very dedicated to improving it to the best of the internet's ability ;)

Ah, that makes sense then. Well I can confirm that the download speeds (at least for me from home) have gone back to normal and I am back to maxing out my connection. Thanks for the efforts.

grab youtube downloader addon for firefox, and download them from youtube.

That could be a solution in the future if the problem persists, but I prefer to use Miro because it keeps things organized and scheduled. Thanks, though!

smackdaddy

04-14-2011, 04:55 AM

I've given up on streaming video from rev 3. I'm downloading the Diggnation from itunes now. No more interrupted video. Haven't had this problem of slow video streaming in the past. This is just new within the past month. Slow using my Mac pro, iPad and iPhone and I have great bandwidth from my ISP. Oh well back to my 511mb download. 5 more minutes lol

rylab

04-15-2011, 11:05 PM

micksanchez

04-17-2011, 10:40 AM

Done.

http://i53.tinypic.com/2cxb0ht.jpg

I also completed the Rev3 testing that was available not long ago. Speeds are still horrendous.

xtremesniper

04-22-2011, 05:47 PM

Has everyone who's reporting problems with our current CDN filled out a netbug report? This is the first step in helping them recognize and understand the problems people are having.

http://bitgravity.com/netdebug

Even if you don't get any response, they do look at these results and use them to optimize their network. So please fill it out if you are having bandwidth problems. Thanks!

Well, those tests are kind of useless to me because my ISP has introduced a new "feature" that provides boost speeds for the first 20MB of any download... So naturally those tests are going to say I can do twice my capable bandwidth and then it drops off to normal levels after 20MB... Given that this test only does 10MB at a time, it's pointless.

My speeds from Rev3 downloads were doing pretty good for a while but for a part of this week the speeds went back to terrible. Normally if I pause my other downloads, the one remaining one will speed up as a result, but because this isn't a problem with my available bandwidth, nothing changes. I can run 4 downloads each at 200KB/s, and I can pause all but 1 and it will still run at 200KB/s. This tells me it's simply a problem from the provider.

Just downloaded a new episode today and it was at normal speeds.

rylab

04-23-2011, 12:42 AM

Points taken -- can everyone still having problems who's willing, send me a Private Message with your geographical location and internet connection type? If they choose you to participate, a tech support rep from BitGravity will reply with some additional tests they would like to have you run. Thanks!

maxcoder

04-27-2011, 04:56 PM

I'm completely unable to download Rev3 podcasts in Tunes since last week. I'm getting an err = -3259 for every single download.

I'm connecting from Turkey, via smile adsl with 4 mbps.

k0d3g3ar

05-02-2011, 12:02 AM

Ran that bandwidth tester here. Showed average of 9mb/s speed. Current download of Rev3 from RSS Feed is reporting at 25K/s. Usually seeing 500K/s. Unusual...

We r in Phoenix, Arizona. Cox Cable Internet connection. Downloading computer is Ubuntu Linux using gPodder.

Hope that helps.
K

smeerkaas

05-04-2011, 06:16 AM

Just to weigh in and supply additional test data: I'm also noticing significantly slower downloads.

I thought it was my ISP but now I think it is indeed bitgravity having problems.

I just ran the netdebug tool. It gave me an average of about 500 KB/sec transfer speeds in the test. This is pretty much exactly the speed I now get when downloading podcasts from Rev3. Whereas I used to get a steady 5 MB/sec until a few weeks ago.

If I use a download accelerator such as GetRight that can split a download in 4 segments simultaneously I can bump my download speeds to about 1.8 - 2.0 MB/sec. Or again about 500 KB/sec per connection.

I'm on a 40 mbit connection in The Netherlands. As bitgravity seems to serve data from a server as close as possible to the end user this should be very fast.

I've occasionally had speed problems with bitgravity in the past, and in those cases it seemed that I got my data from a server far away. Stateside usually. So maybe this is now again a question of getting the data from the right mirror/proxy/whatever scheme is used?

BTW I never stream podcasts. I only download the 720p HD MP4 files. Just now a bit slower than before. Not the biggest problem in the world I know but still, it used to be about 10 times faster. I'd like to see those speeds again :)

kg2973

05-18-2011, 08:31 PM

I second smeerkaas' post, since I'm completely the same situation:

- My location is also the Netherlands.
- My max download speed is 6.25 MB/s (50Mbit/s).
- I'm currently able to max out the speed of almost any download provided to me.
- I use Miro to download the Revision3 shows using the appropriate RSS-feed.
- This meant show downloads used to transfer at speeds above 1 MB/s.
- For the last few week they have however been stuck between 100 and 200 KB/s.
- When I download the same shows for Youtube (in Miro) I do achieve download speeds above 1 MB/s.

maxcoder

05-21-2011, 01:12 PM

I'm completely unable to download Rev3 podcasts in Tunes since last week. I'm getting an err = -3259 for every single download.

I'm connecting from Turkey, via smile adsl with 4 mbps.

I don't know why but it turns out my ISP has began blocking traffic from some BitGravity servers. BitGravity didn't help me but I found a temporary solution:
Adding 208.67.233.242 videos.revision3.com line to my HOSTS file works fine for me.

smeerkaas

05-23-2011, 09:13 PM

As of today I'm seeing vastly improved speeds. About 2,5 MB/sec per connection. So by using a download accelerator like GetRight I'm once again able to max out my 40 Mbit connection. Hopefully things will stay like this and I can conclude that the problem has gone away. At least for me, and for everybody elsewhere too of course. :)

Edit: I haven't been messing with my host file. Things just went back to normal overnight! Yay!