NHL GameCenter bitrate/possible computer problems

[TSXCman]

Hey guys, watching the flames on Gamecenter in London and I am finding that my computer can only stream the 400kbps stream smoothly. it is the lowest possible setting. I have watched full games at my school on their lab computers which are very low end and have had quality of 1200 and up.

Does anyone have any tips, or things I should look into in order to remedy this? I am going to try testing my internet speed (should be up to 10mbps from rogers), I think my drivers are up to date (looked at nVIDIA site last night), and have been constantly updating windows.

I am using a bit of a dated machine, just reformatted last night as well:

DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2000MHz (10x200) 3800+
DFI nF4 Series MotherBoard
nVIDIA nForce4, AMD Hammer Chipset
2GB DDR2 Ram
HD 4850 512mb video card (new)
nVIDIA MCP04 Audio Adapter
Dual layer DVD reader and writer
200GB C:
320GB H:
500GB Z:
2x500GB Externals

[silentsim]

Install the newest Flash if you don't have it. Use Firefox browser. Use Adaptive.

[TSXCman]

sorry, one of my new plug-ins makes paragraphs hard to include wihtout typing in
or something. on adaptive it goes: smooth 400, then tries 800 at choppy, back to 400, and repeat. so its easiest to leave on 400 for now, but i want the chance to run at adaptive since 400 is the lowest. Have newest flash too. I've been good on drivers, flash, etc

[ricosuave]

try it under google chrome?

[TSXCman]

Just test my internet connection @ 10.24 mbps (so over my limit)

[TSXCman]

Originally Posted by ricosuave

try it under google chrome?

i am installing now, will reboot once too before period starts

[TSXCman]

chrome is def' smoother so far.

still at 400kbps 60% of time, 800 @ 40%

what would chrome have going better at the moment?

I've watched gamecenter ONLY on firefox in the past on other computers fine

[TSXCman]

My internet seems strong, I've played a 20GB bluray rip on my computer seemlessly in the past, but I can't get this online stream to work very well so far and I can't pinpoint the weekness

[Rathji]

never having used Gamecenter I am making a lot of assumtions here, but I am guessing the feed was lacking.

Can you try another game or other GC content now that the Flames game is over?

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by Rathji

never having used Gamecenter I am making a lot of assumtions here, but I am guessing the feed was lacking.

Can you try another game or other GC content now that the Flames game is over?

Nah wasn't the feed, I was getting 3000kbps on it

[Mad Mel]

Originally Posted by TSXCman

Just test my internet connection @ 10.24 mbps (so over my limit)

Your connection speed should be fine - I only have a 8000kb/s connection and I usually can watch the 1600mb/s feed no probs, and the 800kb/s feed is always smooth. I've gone with a static speed rather than the Adaptive feature, as this season it's been glitchy like you described... weird, because it was fine last season. Same problem under Chrome or IE.

I'm wondering if you have some kind of latency issue in your connection... it's fast while it's connected, but drops out now and then?

Writing this post made me think to recheck availability at my house, and now ADSL 2+ (20MB/S) is available. That's what I get for living in the country, the rest of Brisbane has had decent internet available for years. GC is gonna rock now!

[TSXCman]

For extra testing:

I found a HD youtube video with continuous actions scenes where it gave the option of 320p up to 1080p resolution.

With it preloaded I could only watch the 320p feed smoothly, even the jump to 480p got choppy. This is preloaded, and as I mentioned before I watch HD movies from my hard drive with no issue.

I am looking into a 45$ evga GT 240 card for now

[nfotiu]

What's the best quality one should expect out of gamecenter live? I wouldn't really call my feed choppy, but the framerates are not on par with broadcast tv. Image is crystal clear, but my framerates look pretty low when watching fast panning action.

I have a solid 35 mb fiber, wired internet connection, so should be solid on that side.

My pc is a modern, but low-middle end: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883103267 with a low-middle end video card http://www1.sapphiretech.com/us/prod...w.php?gpid=260

I am watching on a large 65 inch screen, so flaws are pretty exposed, and I may just be being picky.

How smooth is the video everyone else is getting?

[TSXCman]

gamecenter is variable and controllable right.

I'm saying I can only watch at 400kbps, thats SUPER grainy and low quality. it goes up to 3200, 3.2 mbps.

my youtube watching is also limited to lowest resolution of 320p, and watchin tsn highlihgts on the website are super choppy.

So something is going on that is only limited to all online streams, preloaded or not. its just hard to settle the matter

[sclitheroe]

Is it choppy, as in lower frame rate, or does it pause repeatedly and re-buffer the stream?

[TSXCman]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Is it choppy, as in lower frame rate, or does it pause repeatedly and re-buffer the stream?

no buffer problems.

Its choppy, like in the flames game i will see a full right leg stride, then the picture will freeze and jump to the next right leg stride, the whole left leg segment doesn't get shown. Kinda an odd example.

streaming speed is good, i get it live, or on things that need a buffer it always loads faster than I can watch.

But the actual video that I see is choppy unless at minimal settings.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by TSXCman

no buffer problems.

Its choppy, like in the flames game i will see a full right leg stride, then the picture will freeze and jump to the next right leg stride, the whole left leg segment doesn't get shown. Kinda an odd example.

streaming speed is good, i get it live, or on things that need a buffer it always loads faster than I can watch.

But the actual video that I see is choppy unless at minimal settings.

It almost sounds like the Flash plugin on your machine is not hardware accelerated.

If you open task manager during playback (control-shift-esc) and go to the performance tab, what does your CPU usage look like during playback at different bitrates?

[TSXCman]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

It almost sounds like the Flash plugin on your machine is not hardware accelerated.

If you open task manager during playback (control-shift-esc) and go to the performance tab, what does your CPU usage look like during playback at different bitrates?

I've definitely gone about enabling/disabling hard acc. to see no difference.

at 320p using a football youtube vid: 23-30%
at 480p 50-60%
at 720p 94%

[sclitheroe]

Have you used the Adobe Flash uninstaller located here: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html to completely remove Flash, and then reinstalled it?

Those kind of CPU stats are bad - like Flash on the Mac bad. Something is definitely wrong with Flash I’m thinking.

[TSXCman]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Have you used the Adobe Flash uninstaller located here: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/141/tn_14157.html to completely remove Flash, and then reinstalled it?

Those kind of CPU stats are bad - like Flash on the Mac bad. Something is definitely wrong with Flash I’m thinking.

oh my lord, i am trying your advice but adobe WILL NOT UNINSTALL. i'm searching numerous techniques and its always installed

figured it out, something was holding on. reinstalled