Love Film

[diamond1409]

Hi I subscribe to LoveFilm but get really annoyed as there seems to be a lot of buffering, i have been watching Spooks series 8 and with each episode buffering seems to occur about 4 times and usually at the interesting bits. is this a common thing, and would subscribing to NetFlex any better? thanks

[Buenchico]

Quote:
"Whatever device you use, you'll need a decent broadband connection: LoveFilm recommends a real speed - not an advertised speed - of 2Mbps for HD streaming and 12Mbps for full HD, while Netflix recommends a 1.5Mbps broadband connection for standard viewing and 3-5Mbps for HD. If you're on a wireless network, you'll need to ensure your Wi-Fi connection achieves those speeds too."

Source:
http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/lovefilm-vs-netflix-which-is-best-for-you-1058067

So Netflix appears to have lower requirements but that might only be because Lovefilm is being more cautious/realistic in specifying what's needed.

Start by checking your download speed. I suggest comparing the results from these two reliable sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/diagnostics
and
http://speedtest.net/

Then ask your ISP whether your service is ADSL or ADSL2+. (I recently told my ISP that I was thinking of leaving them, but they convinced me to stay partly through changing my connection to ADSL2+ which doubled my download speed).

Chris

PS: Just one more thought:
If you're watching via your PC (or any other device where you can see/hear whether the hard drive is running) check that the buffering doesn't occur simultaneously with hard drive activity. If so, it's possible that you've got insufficient RAM (which results in your computer having to borrow space from your hard disk at a speed which is too slow to prevent buffering). The ancient PC I'm typing this on sometimes exhibits such a problem when viewing Youtube content, despite a double figure download speed.

[diamond1409]

thank you for your detailed answer i'll get my son to check what speeds we are using, thanks again