Live Stream Buffering

[iloveglee]

can anyone advise how to deal with constant buffering I am experiencing while trying to watch tv on my laptop whilst abroad. I can access the programmes without too much problem and some of the programmes play just fine, very occasional buffering but manageable. some programmes are simply unwatchable play for 3 seconds, buffering for several seconds. the internet connection here is of a sufficient speed and occasionally the programme disappears altogether saying insufficient bandwidth. is there anything I can do to reduce the amount of bandwidth required for these programmes or is it set by the programme makers and nothing can be done. I have paid a fee per month to allow access to british tv but several things I particularly wanted to watch are useless.

[hc4361]

You may have paid a fee but it is still illegal to watch mainstream live tv abroad, or even catchup on BBC iPlayer.

Try pausing the program at the start at letting it download so it catches up when you press play after 10 minutes or so

[meglet]

If you are using the BBC iplayer you can download the program you want to your laptop first, then watch it. If using Sky you should get low, medium and high streaming options so choose the low quality one.

[iloveglee]

thank you for the suggestions. actually the pausing is probably a good option, we were watching something this evening and had to pause for about 15 minutes to take a phone call and the programme played much better. as for the illegality of it, not sure about this, all we are doing is routing the isp through a vpn, which I am pretty sure is not illegal, many people do this for privacy of their location reasons. I am pretty sure that someone would have been onto these companies pretty quickly if what they are doing is illegal. once the tv programme websites are unaware of where you are, access is allowed. its time these media companies get their acts together so that access is allowed worldwide - although I appreciate it is a bit annoying for us brits to pay a licence fee to watch bbc and then people watch it who have not paid. then again bbc world service is available worldwide. plenty of room for discussion here I think, even though this was not actually the issue I asked a question about.

[iloveglee]

when using sky go, how do you choose the streaming options, can't find how to do it