Insufficient Bandwidth

[wendyl]

I recently enquired about youview and was advised have insufficient banwidth and I some times get this message when using iplayer Can anyone explain please

[bookbinder]

The BBC iPlayer may be a good place to start. You can check your bandwith on this website:
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/using_bbc_iplayer/Insufficient_bandwidth

[Old_Geezer]

Insufficient bandwidth means your link to the Internet (or wherever) is not fast enough to pass the data you need at the rate you need it. For things like video this will be evident from the action forever stopping and then starting again.

It affects applications that need to receive data in "real time" liked a video needs it continually or it has to pause, i.e. it isn't trivial for it to wait until it arrives, because that spoils how it works.

[VHG]

When your computer or iPad is looking at anything on the internet it has to download it to your computer or iPad first (EVERYTHING you look at on the internet comes down to your computer or iPad).

If all you are doing it looking at text or small images then they can be downloaded very quickly because they are small.

But video is large, compared to text or small images.

Now if your broadband speed is slow then it may be that you are WATCHING a video quicker than it can be DOWNLOADED.

So this is when you get the insufficient bandwidth problem.

Ways round it are:

1) Get a faster broadband if you can.

2) Get a newer router that can deliver a faster wi fi signal

3) Watch the video at a lower resolution (quality) as the file will be smaller

4) Allow a video to download for a while THEN start watching it, as some of the video will already be on your computer or iPad.

[wendyl]

Thanks I rarely use iplayer and only to watch a missed programme not to download it. Generally it is OK but sometimes it will go off say insufficient bandwidth but will come on again if I reconnect. On these occasions I am using my laptop with wifi I run the check bandwidth and that varies too 2 pcs in family are both 'wired' woud I have a different result using them. BT are in the process of setting up fibre broadband in the area - will this make a difference (no with BT broadband nor likely to be - everyone I know has moved away from it )