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VUDU Hogs half my network

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    #1

    VUDU Hogs half my network

    I'm going to make this simple: I test downloads without vudu plugged in and get over 6 m. With VUDU plugged in i get 2.5m. This is not acceptable.
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

    There is an option in Info & Settings where you can limit the Vudu bandwidth. It sounds like you have yours set for "Instant HD" 4MB usage. You can set it back to 2MB or 1MB, which would make a difference for your network.

    Comment

      #3
      Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

      Sorry to hear you're having issues. Are you new to Vudu? Your Vudu may need to do some initial catching up, regarding both software and the movie database, after which time updates are usually much smaller and spread out more. What Ed said still applies, but if you're new, you may see heavier, more steady network usage just temporarily until you're caught up.

      Oh, if you go to "Info & Settings", then I believe it's "System Info", it should say if the software and movie database are up to date. If it doesn't say anything about being up to date or behind, you may be running a few software versions behind.

      Hope that helps.

      Comment

        #4
        Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

        I am very sorry to hear about your problems.

        I think Max and Ed are right. The Vudu will pull down a lot of data and use a lot of bandwidth for the first couple of days. Then it will be caught up and you won't have a lot of issues. But you may also be seeing some clogging of your router given that the Vudu also shares data with other peers and so uses some amount of upload bandwidth. What is your upload speed as advertised by your ISP?

        Normally, the Vudu uses somewhere around 300 kbps maximum for upload. If that is close to your maximum upload, what will happens is that acknowledgement or "ACK" packets will not be able to easily flow through your router. These ACK packs are one device telling another that the information sent was received. The end result is that everything slows down until those packets get through.

        What can be done with a number of routers is set up what is called QoS or Quality of Service where you can set limits for upload and download speeds. It basically leaves headroom in your bandwidth for the ACK packets to get through. Think of it as an express or HOV lane on a crowded highway. Once these limits are established, things tend to run better and smoother.

        Sorry if this is overly technical, but we'll try to help you out any way we can.

        Comment

          #5
          Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

          I wish they had a setting to use more bandwidth, both up and down. I have a 50mbs down/20mbs up connection so i have plenty of bandwidth to spare.

          Comment

            #6
            Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

            Originally posted by AJguma View Post
            I'm going to make this simple: I test downloads without vudu plugged in and get over 6 m. With VUDU plugged in i get 2.5m. This is not acceptable.
            I am seeing the EXACT same thing at my home (6mb > 3mb), office (8mb > 4mb), two of my employee's homes (both 8mb > 4mb) and every customer I have installed this at. BTW, these speeds are actual paid for speeds, not speeds that you see using powerboost, etc.

            These are ALL installs that have the latest OS, are always plugged in and have all of the cover art, etc. Some have been installed for over 6 months and all at least a month, so it is not a "catching up" issue which DOES happen and IS totally understandable and acceptable!

            And, yes, I have read the other threads on this and have eliminated the issue via router settings at the sites that allow this, but I should not have to do this at that level and, does Vudu expect me to replace everyone's router when I sell a unit?

            This IS an issue and the firmware needs an update to allow you to limit OUTGOING (upload) usage independent of INCOMING (download) usage.

            Originally posted by Njed
            There is an option in Info & Settings where you can limit the Vudu bandwidth. It sounds like you have yours set for "Instant HD" 4MB usage. You can set it back to 2MB or 1MB, which would make a difference for your network.
            I see this recommended in other threads too. This is not an acceptable fix. One of Vudu's main selling points is "INSTANT" movie viewing. Setting it back WILL cut back on your network usage, but it will also mean that you can't watch movies right then and there.....you have to plan ahead of time....this ruins much of the Vudu allure which is a shame since it is such a great piece of hardware, software AND service all in one box! Rare in the CE world!

            Comment

              #7
              Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

              Originally posted by htheater View Post
              This IS an issue and the firmware needs an update to allow you to limit OUTGOING (upload) usage independent of INCOMING (download) usage.
              The amount of bandwidth an average VUDU box uses on a daily basis is relitivily small, and therefore the average user really does not need to limit his upload, unless of course you have alot of extra bandwidth you want to share.

              I really only see this as an issue for those who have multiple boxes in ones house. For example if you have DSL but are limited in your area to 6mbps down and 650 kbps up, then having three boxes, each drawing 300kbps each, for a max of 900 kbps, becomes a potential problem...since it exceeds the available upload bandwidth.

              Having said that, if you are a multi-box user, then you should be allowed to set them all to download instant, and set your three boxes to only upload at 100kbps (for a max of 300kbps), which would be appropriate and should be allowed for multi-home users, in my opinion.

              Comment

                #8
                Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

                Rstone is correct. A Vudu when up to date takes perhaps 1 to 2 Mb/sec down when loading the database updates and uses at most 300 kbps upload. I have 2 Vudus running and am about to add a third. I have no problems with it hammering my network. If it is hammering, then there is a router problem or something else somewhere going on.

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

                  Originally posted by rstone View Post
                  The amount of bandwidth an average VUDU box uses on a daily basis is relitivily small, and therefore the average user really does not need to limit his upload, unless of course you have alot of extra bandwidth you want to share.

                  I really only see this as an issue for those who have multiple boxes in ones house. For example if you have DSL but are limited in your area to 6mbps down and 650 kbps up, then having three boxes, each drawing 300kbps each, for a max of 900 kbps, becomes a potential problem...since it exceeds the available upload bandwidth.

                  Having said that, if you are a multi-box user, then you should be allowed to set them all to download instant, and set your three boxes to only upload at 100kbps (for a max of 300kbps), which would be appropriate and should be allowed for multi-home users, in my opinion.
                  A decent router running good firmware (i.e. Linksys running Tomato) will let you accomplish this on your own. No need to wait for Vudu to come through with such a specific feature request.

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

                    Originally posted by Nded View Post
                    A decent router running good firmware (i.e. Linksys running Tomato) will let you accomplish this on your own. No need to wait for Vudu to come through with such a specific feature request.
                    While I agree that any quality router will accomplish this without the VUDU box performing this task, I don't agree that one should be required to purchase a router and be required to be technically adept enough to use such advanced features in a router to be able to setup QOS/Traffic shaping in the first place. Further, by requiring the average, non-technical user, to be technical enough to manage his own bandwidth usage may potentially hurt VUDU in the long run for those who wish to have multiple boxes, but are A. not technically adept enough to setup QOS, and B. Don't have the bandwidth to support multi-boxes and therefore choose to NOT purchase additional boxes they might have otherwise, hurting VUDU's bottom dollar in the long run. To assume everyone HAS a router with QOS, is technical enough to install Tomato in a Linksys or similar router, or is technically adept enough to setup QOS, even if they have a router with it, I think is making a lot of faulty assumptions, and while that may be fine for the vast majority of us who are, VUDU should do everything it can to appeal to as much of the mass market as possible by making the use of the box EASY as possible, and that means not requiring users with multiple boxes to be advanced network users.

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

                      Originally posted by rstone View Post
                      VUDU should do everything it can to appeal to as much of the mass market as possible by making the use of the box EASY as possible, and that means not requiring users with multiple boxes to be advanced network users.
                      That's why God created the Geek Squad!!!

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

                        Originally posted by rstone View Post
                        While I agree that any quality router will accomplish this without the VUDU box performing this task, I don't agree that one should be required to purchase a router and be required to be technically adept enough to use such advanced features in a router to be able to setup QOS/Traffic shaping in the first place. Further, by requiring the average, non-technical user, to be technical enough to manage his own bandwidth usage may potentially hurt VUDU in the long run for those who wish to have multiple boxes, but are A. not technically adept enough to setup QOS, and B. Don't have the bandwidth to support multi-boxes and therefore choose to NOT purchase additional boxes they might have otherwise, hurting VUDU's bottom dollar in the long run. To assume everyone HAS a router with QOS, is technical enough to install Tomato in a Linksys or similar router, or is technically adept enough to setup QOS, even if they have a router with it, I think is making a lot of faulty assumptions, and while that may be fine for the vast majority of us who are, VUDU should do everything it can to appeal to as much of the mass market as possible by making the use of the box EASY as possible, and that means not requiring users with multiple boxes to be advanced network users.
                        My point exactly!


                        BTW, the published AT&T DSL upload speeds in Atlanta are 384K for 3Mbps service and 512K for 6Mbps service and they rarely actually perform there. Vudu states anywhere from 200K to 400K in their litterature, which will kill anyone on a 3Mbps connection, causing problems with even accessing some websites.

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

                          Originally posted by htheater View Post
                          My point exactly!


                          BTW, the published AT&T DSL upload speeds in Atlanta are 384K for 3Mbps service and 512K for 6Mbps service and they rarely actually perform there. Vudu states anywhere from 200K to 400K in their litterature, which will kill anyone on a 3Mbps connection, causing problems with even accessing some websites.
                          Actually, the amount of bandwidth is configurable in a settings page, so a user with a 3Mbps connection would be able to scale back the usage to what s/he feels comfortable with.
                          The box can even recommend a setting that should not hog the user's bandwidth.

                          -- Greg

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

                            Originally posted by Greg View Post
                            Actually, the amount of bandwidth is configurable in a settings page, so a user with a 3Mbps connection would be able to scale back the usage to what s/he feels comfortable with.
                            The box can even recommend a setting that should not hog the user's bandwidth.

                            -- Greg
                            Greg,

                            You obviously haven't read the entire thread as this has already been discussed. If you go back at least to post #6 and read forward, you will be more up-to-date with the discussion.

                            Yes, Vudu allows you to set the DOWNLOAD speed, but that doesn't seem to affect its UPLOAD and Vudu can and does occupy the majority of the available UPLOAD bandwidth which cripples even simple web page access requests, data transfer confirmations, etc. (thus apparent DOWNLOAD speeds) on many connections of 6Mbps or less due to their relatively small UPLOAD speeds. This is not acceptable for those applications.

                            Even setting Vudu to SD @ 2Mbps (the slowest speed Vudu supports), on a 3Mbps DSL connection (as recommended), it STILL affects the user's network performance.....badly.

                            For example, at one potential customer where we loaned our demo box, they had AT&T published 3Mbps DSL service with 384K up. When we tested before installing the Vudu using Vudu's test page, we got 2813Kbps / 291Kbps, BOTH of which are within AT&T's "acceptable" performance. Plug in the Vudu and we immediately see a drop to 1173Kbps / 93Kbps. Repeated testing showed similar results. Unplug the Vudu and it immediately recovers.

                            If you want, I can list similar results on connections that have 6Mbps published connections. Slowing Vudu to 2Mbps DOES seem to fix most of the issues here, but not always. Setting it to SD/2Mbps on a 6Mbps connection is almost a crime as you eliminate on of the main selling points of the Vudu - INSTANT HD Movie Viewing. Unfortunately, some 6Mbps connections only have 512K up and they are also affected badly.

                            Keep in mind that this is on a demo box that is FULLY up-to-date and this was not on a Monday/Tuesday when new info is uploaded. This has happened at site after site. We have lost sales because of this. In a few cases they are looking into changing their ISP (to Comcast) and trying again. In some cases we change their router settings or they purchase a new router that can be changed (see below). In other cases we are leaving some disappointed potential customers.

                            As referenced above and also previously discussed, you CAN modify the QoS settings in newer routers to overcome this issue, but you better have newer equipment AND know what you are doing.

                            The point of the post by "rstone" that I quoted and agreed with and then you commented on is that Vudu should make it easier to correct this. Vudu should not force customers to either have to know more than basic network functions AND/OR purchase a new router that either natively supports these settings or can be upgraded to DD-WRT2 or Tomato, etc.

                            So, some of us feel that a Vudu OS upgrade is called for to add in an UPLOAD limit. I know that if everyone limited it, the P2P network would slow and your business model would fail, so, make this limit have restrictions.....for example, if the connection tests at above 600K, then this option is not available UNLESS they have multiple Vudu boxes, but if it tests below this, then allow a limit of 100K or so per box.

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Re: VUDU Hogs half my network

                              Also allow for an increase to the upload speed. I have 20mbs upload that is usually just idle. I can spare a few mbs for each of my VUDUs.

                              Comment

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