I find it strange that some computers buffer forever, whilst other computers are almost instant.

For example, one day I tried to download GPrime vids with my pop's computer, AND IT LITERALLY TOOK OVER FIVE MINUTES TO BUFFER LESS THAN ONE MINUTE OF VIDEO. Dead serious. I'm glad that's not my comp.

And the strangest thing is, my comp often buffers in LESS THAN ONE SECOND (yes, on videos that I have not previously buffered). Five, tops, and only for REALLY long vids. Again, dead serious.

The strangest part is that we are hooked up to the internet on the same network and same ISP. Maybe it's cause my dad uses a dated version of WMP. Anyways...
[/rambling]


So out of simple curiosity,
what are you guys' buffer times?

Hey blackice, i know you're here...

How different is your pop's computer, if it's an old P2 with 266Mhz processor running WindowsME with 128sdram, it's gonna be slow as hell regardless if you have a Fibre into your home.



If you want to find out, why don't you try downloading the same video at the same time, you're routed through a 'hub'? or a 'switch'?

also depending on your isp, you can get heavy traffic times like for Att users, or isps that lease from att, they SUCK and you get weird pings and your original down and up speeds get out of whack..

^Well...

They're both good computers, although technically mine is better.
He has a 2 Ghz Pentium 4.
I have a 2.7 Ghz Pentium 4.

That really should cause little difference...


If you want to find out, why don't you try downloading the same video at the same time, you're routed through a 'hub'? or a 'switch'?

We're routed through a router, silly! Hubs suck total ass. :happy:

As far as the test, I pretty much already did that. Downloaded a vid on my dad's comp (during a time of low traffic, FYI), got horrible results. Downloaded the same one on my comp five minutes later, worked just fine.

I really don't care enough to actually do what you said. :mfr_lol:


also depending on your isp, you can get heavy traffic times like for Att users, or isps that lease from att, they SUCK and you get weird pings and your original down and up speeds get out of whack..

Umm......
rr.com is a pretty decent ISP, is it not?


I'm certain it's his comp, not the timing. It's just too recurring and obvious to be coincidence.

You're "got melee" won't conect. It never even starts to buffer.

^Yeah, I think you need DivX to play it, but I can't confirm it.

If you want, you can download it here (http://www.divx.com/divx/download/) and see if it works.

But this is irrelevant to this thread. It is slow on ANY vid, I haven't even tried "got melee" on that comp.

Post additional concern for the vid on it's appropriate thread.

About 40 secs maximem

how long it takes to buffer depends more on how much traffic that video server is getting than how fast your computer is

you would have to have an old computer to not be able to play a video smoothly

when you go to view a video, your computer sends a request to "video.gprime.net" and it will return 3 servers. your computer randomly chooses one of the addresses, and it will use this address until you restart your computer or clear your DNS cache.

there are 3 seperate video servers. while i try to distribute the load as evenly as possible, sometimes one is a lot more crowded than another. so you could be waiting 10 minutes for it to buffer on one computer because you got a really bogged server, while another computer randomly selected a different video server, which happens to be really fast.

but, right now the video servers havent even reached 80% of their capacity (even at peak times), so if you're getting long buffers, then something is definately wrong with either the server or your internet connection.

i got 2 emails lately from people on macs saying that it wont *ever* finish buffering for them. i guess i have to look into that.

were you using a mac?