Buffering in IPTV

Please note, 99% of all buffering issues are related to the internet speed and the data packet loss, which is something that we can do nothing about except changing the ISP.

Although Buffering means a variety of definitions in different types of technologies, here we describe it in the field of IPTV streaming. In general, it means that when you are watching a live stream, the picture sometimes stops and resumes. This issue is being referred to as buffering. Buffering would speed up different tasks on your computer.

Buffering can prevent lag when you’re streaming video or prevent slow performance when you’re playing a graphics-intensive video game on your desktop computer. Buffering involves pre-loading data into a certain area of memory known as a “buffer,” so the data can be accessed more quickly on GPU or CPU.

Although diagnosing the underlying reason for buffering is a difficult task, potential factors which would cause the buffering are explained in this article.

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Causes  of the Buffering

Internet Speed

Depending on the quality of the streaming, there is a minimum required speed which your Internet connection has to satisfy. Otherwise, it is highly probable to encounter poor quality and frequent interruptions.

Home Network

Wireless routers are often getting quickly overloaded when a number of devices are connected to it simultaneously. This will lessen the required bandwidth for streaming and cause interruptions. In this case, you need to have a router which can handle the heavy traffic loads.

CPU Usage

One aspect that is often overlooked is the activity that happens on your Internet-connected device. Watching videos over the Internet uses computing resources. Therefore, if you have a lot of programs running in the background of your system, this could cause some issues with your video playing properly. If you are having problems playing video, another good practice would be to close out any web pages and programs that you are not using.

Stream Provider Overloading

If the requests of streaming over the providers’ servers getting higher than that they can handle, it would delay the transfer of video to your device and finally lead the stream to get pause or buffer. In this case, nothing can be done by the users except to wait until the requests to providers’ content slow down.

How to prevent Buffering

The main underlying reasons for buffering can be categorized in 3 main sections: Internet speed, hardware processor, and the server through which the IPTV is streamed. The fluctuation of the Internet download speed will lead to buffering. Also, if your TV or media box is unable to handle the high-quality input streams (for example HD channels) this can cause buffering.

Finally, when the servers of the IPTV providers are being overloaded as a result of over-streaming by the users, this will cause buffering too.

Moreover, if you use VLC media players or a Smart TV app, you might look into the ways by which you can tweak your connection to reduce the amount of buffering.

If you are still having trouble watching videos, there are a few things that you can do to minimize the effect of the stuttering.
With some video providers, you can start the video, pause it and wait.

This will allow the video to download a little way ahead of time so that you can let it catch up and watch for a longer uninterrupted period. Disabling IGMP Snooping will sometimes help reduce the buffering.

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You can also reduce the quality of the video. This will decrease the bandwidth demand and increase the likelihood that the video will not stutter during playback.
Another optional approach would be downloading the entire video first before playing it. This may take longer, but it would likely ensure that you would be able to watch the entire video without interruption.

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