Kodi Community Forum

Quote: I have a 100Mb internet connection which never drops any lower than 80,so I don't think that bandwidth is an issue.

Same set up as you do here.
Not a single hiccup watching in HD. What is your location?

I also have slow playback. Choosing the lowest bitrate with a 40mb connection causes incredible buffering. Worked perfectly up until a few days ago. I am in Canada and using unlocator which has also worked well for over 2 years. Anyone else have this problem?

In SoCal this week, and no problem playing at 5.5 Mbs in both live and catchup.

(2016-04-13, 03:22)Billy Wrote: [ -> ]I also have slow playback. Choosing the lowest bitrate with a 40mb connection causes incredible buffering. Worked perfectly up until a few days ago. I am in Canada and using unlocator which has also worked well for over 2 years. Anyone else have this problem?

I sometimes get buffering on a 300mb connection so don't think it's got anything to do with the speed of your internet.

I find going into the settings and changing the default so it does not automatically pick up the first HD stream fixes the problem as the first HD stream often buffers for me whereas the second HD stream will be perfect.

I also changed from Kodi to SPMC on my firestick and this solved the issues there.

(2016-04-06, 13:28)primaeval Wrote: [ -> ]The RPI is really a nerd's plaything to tinker around with and for that it's great.

What a strange comment. The Pi3 is now super fast and very cheap it's just another way to achieve the same thing as on an Android box. Hardly difficult to set up either just a couple of minutes to flash the latest version of OpenElec with Kodi and no need to use SPMC to get round the Android issues.

(2016-04-13, 12:01)chrissxuk Wrote: [ -> ]

(2016-04-06, 13:28)primaeval Wrote: [ -> ]The RPI is really a nerd's plaything to tinker around with and for that it's great.

What a strange comment. The Pi3 is now super fast and very cheap it's just another way to achieve the same thing as on an Android box. Hardly difficult to set up either just a couple of minutes to flash the latest version of OpenElec with Kodi and no need to use SPMC to get round the Android issues.

I hope you didn't take that as an insult. I am an EE by trade and I have had lots of fun with a soldering iron connecting RPIs up to various hardware and debugging the software drivers.

I have three RPI version ones, used as TV boxes and they were a lot of work to set up properly. Even things like getting enough power from a usb charger is difficult. Trying to get them to work with simple hardware like usb dacs was a headache.

I rewrote the whole iplayer scraping code so that it could run on the RPI because it just couldn't handle the BeautifulSoup html parser.

RPIs have been fun, but I wouldn't recommend them to a friend who doesn't know which end of a soldering iron to hold.

You are right that at least the Kodi version works pretty solidly on OpenElec. Android really does seem to need SPMC at the moment.

(2016-04-13, 12:42)primaeval Wrote: [ -> ]

(2016-04-13, 12:01)chrissxuk Wrote: [ -> ]

(2016-04-06, 13:28)primaeval Wrote: [ -> ]The RPI is really a nerd's plaything to tinker around with and for that it's great.

What a strange comment. The Pi3 is now super fast and very cheap it's just another way to achieve the same thing as on an Android box. Hardly difficult to set up either just a couple of minutes to flash the latest version of OpenElec with Kodi and no need to use SPMC to get round the Android issues.

I hope you didn't take that as an insult. I am an EE by trade and I have had lots of fun with a soldering iron connecting RPIs up to various hardware and debugging the software drivers.

I have three RPI version ones, used as TV boxes and they were a lot of work to set up properly. Even things like getting enough power from a usb charger is difficult. Trying to get them to work with simple hardware like usb dacs was a headache.

I rewrote the whole iplayer scraping code so that it could run on the RPI because it just couldn't handle the BeautifulSoup html parser.

RPIs have been fun, but I wouldn't recommend them to a friend who doesn't know which end of a soldering iron to hold.

You are right that at least the Kodi version works pretty solidly on OpenElec. Android really does seem to need SPMC at the moment.

I guess you looked at pre edit I sort of took it as an insult but then retracted it lol. I am certainly not a nerd and that was what offended me.

I only use my Pi for Kodi, nothing else. Like many people with Pi, Fire TV Stick, Android, whatever it's often only used for Kodi. If you are only interested in Kodi then there is nothing wrong with a Pi. My Pi is series 1 is very stable but obviously a bit pedestrian.

I have a Firestick which is much faster but I have more issues with that for example this iPlayer was useless on it until I put SPMC on it. Also I get ITV Player buffering issues on Firestick that I never get on Pi. I have tweaked the RAM on the Firestick now to see it that helps.

I am looking to get another device and was contemplating moving over to the dark side and getting an Android but at this time I am more tempted in staying with what I know works and getting a Pi3.

I like the way that nerd changed from an insult in the 1980s to a mark of respect in the internet age. I am quite happy when someone calls me a nerd. Happy people were quite glad to be called gay before the 1960s too. It's strange how things change.

(2016-04-13, 14:50)primaeval Wrote: [ -> ]I like the way that nerd changed from an insult in the 1980s to a mark of respect in the internet age. I am quite happy when someone calls me a nerd. Happy people were quite glad to be called gay before the 1960s too. It's strange how things change.

Fair comment Although I think there are two types of people that buy these devices. One who wants to use them for the purpose of watching TV, films, sport, etc. The other who wants to spend all day long tweaking and fiddling and never actually gets time to watch anything

Guilty.

Is there a way to set up a proxy for people that live outside of UK?

(2016-04-16, 18:50)Angry Gorilla Wrote: [ -> ]Is there a way to set up a proxy for people that live outside of UK?

Not legally from outside the UK. When you are back in the UK you could test out smart dns services and vpns if you want a safe solution on public networks. Kodi has built in proxy support you could try. There is a fork of the addon with proxy support for testing purposes but I couldn't get it to work.

(2016-04-16, 18:50)Angry Gorilla Wrote: [ -> ]Is there a way to set up a proxy for people that live outside of UK?

I have tested a few SmartDNS services in Spain and they all appear to unblock the BBC iPlayer as well as almost everything else you would want, and SmartDNS does not slow your speed like a VPN does.

SmartDNS Proxy was the last one I tested that works and very cheap too, but don't pay the first price offered as they are always doing offers. I am currently being offered it at US$19.90 a year!

If you don't know how to set it up all the instructions are on the website. You can enter the SmartDNS in almost any device, or straight into your router to unblock everything. It is very simple to do and only takes a few minutes.

They also do a 14 day free trial for which you don't have to give any bank details.

https://www.smartdnsproxy.com/

For the record, I tried SmartDNS proxy as I am on both sides of the pond regularly and the performance was dreadful.
I tried many but I have been using a VPN for months and it is flawless.
The rule of thumb is shop around and only evaluate those with free trials.

(2016-04-16, 19:46)OTinley Wrote: [ -> ]For the record, I tried SmartDNS as I am on both sides of the pond regularly and the performance was dreadful.
I tried many but I have been using a VPN for months and it is flawless.
The rule of thumb is shop around and only evaluate those with free trials.

Well it is a fact that VPN does slow speed and SmartDNS does not it the nature or how it works. I am very surprised that you have tried many and they were all dreadful I don't really understand how that can be?