Minitube

[Qwertyuiop]

Of course, the best way to compare speed would be a raw tcp dump. Easy enough to do on the Pandora, don't think it's possible on the iPod, so we'll have to stick with as close a comparison as we can get: web page load times.

Just did a wget of the same file on a local server on both my Pandora and my first gen iPod touch-

Average of 295KB/s on the Pandora and 604KB/s on the iPod.

 

[GizmoTheGreen]

i dont know how it looks on the iphone

bu the pandoras wifi is connected via sdio... which imho isnt ideal, since the wii also suffers from this.

the wii is limited in speed also. check the wii linux projects wiki page for more info on why.

i dont know how the channels are hardwarewise. if its like one sata port per hdd or if its like and ide port. shared bus. if it is, dling from wifi to sd card would more than half the bandwidth

 

[milkshake]

so can anyone jump in and advise whether this wifi issue is fixable or is it a limitation based on how the wifi chip was implemented into the PCB? cos im gonna be very if its something that cant be fixed via some software/driver/kernel update.

 

[mcobit]

so can anyone jump in and advise whether this wifi issue is fixable or is it a limitation based on how the wifi chip was implemented into the PCB? cos im gonna be very if its something that cant be fixed via some software/driver/kernel update.

+1

 

[mindlord]

It almost has to be a software issue, because when connecting to my Belkin 54g - extremely cheap wireless router - I get good speeds. Usually upwards of 400Kb, and thats from 10+ meters away. So the problem is likely a driver issue and just not playing nice with certain routers. I'm certain that these issues will be resolved in time.

For the record, minitube works almost flawlessly on my Pandora using said router.

 

[milkshake]

It would be nice to hear from someone in the know just to get a bit of reassurance ... craigx? mweston? EvilDragon? - obviously I am aware you guys are extremely busy right now.

 

[craigix]

I don't know, but I'd be looking at how and where minitube is caching the video. If it starts off playing ok then degrades I'd suspect it's an issue with minitube.

 

[urjaman]

I don't know, but I'd be looking at how and where minitube is caching the video. If it starts off playing ok then degrades I'd suspect it's an issue with minitube.

I'd blame something else (wifi/tcp/kernel/life on earth...). Some people have said that a wget transfer over wifi peaks high, then fades to ~100KiB/s, so sounds logical. Of course I'm not 100% sure that minitube is totally unguilty.

 

[Bosbeetle]

I blame it on the boogie

 

[milkshake]

I don't know, but I'd be looking at how and where minitube is caching the video. If it starts off playing ok then degrades I'd suspect it's an issue with minitube.

thanks for the speedy reply that was my initial thought also.

I have also experienced the same same lagg issues with this app as you and probably others and to try and remedy this I pause the video for 20-30 secs then start playing so it has enough time to buffer/cache some video content to play.

I'm thinking that the reason for the lagg is something to do with the wifi on the Pandora. Maybe where its writing the data to and how fast it can write to the memory card or nand before it can be read by the app itself, that is unless its caching direcly to RAM which would make more sense.

I'm hoping so much that this is just a software related issue.

 

[mcobit]

I don't know, but I'd be looking at how and where minitube is caching the video. If it starts off playing ok then degrades I'd suspect it's an issue with minitube.

I'd blame something else (wifi/tcp/kernel/life on earth...). Some people have said that a wget transfer over wifi peaks high, then fades to ~100KiB/s, so sounds logical. Of course I'm not 100% sure that minitube is totally unguilty.

Yes, even when I download something from the inet it will start fast and then go back to ~100kb/s.
Maybe we need a thread, where everybody can post their router model and the speed they get with downloading a file with wget.

Maybe minitube gets fast datatransfer and assumes, that it will stay like this. then starts playing and as the speed goes down it can't keep up. That would be a wifi issue then...

 

[milkshake]

Yes, even when I download something from the inet it will start fast and then go back to ~100kb/s.
Maybe we need a thread, where everybody can post their router model and the speed they get with downloading a file with wget.

Maybe minitube gets fast datatransfer and assumes, that it will stay like this. then starts playing and as the speed goes down it can't keep up. That would be a wifi issue then...

+1 we need to create a thread for this but which forum?

 

[Bosbeetle]

Yes, even when I download something from the inet it will start fast and then go back to ~100kb/s.
Maybe we need a thread, where everybody can post their router model and the speed they get with downloading a file with wget.

Maybe minitube gets fast datatransfer and assumes, that it will stay like this. then starts playing and as the speed goes down it can't keep up. That would be a wifi issue then...

+1 we need to create a thread for this but which forum?

I would say a general or a dev topic

 

[milkshake]

ok ill create a new topic in the Developers corner forum.

 

[sebt3]

ok ill create a new topic in the Developers corner forum.

How a community thread about wifi performance with given router is related to developpement ? Is there a dev that said he will work on this ? If so let him open his own thread... Else general section please

 

[milkshake]

ok no problem i havent finished writing it yet anyway ill just write it in general thanks sebt3

 

[silverspring]

This is a problem with the Pandora and not minitube. I've done a few informal tests myself with various software - in all cases the download starts fast and then tapers off quickly. It's probably a driver issue. The slow wifi is certainly going to be a problem for many if it doesn't get sorted. At the very least the Pandora needs to be able to stream youtube videos, IMO.

 

[milkshake]

add all these brilliant points to the wifi thread I set up

 

[craigix]

i think that "long distance" downloads suffers more
wgetting a 30mb file from my isp (few miles away) was averaging 300 KB/s, unstable, 50, 100, 400, 200, 250, 80, 420...

This, as crazy as it sounds, can happen. It's related to the speed of light and time outs.

Could it be the driver is timing out on something (a response?) FAR too early?

 

[j.pickens]

Wow,
Thanks to sebt3 for working on this!

Got it working, and the first 5 or 6 seconds of every video I tried run flawlessly, and then, as others have mentioned, the video stutters along badly to the end.

This application is a great candidate for further development.
I'd like to help, as useless as I am at this stuff.

Any areas to investigate first?