Re: Playon having issues with slow download speed? - Page 3 - Hughesnet Community

spydermike · ‎01-22-2021

I have tried to find a solution to actually be able to use our HNS service for something other than just emial and very light browzing (no videos). It was suggested here that Playon could be a solution - to download during the early morning so as to have better performance due to less traffic and to not affect our daytime data cap. I am now working with Playon Tech Support (who have been great) to understand why that is hit and miss. We are able to download maybe one or two shows and then due to stalls and buffering the recording stops. This happens to at least 50 percent of the attempts. Sometimes we have to try several days to download a single one hour show. Meanwhile, each attempt takes away data from our allotment. This is all being done after 2am and before 8am. Ugh.

Anyone here have any advise or experience with this?

Thanks

GabeU · ‎01-30-2021

@spydermike

@maratsade

Hey, check this out. Just found it. I had no idea they had it!

https://www.playon.tv/cloud/app/downloader

spydermike · ‎01-30-2021

Now that is very helpful! Thank you - downloading it now. I wonder why the Playon support didn't mention this?

GabeU · ‎01-30-2021

@spydermike wrote:
Now that is very helpful! Thank you - downloading it now. I wonder why the Playon support didn't mention this?

Good question. I've never seen it on their website before either. It was only when I went to download a movie on the full list page that I happened to see a note about it.

I downloaded it and installed it, but I don't have anything right now to try it with. It's a little tricky to figure out because it doesn't let you choose which particular items to download, so I'm wondering if it downloads only those items that are recorded after it was installed and linked to your account.

If you do end up using it please do let us know how well it works.

GabeU · ‎01-30-2021

@spydermike

Be careful. Just for the heck of it I set the time to start at 10PM, and it started trying to download things from a couple of days ago, and things which I had already downloaded manually, though which I have since deleted from my computer. I'm not sure why it chose the start spot it did, as I had streamed a few different items on the day it chose (the 28th), and it started with one in the middle of that day's items (I had streamed season 5 of The Sopranos, and it started with episode 7). When I terminated the app, Windows gave me notifications of failures of not only the one it was in the middle of downloading, but every item following that, so it had "scheduled" to download all of them from S5 - Ep7 to the end of the storage list.

So it looks like, at least in my case, I'll have to wait a week for the seven day cloud storage library to completely purge, and only then enable the downloader. This way it only downloads items I've streamed from that point forward. I wish there was a way to manually delete items from the cloud storage library so I could try anew.

Still, it was working, so that's good.

spydermike · ‎01-31-2021

I will be trying the downloader tonight. I am trying to deselect the download queue I already have (the one that doesn't seem to work). I don't see a way to cancel scheduled downloads in the cloud phone app. Any clues out there?

GabeU · ‎01-31-2021

I figured out that you can use the phone app to delete items from the seven day cloud storage library. It's in "Recordings", then "Cloud". The option's not there now because I deleted everything, having already downloaded all of it, but it was on the upper right. I think it said "Manage".

Now that I don't have to worry about it downloading things already downloaded, like it started doing last night, I'm going to find something to record and try it out.

spydermike · ‎01-31-2021

Yes, I have kept the cloud clear once I download. You can also select the show from the cloud list and then click the trashcan icon.

So what I have left is four episodes in the cloud that show (in the lower right hand corner of each) a blue download indicator. If I recall correctly, this indicates that these have been selected for downloading already. I would like to clear the scheduled download queue, but I can not find a way. I would like to get just one show lined up for download.

spydermike · ‎02-01-2021

This worked for me last night. All four episodes downloaded. Each episode is about an hour in SD downloaded in 3-4 minutes each. I have two longer movies scheduled for tonight.

GabeU · ‎02-01-2021

@spydermike wrote:
This worked for me last night. All four episodes downloaded. Each episode is about an hour in SD downloaded in 3-4 minutes each. I have two longer movies scheduled for tonight.

That's good to hear.

spydermike · ‎02-03-2021

Two nights ago, I was able to download 5 shows totalling about 6 hours of viewing from Netflix and Amazon. I am having to use the Cloud App on a phone to get the record the shows to the cloud, then shutting the phone off at night and turning on a dedicated laptop with the Windows Cloud Dowloading app at night before the bonus zone starts. I keep another laptop with Playon Desktop off during the night time as well. So far this is the combination that has worked the best for me...although I am just starting out and don't have too much data yet.

The only odd things I notice are:

1. Inconsistencies in closed captioning - some shows have it and some do not. I need to see if there are settings for this.

2. In quite a few cases, the audio lags the video by about a second or two...kind of annoying as you can't really get into the program. Not sure what can be done about this one.

GabeU · ‎02-03-2021

@spydermike

In my experience, though I've had a couple of issues with Netflix and captions over the many months I've been using PlayOn Cloud, they've been good for the most part, and perfect over the last few.

When it comes to Amazon, however, that's a different story. I haven't gotten much from them, but of the roughly half dozen movies I have gotten from them, only the very first had captions available. I contacted PlayOn a couple of different times about this, they refunded me the credits, and I tried the titles again, but it was the same, so I gave up with Amazon, at least for now. I haven't streamed anything from them in probably six months.

I don't necessarily need the captions, but I like having them there.

rj39503 · ‎08-02-2021

@spydermike

i have buffering all the time; well most of the time. it is really hit or miss. sometimes in middle of day i can watch a prime or netflix moving. but pretty much forget it at night. i was just about to hit the button to order playon tv. but from your posts, it sounds like pretty much a waste of time. thanks.

spydermike · ‎08-02-2021

I have figured out a way to make it work fairly consistently for me. I use the phone app to establish the queue that I want to download. That gets the files copied and ready to download during the day. I then used their downloader app on my laptop to schedule the downloads during the bonus time from 2am to 8am. It has served me well

To get captions from Netflix, it was suggested to watch a show with captions on for at least 6 minutes. That sets the expected captions setting. Then when I recorded and downloaded the series, the captions were all there.

Kind of a kluge...but what isn't with HNS. I can't t even email my wife a photo file as I am considered spam. Well I guess they have a point there....

spydermike · ‎08-02-2021

Oh, and as far as the audio lagging, I found that if I pause for a couple of seconds right near the start of the show then the audio synchs up. This has been very repeatable. I have to wait until the audio and video stop struggling and relax...usually in the first 30 seconds. It could be an issue with my Samsung TV reading a cheap USB Memory stick.

spydermike · ‎08-02-2021

From our experience, PlayOn is the only solution that makes this HNS service somewhat useable for streaming. Sad but true.

maratsade · ‎08-02-2021

"To get captions from Netflix, it was suggested to watch a show with captions on for at least 6 minutes."

This is the way it used to be, but PlayOn changed that over a year ago, and now the captions are embedded. and you no longer have to do the 6 minute thing. For me, they only show if I play the files with VLC player, but if I do, the captions work every time.

rj39503 · ‎08-02-2021

@spydermike

so you use the play on cloud to record movies and then download from cloud to your pc during the day? why do you need to que movies from your phone? thx

maratsade · ‎08-02-2021

PlayOn Cloud is an app for iOS and Android, that's why it's on a phone (or tablet). You cue the movies from the app, then you get an email when they're ready to download, and you can download from their website, or from the app. If you download from the app they're downloaded to your device. If you use a browser and download from their website, you can download them to a computer or a USB drive.

so you use the play on cloud to record movies and then download from cloud to your pc during the day? why do you need to que movies from your phone? thx

GabeU · ‎08-02-2021

@rj39503 wrote:
@spydermike
so you use the play on cloud to record movies and then download from cloud to your pc during the day? why do you need to que movies from your phone? thx

He's recording them and setting up the download schedule during the day, but for the actual downloads to take place at night, during the Bonus Zone.

spydermike · ‎08-02-2021

""To get captions from Netflix, it was suggested to watch a show with captions on for at least 6 minutes."

This is the way it used to be, but PlayOn changed that over a year ago, and now the captions are embedded. and you no longer have to do the 6 minute thing. For me, they only show if I play the files with VLC player, but if I do, the captions work every time."

My TV has its own player software (not VLC) and the method I mentioend as told to me by Playon works (play at least 6 minutes with captions on first, then download)...I used it just a few weeks ago. It was on their website FAQs too:

PlayOn supports closed captioning for Netflix recordings. To enable closed captioning on your recordings, follow these instructions:
1. Log into your Netflix account in a computer browser (or the Netflix app)
2. Select any video, start watching it with the captions enabled
3. Let the video play for at least 6 minutes
This will become the new playback preference for your account and will carry over to your PlayOn recordings. To disable closed captioning in PlayOn recordings, follow the same steps as above with the captions off.

GabeU · ‎08-02-2021

@spydermike

It's weird you still have to do that, but maybe it's an "individual results may vary" type of thing. For the last six months or so everything that I've gotten from Netflix via PlayOn Cloud has had captions I can turn on or off during playback. Same with Amazon Prime, which is the one I had the most CC problems with.

Come to think of it, the only PlayOn Cloud item I've downloaded recently that was missing the CC was an older movie from TCM via HBO Max.