Lag in gaming while Netflix (and other streaming services) being used

Junk

Junk

Junk

Associate
Joined
13 Feb 2006
Posts
465
Location
UK
Hi Guys,

I anyone else seeing issues where online games are rendered almost unplayable when someone in the house is streaming on Netflix or other similar streaming service?

We have BT FTTC (we're in a rural area) of 10 up and 60 down. Using the HomeHub 2. Wired network for gaming PCs.

The internet seems to think it's a common issue with a few providers and not exclusive to the UK either.

Anyone found any solutions to this?

Thanks

Junk.
 
ColdAsIce said:
10 up and 60 down is more than enough for a netflix stream + gaming at the sametime. A good router with QoS/Bufferbloat protection will help but it's not a fix for the actual cause from the BT network. @Junk in the past were you able to play with a video stream on in the background?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's not always been the case. We've noticed it since last year but it's got a lot worse since the turn of the year. Using Netflix app on the Sky Q box is far worse than a chromecast or on a tablet but it still renders any competetive gaming to be, to turn a phrase, hit and miss. Definately more miss!

i've read the BT forums now and they are admitting hardware issues on their network that are in the progress of being sorted out (they state a couple of months). Oddly we had a local fault maybe 3 weeks ago that resulted in a couple of men periodically sticking out of holes in the road for a day or two - after they fixed our line it was fine again for at least a week then back to abysmal over night when streaming.

@Screeeech that's interesting - so Netflix is 'pushing' the data rather than allowing it to be pulled as needed? that would explain a fair bit. It's such a shame that BT have such simple interfaces on their hubs. You can switch it on / off / reset and that's about it.

One fix i have heard of is to route netflix through the BT Fon external wifi - but i spent two months on the phone getting that switched off i'm kind of embrassed to ask then to switch it on again.
 
Ok, So Update...

First thanks to @ColdAsIce for posting all that - that's exactly what the BT Community asked me
(and others) to do - but i appreciate you trying to help :) . BT were very good about this. Apparently there are 10 different reasons this can happen and they understand the issue well. I think they made recent changes (a year ago ish) before people started getting the probelm and are resolving it fully in due course. In teh mean time they are taking each case and helping where they can.

What BT did for me was monitor for 48 hours and then reduce the amount of bandwidth Netflix is allowed to use to my router (i'm hazarding this is number of connections rather than actual kbps) which allows enough clean bandwidth (again i'm convinced this is connection contention - when accessing the internet you have a fixed number of connections that can go throuigh your router at once before stuff gets clogged - similar concept as database connections / CPU threads but more networky. As part of this Netflix content appears to be consistently coming from a BT CDN (Content Delivery Network) rather than any it fancies.

The end result is that even when netflix is going through Sky Q (the worst offender which seems to always try for 4k content even when TV only 1080p) i get a fairly consistent 30ms ping in Valorant and using ping plotter a very consistent 8 - 12ms to BBC. There are still the occasional spikes but gameplay is generally smooth and nearly as snappy as no netflix being on. It's not perfect but then i wouldnt expect it to be.

So i can play games while the missus watches netflix and now we have to find another subject to bicker about!
 
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