New TV Live but issues streaming

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
1

I got my unit the other day and haven’t had a chance to network a drive to it but I dropped Netflix to try Huluplus and have noticed that every show I watch it freezes at least 6-10 times per show. Sometimes after the show hulu wont respond to choose the next episode.

I have a Netgear WGT624 router with the TV Live directly hooked up. When I had Netflix I used my Wii to wirelessly stream and I had no issues (router is in the tv stand). My internet connection is through Road Runner 1.5 Mbit/s / 384 kbit/s and has been the same for Netflix and now for Hulu. 

I talked with a friend who has an older version of the TV Live and thinks it is my router that needs to be replaced. I just want to make sure I dont have a defective unit, my internet is fast enough to support streaming, and/or my router is up to speed.

Thanks for any and all help!

2

Same issue, completely different configuration.  Netflix streaming works perfectly but Hulu Plus pauses multiple times during playback.

I think it’s a problem with the HuluPlus app.  I’ve stopped using it and will probably cancel my subscription.

3

Your streaming experience would improve if you had more than the minimum broadband speed of 1.5mbps.  Your router may be fine, because if your player is wired to the router, that speed is 100mbps within the networked hardware.  You also need to know if your wireless signal is strong at locations you would use if you use wireless, too.  

See this article discussing required broadband speed for using Netflix, but it is the same for any streaming media from the Internet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/technology/personaltech/17askk.html 

Buy the fastest speed you can afford, and get at least 5mbps speed.

4

additional…

Here is  Hulu (plus) technical requirements…

http://www.hulu.com/support/article/197541

I have used HuluPlus (on the trial period) on both the WDTV LivePlus and the WDTV SMP,both using a wired

network…No problems in displaying content. although some latency.

5

Thanks for the replies. It looks like I am skimming the boarder for in/appropriate internet speed. It is interesting that I had better results for netflix wireless than wired hulu…that said I would lean more heavily on my connection than the router.

As a side note, would anyone know what resolution I would have to bump down to for hulu to run smoothly? I am figuring I will have to drop the service anyways but am curious how “bad” does the picture have to look to be watched without a hitch.

6

I  think you can drop the resolution served up by HuluPlus from HD (720) to SD (480).

That’s as low as you can go on Hulu.

…Depends if you like watching 480 from HuluPlus on whatever size screen you’ve got.

I  don’t really  know exactly how Hulu compresses its materal,but I’ve found the 480 stuff to be tolerable

so I’ve only ever used it to watch on a PC monitor.

7

Thanks for the help guys. I think I may end up dropping hulu as the picture isn’t the best on main tv. Netflix was working well (as long as I wasn’t downloading anything on the computer) so I will move back to their service.