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destruk's avatar
destruk
Streaming Star
12 years ago

.isUnderRun MeasuredBandwidth

How is this tested or determined?
Is the 'measured bandwidth' created from the actual source/server the stream is being provided from?
Is it determined when the channel first loads?
Is it using one of roku's servers to test the bandwidth?

6 Replies

  • MeasuredBandwidth is the rate at which the player was able to read data from the source prior to the underrun. It's actually a weighted average of the bandwidth measurements over a period of a few minutes. It doesn't involve any servers other than the one serving the content.

    --Mark
  • destruk's avatar
    destruk
    Streaming Star
    Does Roku have a limit for bandwidth of 10mbps ? Because on a 100mbps connection, the measuredbandwidth for the roku appears to never go higher than 10mbps?
  • destruk's avatar
    destruk
    Streaming Star
    Could you please post the limitations of the measuredbandwidth value? And please explain how if the measured bandwidth is 9765, how a 2600 bitrate stream could still be forced to rebuffer?
  • There is no hard limit on MeasuredBandwidth. Given an infinitely fast network, the maximum bandwidth sustainable is determined by the performance of the CPU and memory, and will vary depending on the Roku model. As for why a rebuffer occurred in the scenario you mention, it's hard to say without more information. A nominal "2600 mbps" stream normally varies somewhat over its duration; at one point it may need a higher bandwidth and other spots it may need less. The nominal bandwidth is an average, and depending on the encoding, there may be spots which require much higher bandwidth. Also, very sudden changes in network bandwidth may not be reflected in the MeasuredBandwidth value. In the extreme case, if network activity completely stops, the MeasuredBandwidth value will start to decay and eventually reach zero after a couple of minutes. Measuring network bandwidth is by no means trivial (or even well-defined in all cases) and there is a tradeoff between overreacting too quickly to short-duration changes in the network, vs. not reacting quickly enough to longer term changes.

    --Mark
  • destruk's avatar
    destruk
    Streaming Star
    We will end up having to run some independent bandwidth tests probably downloading files to tmp to figure out why no matter what, on any network connection, roku reports a max of 9765.
    Thanks, I guess.