OK i work in the trucking industry thats why i asked a friend who has been in IT all his life to come and help as Shaw seemed unable to, I took his advice and dumped shaw and now have a constant speed, the speed i'm paying for which isnt much to ask. I'll never use Shaw again unless i move and have no other option

Not sure about this strictly speaking. My husband and I are often in different rooms streaming Netflix on a 25mbps connection, and it works fine. At my parents' place, they only have an 8mbps connection ("only") and it works fine with often two televisions streaming.

Factoring in gaming might start to change that, but Netflix and iPlayer seem to behave just fine - certainly the 25mbps connection we have at home, which is reliably 25mbps, seems to stand up just fine.

Only issue i had with Telus was wireless TV, Didn't realise the router for that in spare room was behind my big fridge and seemed to block it, once i moved that router its great, Also Telus stream 3D movies and i don't need a 3D player etc and Shaw didn't do that when i was with them ? Maybe they do now ???
I tried a bridging router etc or at least my buddy did, they even replaced all the cable in the house, but after lots of screwing around and him even going through it all with Shaw on the phone i dumped them.

Netflix streams primarily using MPEG-4 (H.264) compression and has started to upgrade to HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding- H.265) for 4x HD movies. MPEG-4 is a pretty efficient compressor and can stream HD action movie at it highest quality at less than 12 mbps and low action HD movies at less than 6 mbps so with a 25 mbps connection, 2 Netflix movies at it's highest quality should be able to be streamed easily.

HEVC requires only about 1/2 the bit rate of MPEG-4 for the same quality. Netflix would like to stream all HD movies using HEVC to reduce their bandwidth requirement and therefore costs for it's OC connection and to also pacify ISPs that are complaining about the bandwidth usage for Netflix movies. However very few devices (Roku, Smart TVs, Chromecast, Apple TV, Blue Ray players, and operating systems) currently have codecs to decode HEVC video streams.

The way Netflix works is when a movie is selected to be played, first the Netflix server checks which video codecs the device supports. If the device supports a HEVC decoder and the movie has been encoded using HEVC, it will stream the movie using HEVC. If the device does not support HEVC or the movie isn't encoded with HEVC, then MPEG-4 is used if the device supports a MPEG-4 decoder. I'm not sure how many different codecs are supported by Netflix but I believe Netflix can stream using MPEG-2, DivX, and possibly other codecs.

Once Netflix determine which codec to use, it then checks the speed of your ISP connection and that will determine the quality of the video that it streams (bit rate). According to articles, Netflix has up to 200 copies of each movie on it's severs that were previously compressed with different compressors (MPEG-4, HEVC, MPEG-2, DivX, etc.) at different compression ratios (bit rate requirements and therefore quality differences). For a HD action movie, Netflix may possibly have copies of the movie compressed at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 mbps.

Once the correct codec and bit rate is determined for the movie, Netflix streams about 5-10 seconds of the movie to the device before it starts to play the movie. The reason is that the internet and ISP connections can vary in speed and that 5-10 second buffer in the device allows the movie to continue to play even if transfer rate slows. If the device buffer empties, Netflix will pause the movie until the buffer gets full again.

With your 25 mbps connection, there should seldom be problem. When the first movies starts, Netflix determines that you have a 25 mbps connection and will stream the highest quality video that is available for that movie (up to 12 mbps depending on the movie). When the second movie starts, Netflix determines that your connection speed is no longer 25 mbps but greater than 12 mbps and will also stream the highest quality available. Even if 2 action movies are playing at the same time, that shouldn't give you a problem since the bit rate drops as the action slows.

For your parents 8 mbps connection, for one movie that's probably not a big issue since Netflix will stream up to a 8 mbps quality but when the second movie starts, the quality may be very low (possibly 1 or 2 mbps). Not only can the second movie have a very low quality but the full bandwidth of the connection is being used which can cause both movies to intermittently pause if the internet, ISP, and/or WI-FI connection speed changes.

Whether using a 8 mbps or 25 mbps connection for Netflix, pause issues can occur if another computer automatically starts downloading Microsoft, anti-virus, or other updates. I originally had a lot of problems with Netflix pausing when I subscribed in 2010. Often I would start watching a Netflix movie and the movie would eventually pause every few minutes. Finally I realized that the problem was with the WI-FI where the throughput would vary from 3 mbps to 16 mbps depending on the number of people in the condo complex using their computer. So I upgraded to a single band "N" type router but the problem persisted. Finally I upgraded to a dual band "N" type router using the 5 GHz band, the WI-FI speed remained constant at 25 mbps, and the problem disappeared. The reason that the 2.4 GHz band didn't work when I upgraded to the single band "N" router was because all the slow "g" routers were using most of the air time leaving my faster "N" router with very little air time. Since then, most people in the complex have upgraded to newer routers and the 2.4 GHz WI-FI band is significantly better but will still vary in throughput. Therefore I currently use only the 5 GHz band except for devices such as printers and Smart phones which don't support the 5 GHz band.

I've noticed on netflix the quality of the picture has gone down a lot recently, almost blurry. The TV works fine on everything else, just not netflix.

Is this a connection issue with the internet or a netflix issue? Anyone else have any trouble? During the same time frame, can't watch an entire program or movie without is freezing and having to reload.

Our internet download is up to 25 but speed test website never shows it above 15.

Netflix does have lower quality streaming options which kick in if the internet connection is slower. I see them from time to time on my PC...looks bad as you pointed out. Normally I just refresh and it goes back to the more "HD" looking version as my connection runs at 25Mbit (more than enough)

That is probably it then. It never did it before, whatever happened in the last couple of months with Shaw, there is nothing but issues with internet these days.

Maybe it's Shaw's way of getting people off netflix, lets make their internet so bad netflix doesn't work well.... (that was a joke)

Actually if i remember correctly there where some accusations not long ago that people like Shaw where restricting the band width for Netflix etc, never saw how that ended ?

Would not surprise me if they were, netflix is really bad at the moment, can't go more then a few minutes without is stopping to load, its blurry and just not worth watching.

Everything else on the internet works fine, just not netflix.

Its been a recent issue for us, ever since they came and replaced our old very out of date modem with some new one which appears to be a pile of junk.

There where reports in the media and online so guessing it was true ?
If you don't use cable try Tech savvy internet

https://teksavvy.com/

I have had all good reports about them, Couple of friends have it and love their service.

We are with TekSavvy, they are great. We are on their 25/10 ASDL Plan which I think runs us $54/month. We get 25mbps consistently on any device, whether wired or wireless. We have not had any issues with service dropping out, with speed reductions, funky billing, or anything like that. We get 300GB/month allowance (unlimited between 2am and 8am). No complaints at all. Definitely would recommend.

My Telus cheap period is coming to an end, i like it for the consistant speed and i want a 3D TV and they stream 3D movies , But, i watch a lot of stuff i download from the net, movies, TV shows etc and wondering if its worth keeping cable just for access to 3D movies or if i can stream them from a site online or just buy 3D player and rent/buy them myself ? Does anyone know of a site for 3D downloads ?
I would never go with Shaw but would definitely try Tek Savvy if i dumped cable tv all together.

I was thinking about trying tekSavvy.

This is the plan I was looking at which gives more for less when compared to shaw...

https://teksavvy.com/en/residential/...cable/cable-25

Says $39.95 per month for 300gb of data.

We pay $60 right now for shaw.

This is what I suspect may possibly be happening. According to your previous posts, you live in an apartment complex which are typically very prone to interference by other routers on the 2.4 GHz band causing speeds to your devices to vary significantly. A single band 2.4 GHz router can only be configured to 3 non overlapping channels (1, 6, or 11). All the routers in the complex that are configured to the same channel and are close enough to interfere with each other can cause the WI-FI throughput for you device to drop significantly and be erratic.

As ISP connection speeds have increased, downloads are faster and that likely means that WI-FI in the complex has become more erratic in speed. Subscribers likely complained to Shaw about the erratic speeds that they were getting and Shaw decided to upgrade it's subscribers with faster and possibly dual band routers to try to solve the problem. Unfortunately cable company installers don't understand routers and assume since the new router has a higher link speed, WI-FI performance will increase but the opposite can happen and the WI-FI speeds can become more erratic. Each router manufacturer by default sets their router to use one of the 3 non over lapping channels and if the complex had all the same routers and the default channel was not changed, everyone in the complex will be using the same channel with very limited air time for any one router.

If it was an ideal world, the Shaw installer would have an application that allowed him/her to see which channels are being used by other routers and the signal strength in dBm of each of the routers and set the channel of your router on the 2.4 GHz band to the channel that will likely have the least interference. Also if the router is a dual band router, he would then check all your devices (computers, Roku, Smart TVs, streaming Blu Ray players, etc.) to determine if those can be set to use the 5 GHz band and if they can, set each device to use that band since there are many more channels on the 5 GHz band, often has a higher link speed freeing up airtime for other routers, and by default, the router usually selects the least congested channel every time it is powered down/up.

However in the real world, the installer usually just installs the router using the default channel which works fine for suburbia but often cause problems in urban areas or apartment or condo complex.

When a router is installed using the default channel, you don't know if that channel is congested and will cause significant interference with your router. Your closest neighbors (the routers that have the greatest chance of interfering) may own their own router and have their routers set to use channel 1 on the 2.4 GHz band and your old Shaw router may have been set to use channel 6 causing very little interference. However the new Shaw router may be defaulting to channel 1 and then interference can become significant reducing your throughput.

Because of the way Netflix works, an erratic connection can cause all kinds of problems. If the connection speed is slow when Netflix is testing the speed of the connection, Netflix will stream low quality video and if the connection becomes too slow (Netflix receives TCP/IP NAK packets), Netflix will terminate. If Netflix determines that your connection speed is high when testing, it will stream high qualify video but if the connection speed drops too low while playing the movie, the movie will pause.

To determine if WI-FI is causing the problem, hardwire your video device to your router. If the quality increases and the problems disappear, then the problem is with the WI-FI. If the problem is with the WI-FI, then change the channel number of the router using either channel 1, 6, or 11 for the 2.4 GHz band and see if that helps. If your router is dual band and your video device supports the 5 GHz band, change the video device to use the 5 GHz band.

If you can indicate the manufacturer and model number of your Shaw router, I can tell you how to access the router to change the channel number.

OOH just found this online !

https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comm...nternet_is_40/

Shaw users should read it !