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Google Video Quality Report

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Re: Google Video Quality Report

#11
post #7

Good step but in the absence of true competition between ISPs this does little for the end user. I can discover that my connection is bad, and then what?

If you have the largest online advertising and marketing company in the world telling everyone that an ISP sucks... well, then guess what the ISP will do? Either nothing, or lose customers.

In the absense of meaningful competition, they'll likely just laugh. Still, it's good to have someone call them out.

Re: Google Video Quality Report

#12

Good step but in the absence of true competition between ISPs this does little for the end user. I can discover that my connection is bad, and then what?

Well, if I were in the ISP business and looking to expand, areas with poorly rated ISPs would be interesting.

Re: Google Video Quality Report

#14
post #2

Telcos will have to invest in capacity where Google wants in order to get a good rating. Since Google is a de-facto monopoly, I think we'll see an Antitrust case soon.

If you look at the actual requirements they're talking about, they aren't that crazy. Even for HD video, they're talking > 2.5Mbps. So for really good quality, it's probably 5-6Mbps.

I have 85Mbps FiOS at home, and I still sometimes have issues streaming Youtube videos.

If my ISP can't even guarantee 10% of what I'm paying for over a fiber optic line, then yes, they need to be called out and publicly shamed.

Re: Google Video Quality Report

#15
post #3

Good. I swear youtube is throttled by Time Warner Cable for me. I stream Netflix, Hulu, etc and never have problems with them. I can confirm that I'm getting my speeds of 20MBit/s down, and yet almost every video on YouTube buffers. If I use youtube-dl to download the video, I can confirm that my actual connection speed is somewhere around 60KB/s. If I then use youtube-dl on my VPS with the same video, I get somewher…

I think Comcast is doing the same thing here in Colorado. Lately, I've been seeing quality drop in videos where it shouldn't. Running speed tests or downloading from newsgroups I'm hitting 60mbps.

Re: Google Video Quality Report

#16
post #9
post #3

Good. I swear youtube is throttled by Time Warner Cable for me. I stream Netflix, Hulu, etc and never have problems with them. I can confirm that I'm getting my speeds of 20MBit/s down, and yet almost every video on YouTube buffers. If I use youtube-dl to download the video, I can confirm that my actual connection speed is somewhere around 60KB/s. If I then use youtube-dl on my VPS with the same video, I get somewher…

^this. Same with Netflix though for me. Where are you based? I'm in Austin, Tx. Any of the speed tests online will report 30mbps/5mbps, but I'm unable to stream HD on Youtube or Netflix during peak times.

I'm in Cleveland, OH. Like I said, never have problems with other services like Netflix or even streaming videos by vimeo or skydrive, just Youtube. It's so frustrating I've considered setting up a network-wide VPN for my home network to get around it

Re: Google Video Quality Report

#17
post #9
post #3

Good. I swear youtube is throttled by Time Warner Cable for me. I stream Netflix, Hulu, etc and never have problems with them. I can confirm that I'm getting my speeds of 20MBit/s down, and yet almost every video on YouTube buffers. If I use youtube-dl to download the video, I can confirm that my actual connection speed is somewhere around 60KB/s. If I then use youtube-dl on my VPS with the same video, I get somewher…

^this. Same with Netflix though for me. Where are you based? I'm in Austin, Tx. Any of the speed tests online will report 30mbps/5mbps, but I'm unable to stream HD on Youtube or Netflix during peak times.

Same for me on Time Warner in Austin. I can't wait for Google Fiber to roll into town.

Re: Google Video Quality Report

#18
post #10

Good step but in the absence of true competition between ISPs this does little for the end user. I can discover that my connection is bad, and then what?

Then you go out and vote. The absence of true competition is because the average Joe isn't quite clued into the underlying problem of why things are slow. I suspect this is Google's way of raising awareness.

Interestingly, this also puts ISPs at a severe disadvantage for ratings if they decide to do net neutrality violating throttling on youtube or netflix. I hope every bandwidth-heavy service starts publishing reports like this

Re: Google Video Quality Report

#19
post #2

Telcos will have to invest in capacity where Google wants in order to get a good rating. Since Google is a de-facto monopoly, I think we'll see an Antitrust case soon.

Google isn't close to a monopoly in the legal sense - especially in the online video delivery market. This will shine a light on ISP data handling and throttling.

Re: Google Video Quality Report

#20
post #2

Telcos will have to invest in capacity where Google wants in order to get a good rating. Since Google is a de-facto monopoly, I think we'll see an Antitrust case soon.

I don't know how this could be antitrust. On the contrary, it seems like it would be protected as free speech.
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