Trouble with streaming

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Hello скоra,

We are now in the process of deploying a new version of player at MUBI and that might be the reason for some infrequent difficulties in playback. This however should not affect the quality of streaming in any other way than improve it. If you still experiencing the problem I would recommend:

Shutting down all other programs
Using Google Chrome (which has a low memory overhead)
Restarting your computer, and not doing anything else except starting Chrome and watching the film

Please let us know if that helps and if you have any other question or concerns, please do send us a message. Meanwhile I'll report this issue to our lead developer.

All the Best
Pawel
MUBI Support Team

I'm also having the same problem with the streaming. I used to let the video download while I did some other task and I was able to watcht it after some minutes. As far as I can see, this new player doesn't allow me to do this since I can't see the status bar filling up as I could before.

It's very frustrating, I used to watch 4 or more films a week and this week I couldn't even watch one. The video is always freezing while the audio goes on.

I really like your service, buf if the problem persists I'll have to cancel my subscription since I'm paying for nothing.

Hello Diogo

We're in the process of upgrading our player from progressive download to streaming and some of our users may encounter issues of bandwidth, since the film can no longer buffer all the way.

I would recommend, as above, shutting down other programs and using Google Chrome, which has a lower overhead (anything that can free up bandwidth will help, and even a fast computer can be slowed down by spyware)

I hope this will help. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.

All the Best
Pawel
MUBI Support Team

Diogo described better than I the problem with the new player. I also cannot watch any films on Mubi now... the suggestions did not help the situation.

Hello again

I see. Unfortunately the new player may not be working for slower connections but please rest assured as we are currently working on a variable bitrate player that should solve the problem for lower bandwidth connections. We hope to have it deployed soon.

Meanwhile I can only recommend upgrading to faster internet connection. Please let us know if there is anything else we may help with.

All the Best
Pawel
MUBI Support Team

Pawel,

I've tried what you've suggested but it didn't work.

You see, since the audio is going on without the video it doesn't seem to me that the actual problem is bandwidth, but your new player. I have a good broadband connection and watch tv channels streaming in Livestation without problems.

By the way, it's a little bit arrogant to suggest a client to upgrade his internet connection considering he was a satisfied user before you decided to change something that made things worse for him.

Sincerely,
Diogo Cunha

Hello Diogo

Apologies. I suggested so as I believed it could be a bandwidth problem as we had reported similar issues which were caused by slow connection. Sorry for that. The changes we have made were necessary due to security requirement and were intended to improve user experience. In fact it's easier now to seek through the movie.

I'll report the audio playback without picture to our lead developer.

All the Best
Pawel
MUBI Support Team

Oohh... So this is why I can no longer download the film and play it when the internet is offline. I thought it was my browser or something, apparently MUBI is upgrading. Anyway, although I'm also disappointed like the others, but I'm relieved to know the reason why and not wondering anymore.

Hopefully MUBI can overcome this problem, though.

Regards,
hush_shush

Just wanted to follow up that I canceled my subscription today, since the new player isn't working for me, and I simply can't watch any films now.

Hello скоra,

I am sorry to hear that. Although the timetable isn't fixed we are working on a variable bitrate player that should solve the problem. It's worth checking that every so often with our free offerings like for example the current La Semaine de la Critique retrospective:

http://mubi.com/programs/la-semaine-d...

All the best
Pawel
MUBI Support Team

And, the films from La Semaine de la Critque are great! Too bad I could only stand to watch the very shortest ones--what with all the stopping and audio/video disconnect. I gave up. Just let me know when the problem is fixed and I'll come back.

This is really ridiculous. Someone let me know when they revert back to a working system - I have the same problems as those above on all systems, and I neither have a slow internet connection (Downloading elsewhere at 3mb/s is far from slow) nor do my browser clients need updating. I'm sick of spending an hour trying to get a film to play and then going to bed having watched nothing at all.

I'm still having the same described problem with streaming - three minutes of playing followed by long freezes. Any suggestions?

All I can suggest is that it is not worth it any more. Big pitty because the movies are excellent.

Are there really only eight of us with this problem--or just 8 who are following this discussion? I surely hope that this gets resolved by the time the World Cup is over!

Hello Emil, Bride Mosley,

May I ask which titles were you trying to play? Does the problem occur with any film?

All the best,
Pawel
MUBI Support Team

You didn't ask me, but it does happen with any and all films.

Hi,
It actually seems to have cleared up now (for me at least)... E

Hello Valerie Ann,

Apologies. May I ask you to test our free title, The Housemaid:

http://mubi.com/films/the-housemaid

Are you having difficulties watching that too?

All the best,
Pawel
MUBI Support Team

Apology accepted. I will try it. I suppose this will be the best test since I have already seen The Housemaid over a year ago.

I did just watch Cold Star and the problem was still there.

I'm experiencing the same problem. It's too bad because I just bought a subscription, and now I wish that I could cancel, get the money back and wait til it has been resolved.
When I had a subscription a few months back there were no such technical issues.
This is disappointing, particularly with such good films on offer right now.

Hi Pawel,

I watched The Housemaid, and the player was much better. There was no audio/video disconnect, and the film played for longer periods of time without stopping.

'I'm hopeful.'

Not knowing a whole lot about streaming video, but living where good high speed and low latency are not an option, I would like to suggest that being able to buffer an entire movie is vital. Then, whatever else might be going wrong, the whole thing will load up eventually and you can just watch it.

It's been getting worse here and had to give up on the Swiss Banker movie tonight. Too bad.

I also payed for The Empire in Africa and couldn't watch it due to constant pauses and rebufferings. It used to work with the same internet connection, because I just let most of the movie load before starting to watch. For people with a bad internet connection it is necessary to be able to buffer all of the movie. How about giving users the choice of using the old player if they need to pre-buffer a lot?

Hi I am a new user. I tried to watch los olvidados. Streaming is broken regularly even though I use Chrome and have the latest version of flash player. I have turned off other software on my mac. My broadband speed tests as approx 12000kbps and my mac is hi end. It streams for maybe 7 mins then stops for a while. I would blame my service provider but I have no issues with streamed movies elsewhere. A real pity because of your great movie selection.

Hi Pawel,

Thanks for your replies, but it appears to me that MUBI is going to have to bite the bullet and admit it's technology choice for streaming is not working. Despite an inspired selection and the goodwill of many customers and potential customers, the window is closing on MUBI's chance to offer a compelling service. I appreciate that for legal and cost reasons you're probably intending to avoid leaving a copy of the film on our hard disks (a distribution and replay liability), but you must find an alternative method to streaming (5 minute buffer? encrypted playback?) that puts an end to video stutter once and for all.

What's the prognosis on resolving this crucial issue??

Thanks
John

For a comprimise, I would like to suggest being able to buffer at least a third of the movie. That way, once the viewing catches up with the buffer we can take a half-time break and let the rest load in while we make pop-corn.

As for security: if you can watch it on your computer, you can dub it. Anyone into pirating this stuff would be able to figure it out no problem. Movies still play in movie theatres, and people can dub them there too. Seems a shame to alienate your customer base for a false sense of security.

Also a shame because many of these movies I can't find anywhere else. If I can't watch them here for three dollars, I likely can't watch them anywhere, unless someone is torrenting them already. Seems like accepting my three dollars is a more sensible option.

Here's hoping you can clear this up.

So what now? Could I get some feedback as what is happening to resolve this? It has been 4 months since the first post.. thanks

Duncan .. hi. I tried the latest version of Opera, Safari and Firefox. The movie stopped at roughly the same points - indicating probably that the issue was external to the browser. It was the sort of delay I get at times when the buffer in streaming is not far enough ahead of the actual playback. I do like what you have in terms of your selection and I these films would be quite useful for my PhD studies .... cheers

Hello Gianni,

Thank you for testing this. If it's not the browser, there are a few possibilities we can try. Could you please try again, and if the buffer fails, could you let us know what time (with the time zone) that you tried? This way, we can check our logs to see what went wrong.

Hello, I have got the same problem here in Mexico, the movie is pausing several times during watching ( the pictures stop while the sound continues). this is is very annoying since i am paying to watch movies. I have a brand new iMac, latest flash version, and it occurs either way with chrome and safari. I'am pretty surprise that the first post about this problem is now more than 4 months ago, and the problem haven't yet been solve. It does it with every movie I am watching, sometime not so often and sometime I just can't watch it !! As the sounds continues while pausing I think it is not a problem with the broadband..
Such a shame this website was great but I am thinking of canceling my subscription for technical issues !

Dear turo,

I am sorry to hear that. This problem may be particular to the hardware and how the video card handles video acceleration. The remedy could be to turn off hardware acceleration for the flash player as shown in this guide:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/doc...

Please let us know if this helps.

All the best,
Pawel
MUBI Support Team

Hi Pawel,

This is happening for me too. It happens on the latest version of Firefox, Chrome and IE8, all with latest version of flash. I've tried turning off hardware acceleration in flash and it still happens.

I've tried with the film "Broke" and "Slacker". It freezes every 30-60 seconds for about 30 seconds, then starts again. Sometimes the video freezes and the audio continues. When this happens it can sometimes be fixed by hitting pause then play.

Cheers,
Dave.

Hi pawel,

As david Macdonald said earlier, turning off the hardware acceleration does not solve the problem. However as said in the forum, rebooting the computer just before watching the movie helps a bit ( it doesn't freeze so often, but still does).
Why do not upload a lower def. of movies ??

Hello Turo,

I'm glad you've mentioned this, because a multiple-bitrate encoder (which will adjust playback to match your connection speed) is one of our goals for future versions, and hopefully it will be ready before long!

Yes to all replies none of them help enough to enjoy a full length film
without disruption. This is so silly neither netflix nor blockbuster streaming
have this problem. We are a testament to the unique selection of films offered
on mubi, otherwise I sure would not be wasting my money and time still trying with
this site. It is amazing that they cannot come up with a fix for this, and offer these
solutions that do not work.

totally agree with you John.

It's pretty much impossible to watch anything here now. For the past three days, I have attempted (for two hours at a time) to watch the French Korean festival films, and not a single video streams properly. I can see that people have been having these problems for 5 months, and nothing has improved. This is absolutely disappointing, and becoming more and more a waste of time. None of your "solutions" works at all, and I can't spend more hours trying to watch 10 and 20 minute videos. I've officially given up any hope of watching anything on this site.

Hi Duncan,

Are you saying that these problems are caused by inadequate connection speed? Is there any way to confirm that this is the cause?

One interesting thing about this problem is that it varies from movie to movie. I watched some with no, or few problems, but with 'Narkis' I had ridiculous problems (pretty much every second it stops, sometimes seemingly permanently, making me have to reload the page). With 'Sangam' too I had a lot of problems. I was considering subscribing, but certainly won't until I can see this problem has been solved, which it clearly hasn't after a long time. This is one of about five threads complaining about this that I've found so far. It seems it is a bandwidth problem, because connecting by cable to the internet instead of wifi made it less of a problem, but my bandwidth is fast, and I'm using Chrome (and tried 2 other browsers too, and all the other solutions suggested in all these threads), but it suggests that the way it is streamed, from some of the movies at least, is simply demanding far too much bandwidth. Mine is faster than many of my friends' and colleagues. That I'm further from the main hubs of the US and Western Europe maybe makes a difference, but these things shouldn't.

when i read people commenting on how bad were the freezes i thought it was only during certain parts of the film, but this only until i saw 'tilva ros'. the whole film freezes, all the time, so i finally gave up watching it (it seems to be a great movie though). i tried some other movies with a little more success, but they also had their problems. this must be the worst videoplayer IN THE WORLD, which is tragic because mubi has some great films and partnerships with festivals, i was really looking foward to keep watching films here, in the hope it would be feasible. i'm cancelling my subscription as soon as i have more time to find out how.

my two cents, if you changed the player so people don't rip the movies off, i'd say don't even bother, anything that goes through my computer is recordable and you can get free software on the internet that teaches the most noob how to do it. this reminds me of 'assassins creed', a game that people were buying pirate copies only to bypass the security measures of the original, that made almost impossible to play the game if you bought a legit copy. i thought about ripping the movies so that i could finally watch them in peace, but i dont have time for that now

to whom it may concern, if you keep playing and pausing you can get some of the frames that otherwise would be frozen. apparently mubi's player skip some frames ahead, that's why you keep hearing but only sees the video after a while. if you keep pausing and resuming, in some pictures it may help

and also, the problem can't be my computer, it is a pc but better than basically any imac. and please don't blame my isp, my speed is at least 5mb (max 10mb), which may not be much but is enough to stream any movie in this site. the problem is probably in the encoding of the player you use (by the way, i saw some of those green glitches, when parts of the video freeze in green colors). i tested everything you suggested, nothing worked

really, mubi must be crazy to adopt this player. i would gladly pay 3 times the price they charge if the player worked, and im very annoyed to not be able to watch the movies, i skipped going to the festival theatres because i thought i could watch them here. im never doing this mistake again

Dear Fernando,

I am sorry that you feel that way. I must assure you that the user experience is of utmost importance for us. Tilva Ros plays fine on our end. It seems to be difficult to diagnose the issue if you insist that it cannot be system-specific problem.

We have no other choice that to support only protective streaming technology as otherwise we could not offer any films at all. Such are the prerequisites of the film industry and demands from distributors.

I hope you understand.

Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.

All the best,
Pawel
MUBI Support Team

Paid three dollars last night to watch tropical malady. Constantly freezing screen
at some points every few seconds some point a minute or so. How ridiculous if the service was free or if this was 10 years ago I'd write it off. Seven months ago there was a note that a new system was being deployed is this it at work ? Anyway I am boring myself to continue to complain about the same thing and get no response that yields positive results. Will not waste more $$$ or time with Mubi until there is forward movement on this issue , please keep updates coming. Thanks for creating a great assembly of films that many members cannot view. Hoping I dont sound unreasonable. Thanks John

Glad to see and know that I am not the only one having these issues.....

I paid for a month's subscription to Mubi, and as soon as I started watching my first movie here I started facing problems (more or less similar to those mentioned above). Despite my internet connectivity being good, the video is stopping at regular intervals. What is more irritating is that at times the video is getting stuck but the audio keeps playing (which is an even bigger problem when it comes to foreign films since I'm missing the dialogues for that stretch as subtitles too are getting stuck). Also, even when I'm leaving the video alone for sometime, I guess its not buffering. I though I'll start my association with Mubi with Lars von Trier's The Kingdom, and I'm already biting my hands with the realisation that my money might very well have gone down the drain. Please provide me a way out of this terribly irritating mess.

Shubhanjit I am having the exact same issue and I am being told that it i smy internet connection when it is not!