Tech Forum

My stake just finished our first stake conference webcast using the new church VidiU/Cloud system. The upload worked great, uploading 2100kbps without a glitch. However, the 2 laptops we used at our receiving building both caps at 500kbps. Why?

I tested using my Alienware laptop, and it was fine streaming at the 2100kbps, but both other laptops, which weren't as fully loaded and a bit older, wouldn't even let my select 2100kbps as a max bitrate (the drop down only showed 500 as the max). Why am I being forcefully limited? Is it really hardware limitations, and if so, what are the hardware requirements to get a better bitrate?

Otherwise though, it worked great! I really like the new system. Just want to get a clearer picture.

coolnsdc wrote:Why am I being forcefully limited?

My knee-jerk reaction is CPU ability.

The documentation only says "Computer with a 4-core processor (for receiving streams of up to 700K quality)"

I believe a i3 is a dual-core with hyperthreading. The i5 is quad-core. I don't know the other CPUs to know what else is quad core.

russellhltn wrote:The documentation only says "Computer with a 4-core processor (for receiving streams of up to 700K quality)"

I thought it might be something like that. I was monitoring the cpu usage, and even on the older laptops, the cpu was only averaging 15%, sometimes up to 20%, but that was it. That's a lot of wiggle room...

russellhltn wrote:The i5 is quad-core.

Only some i5's are quads. The one in my notebook is only dual-core.

My older core2duo notebook had no problem streaming Netflix in full HD. I understand there are are differences, but the requirement for needing a quad-core at the receiving end just seems way over-the-top to me.

Mikerowaved wrote:Only some i5's are quads.

Well, crud. Why'd they do that??

Mikerowaved wrote:but the requirement for needing a quad-core at the receiving end just seems way over-the-top to me.

The question is a quad core of what? I'm keeping my eye on the thread about Android boxes. You can get a quad core for $88. It may be able to do it it - including being a web browser to demo things like FamilyTree.

Also keep in mind:

At scheduling time you have to specify the receiving sites, if you under estimate and more people log on it will reduce quality to conserve bandwidth.

rolandc wrote: At scheduling time you have to specify the receiving sites, if you under estimate and more people log on it will reduce quality to conserve bandwidth.

In my case, I know this wasn't the issue because I had both my laptop and another laptop, and while mine ran at full 2Mbps, the laptop beside mine was limited to 500Kbps, whether mine was running or not.

I'm seeing about 500kbps on any of our laptops regardless of specs. I've tried my new I7 but still only 500kbps receive.

4 cores or lower is limited to 500kbs

8 cores and you can receive up-to the broadcast speed, confirmed by GCS

I have not been able to get a solid answer as to why we can broadcast in HD but are limited to 500kbs on the receive side. I have buildings with FIOS and powerful quad core computers and every test and broadcast is locked at 500kbs.

I can download 4000kbs streams all day long without issue, Hopefully they will remove the cap soon.

rolandc wrote:4 cores or lower is limited to 500kbs

8 cores and you can receive up-to the broadcast speed, confirmed by GCS

Wow. I can understand 8 cores for encoding, but for DECODING?? That just doesn't make sense. Considering a Core2Duo has proven adequate for decoding almost all other streaming HD content, the requirement for 8 cores is mind boggling.

rolandc wrote:I have not been able to get a solid answer as to why we can broadcast in HD but are limited to 500kbs on the receive side. I have buildings with FIOS and powerful quad core computers and every test and broadcast is locked at 500kbs.

I can download 4000kbs streams all day long without issue, Hopefully they will remove the cap soon.

Until they do, I'll be using other means for streaming. To me, this is an unrealistic quality limit being imposed on the stakes.