Does anyone have suggestions for sluggish Disney + due to internet provider? Friends bought it for Christmas but it doesn't work well for them as it stops to buffer often.
I'm not sure if they've looked into increasing their internet speed or not. Aside from that, does anyone have suggestions to help with this?
Just D+ or do they also suffer largely unusable Netflix etc as well? Internet speed might be a red-herring - obviously slow DSL is slow, but buffering doesn't necessarily mean the data-flow is not fast enough at max-throughput, just that the throughput is not sustained. Streaming services typically need 10Mbs or higher for SD, or 25Mbs or higher for 4K. Multiple devices streaming at the same time obviously pushes those numbers upwards. A 3mbps plan is not going to cut it but a 10mbps plan should provide a reasonably solid experience.
A *smart* streaming device will spot quickly if the time taken to fill the initial buffer was longer than the amount of material actually buffered, which means that during playback the buffer will be emptying faster than it can be refilled. In this case the device should attempt to buffer more material before starting playback. If the device is not that well programmed, or does not have enough onboard storage to generate a sufficient buffer then you'll get stuttering/pausing. In that case, options are upgrade the Internet plan, or buying a more beefy streaming device.
However, if the throughput rate tends to be uneven, at some periods much faster than the needed transfer rate, and at others much slower, the device will have a harder time compensating. In this case while 'faster' internet might appear to solve the problem, it isn't really.
Basically it comes down to: Is the problem on the local network (poor WiFi coverage/interference)? Is the problem the modem? Is the cable to the modem well secured, and not subsequent to a cheap-*** signal splitter driving other TVs? Is the internet provider providing a reliable throughput (I.E. the street furniture is not over-subscribed).