Duo² and new modem

Well, one of my major complaints with IPTV streaming has always been the slow initial lock or display of the channel, plus the occasional hiccup and freeze. This was mainly happening on the Euro channels; the Asian channels were worse.

Most of the problems are usually due to server traffic, time of day and day plus line glitches along with the receivers capability to buffer the stream correctly. And of course internet line speed.

A while back I upgraded my line speed and it helped tremendously. Then, I upgraded my modem from a two channel to a Motorola SB6121 four channel Docsis 3.0 cable modem and again, it helped considerably. I noticed an over all improvement in my browsers ability to load web sites much quicker. It also improved the streaming on my receivers, but still lacking on the Euros sites.

Now, I installed a Motorola SB6141 with eight data channels, which is basically the same SB6121 modem with a firmware upgrade which allows Motorola to pick your pocket. But, I have to say, it does make a heck of a difference performance wise. I should have done this much sooner.

Now, Legitfta loads almost instantaneously as do most other sites. Using this modem with the Duo² is great. Streaming channels that took time to load before, now load as fast as fta channels. Before if I wanted to watch a movie, I would have to record it first, otherwise, it could not be watched live due to occasional line freezing or hiccup. Extremely pleased with this upgrade; I really recommend it. You must have a fairly fast connection speed to get the full benefits of this modem.

Attached are some pixs of the differences of the two modems displaying signals as displayed by its internal log.

First two are for SB6121 and next two are for SB6141.

I have this same modem myself now. I also had Comcast replace the drop from the street to my house with RG-11.

I get a 13ms ping from 500 miles, 120 Mbps down load and 23 Mbps uploads. No more buffering on Netflix even when new shows show up!

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Bill

Yup, totally agree that the line speed is a major factor in reducing freeze and hiccups and that's why I opted for more. Plus, the 8 channels add to the reliability and consistency of the connection. In regards to the ping times, they will always vary minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day depending on the load factor of the node and lines between point A and B.

I usually use LAX as point B, to test for speed and ping times between point A. Since it has heavy traffic most of the times, I know it will be a more realistic test. I get the same ping times at average of 150+ down with Cox's super boost and 32 up.

What worries me is that Cox is downsizing from 19 to 7 regional offices across the U.S. by the end of the year. Plus, I've noticed that there seems to be more frequent outages. Can't wait till Cox gets some competition in this area.