Kayo stream quality

[matthew_s]

They hide it right at the bottom but it's better than waiting for a specific match to open up ie you couldn't jump into the Geelong v WCE game until 1pm so you're stuck sitting at the menu, but if you just go down and jump into it that you can at least watch whatever's on the footy channel before the game starts.

That's the biggest problem with the POS that is kayo. The apps.

 

[Crouch]

Kayo did an update at some point late last year which made the entire site worse.

Couple of examples;
Whenever an ad starts playing it seems to be using a system similar to Youtube/Twitch where it will stop playing the main broadcast and replace it with embedded ads, then re-load the broadcast stream when the ad has finished.

Well sometimes it fails to load the ad correctly which causes the entire stream to die with the error 'You are experiencing network issues' or something along those lines.

As a result I have to continually restart the stream.

Another issue I've noticed since the update is a massive increase of CPU usage.

My Intel 2600k hits 100% CPU usage whilst watching a single Kayo stream from their website. This causes the stream to buffer and loose frames, despite my internet being fine. As a comparison - Twitch uses around 30% CPU usage and Youtube is around 20% for 1080p. Kayo should not be anywhere near 100% usage - especially for a measly 1080p stream - but poor programming/optimization is causing it to. This can 100% be fixed - but good luck convincing Kayo to do that.

I believe this is why a lot of people are noticing more buffering problems - especially on slower/older Android devices.


Also I tried watching the AFL on my PS5 using the Kayo app for the first time in a while last weekend. The FPS was so bad - it looked like it was running somewhere between 15-20FPS. I had to turn on motion smoothing in my TV settings but that didn't help much. Very stuttery.

 

[J_Moore]

Yeah the Hisense native app has gone to absolute shit (starting the gane from the menu screen just jumps to a black screen, the “0%” buffering icon stays on screen even while the content plays, every 5-10 minutes it enters fast forward for a couple of seconds)

The Apple TV app seems to work a bit better, but is permanently stuck on 720p?

What a piece of junk

 

[westie]

Even running through a reasonably powerful PC, KAYO is the definitive POS!

 

[yamborghinidream]

The quality is so bad compared to Stan Sport (without even mentioning they offer 4K on certain big events)

 

[sataris]

Is Kayo 720 or 1080?

I have vague memories of the watchafl app being 720 only.

 

[Ginnieboy]

I told Kayo to stick it…

 

[ItsAllAboutMe]

Casting from Kayo to google chrome is a disaster, runs okay when i watch directly on an ipad but as soon as i have to cast it just spins, and on the rare occasion it does work if i try to pause a game/show it logs me out.

 

[MSB ROYS]

Discontent has spread to Twitter...

 

[PT Bar None]

I run Kayo on a desktop browser. I don't seem to be having as many problems, but it is still a bit crashy and buffery. Buffery moreso live than replays.

It is hard on CPU. Much more than it should be. I also think I've seen cpu spikes when it crashes, but I haven't been so moved to run it with a debug window (F12) open to see what's going on when it dies. I've noticed a lot of stuttering, resolution drops when the CPU is maxed out.

It actually crashed on me over the weekend when it wasn't even streaming. I was watching the North match, got bored and decided to do something else. But I left the browser open on the title screen (the one with the from start / from live buttons) and about an hour later it crashes out to the screen with the reload button . You gotta half wonder if there's a Javascript timer in there?

Hacks I've put in place:

• I run it in Edge, and it is the only thing I ever run in Edge. This seems to help with CPU, especially if you're doing web shite in Chrome on another screen (like posting "Where was the free kick for that throw!?" in a gameday thread)
• I try and keep the browser on displayport screens. CPU seems much higher when on the 3rd HDMI screen
• I've learned to close the browser at half time and launch the stream again to save me crashes during play. Locked up with 5 to got in the Hawks game, but didn't crash at least.

I'll try the channel hack on the weekend. Thanks STPer18

 

[darcytiger]

I watch Kayo flat out on my Apple TV and very rarely have issues with streaming. Only problem I get is sometimes it’ll only load a couple of rows of content and I have to force quit the app and re open. Not a major problem

 

[Golden_6]

I use an Apple TV to watch Kayo and don’t have any issues 99% of the time. I do live a metro area with high internet speeds.

 

[Looney]

Picture quality isn't the problem for me. I was watching last night's game and it kept freezing every 5 minutes. It now won't even allow me to watch the replay due to some licensing agreement issues. What is going on at Kayo?

 

[Demonic Ascent]

No problems with Kayo here, plays HD very reliably. I've got about 4 chromecasts, including an old one, all seem fine. Kayo could be failing for you for a number of reasons:
1. the chromecast or whatever technology you're using just may not be powerful enough.
2. Poor wifi in your house, which could include contention, could be bottlenecking your Internet connection.
3. You may have an internet connection that is poor in quality - for example you may have a cheap provider who rams as many customers as they can into their pipe
4. Your Internet provider maybe using dodgy routing, for example you connection to the kayo endpoints may be getting routed via NZ
5. You may be using a vpn, pushing your traffic to be routed via the US or elsewhere, which will introduce huge latency issues.

Go to Speed Test - Telstra and do a speed test. For Full HD Kayo say you need a download speed of at least 7.5Mbps, I'd say 20Mbps is more realistic for various reasons - you may also be fighting for bandwidth at the times you are watching Kayo.

You can either try and troubleshoot, or you can just ignore it and get a full foxtel subscription

No the problem is on kayo's side. Everything else runs smooth and the problems are widespread. It is because they do not invest enough in their servers, if they want to stream live sports they need to have powerful servers as it can't buffer like a normal on demand service can.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Aussies just don't do internet streaming very well. The other issue is with such deep discounts over the years kayo have to save money somewhere and it comes at the expense of the streaming quality. The compression they use would rival your favourite pr0n videos from the early 2000s.

I had massive issues on Thursday night, couldn't get out of 480p. I have a gigabit connection and my Chromecast is wired via ethernet.

I thought Chromecast was only via wifi?

 

[Demonic Ascent]

So I tried a Kayo trial and the problem looks like a frame rate problem.
Ugly.

Somewhere frames are being lost.

Live or replay? Live seems ok but replay they compress it and it looks shithouse. If it's live might have to adjust the frame rate on your tv?

I reckon it must be android app or something crashing it, still haven't had a single crash chromecasting it off a PC

Playing on AppleTV app and Android TV app (and Android mobile app) is generally fine but the other day I was playing on the laptop with HDMI connection to tv and it was very choppy so while it didn't crash the quality was far worse for me on laptop.

 

[smeltitdeltit]

Live or replay? Live seems ok but replay they compress it and it looks shithouse. If it's live might have to adjust the frame rate on your tv?


Playing on AppleTV app and Android TV app (and Android mobile app) is generally fine but the other day I was playing on the laptop with HDMI connection to tv and it was very choppy so while it didn't crash the quality was far worse for me on laptop.

Strange. Was watching the GWS v Hawks replay yesterday. First 3/4 we’re fine. Pressed pause for an hour, stream wouldnt reload for about ten minutes across multiple devices (would come up with an error) then eventually worked but the quality and frame rate went to shit. Almost unwatchable. It was like the server had deleted the HD stream and compressed it.

 

[PAFC_FOREVER]

I thought Chromecast was only via wifi?

OTG solution.

Basically a Type C pass through with extra inputs. Bit messy with extra cabling but it works.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

No problems with Kayo here, plays HD very reliably. I've got about 4 chromecasts, including an old one, all seem fine. Kayo could be failing for you for a number of reasons:
1. the chromecast or whatever technology you're using just may not be powerful enough.
2. Poor wifi in your house, which could include contention, could be bottlenecking your Internet connection.
3. You may have an internet connection that is poor in quality - for example you may have a cheap provider who rams as many customers as they can into their pipe
4. Your Internet provider maybe using dodgy routing, for example you connection to the kayo endpoints may be getting routed via NZ
5. You may be using a vpn, pushing your traffic to be routed via the US or elsewhere, which will introduce huge latency issues.

Go to Speed Test - Telstra and do a speed test. For Full HD Kayo say you need a download speed of at least 7.5Mbps, I'd say 20Mbps is more realistic for various reasons - you may also be fighting for bandwidth at the times you are watching Kayo.

You can either try and troubleshoot, or you can just ignore it and get a full foxtel subscription

I tried the speed test last night and got over 50. And Kayo has been terrible for me this season, never had any major problems with it before. I was disappointed when Kayo lost the A-League and it was pretty bemusing that I had to scroll past things like 'e-sports' and 'extreme sports' to get to 'soccer' on the list of sports (not in alphabetical order by the way) but everything else was good.

It's pretty infuriating that the quality of Kayo has gone down the toilet at the same time as NBA League Pass. Kayo had actually become my go-to for NBA games this year, despite having League Pass, that's how bad League Pass has become. But now that the playoffs are on and more people are watching, it appears that Kayo's gone to shit there too.

 

[copthat]

Kayo did an update at some point late last year which made the entire site worse.

Couple of examples;
Whenever an ad starts playing it seems to be using a system similar to Youtube/Twitch where it will stop playing the main broadcast and replace it with embedded ads, then re-load the broadcast stream when the ad has finished.

Well sometimes it fails to load the ad correctly which causes the entire stream to die with the error 'You are experiencing network issues' or something along those lines.

As a result I have to continually restart the stream.

This must be the issue with mine. Whenever there is an ad break the stream cuts out. Ridiculous.

 

[Alberto_Magnifico]

I Chromecast from my Pixel 6 to an Xbox and it has been better this year than ever before

 

[PieLebo87]

No problems with Kayo here, plays HD very reliably. I've got about 4 chromecasts, including an old one, all seem fine. Kayo could be failing for you for a number of reasons:
1. the chromecast or whatever technology you're using just may not be powerful enough.
2. Poor wifi in your house, which could include contention, could be bottlenecking your Internet connection.
3. You may have an internet connection that is poor in quality - for example you may have a cheap provider who rams as many customers as they can into their pipe
4. Your Internet provider maybe using dodgy routing, for example you connection to the kayo endpoints may be getting routed via NZ
5. You may be using a vpn, pushing your traffic to be routed via the US or elsewhere, which will introduce huge latency issues.

Go to Speed Test - Telstra and do a speed test. For Full HD Kayo say you need a download speed of at least 7.5Mbps, I'd say 20Mbps is more realistic for various reasons - you may also be fighting for bandwidth at the times you are watching Kayo.

You can either try and troubleshoot, or you can just ignore it and get a full foxtel subscription

I am technologically illiterate and don’t understand half the things you’ve said. But I just did the speed test and it came back at 54mbps. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.

Ps: my only issue with Kayo is I find it’s a few seconds delayed. The WhatsApp messages go off about a goal before I’ve watched it happen and it annoys the shit out of me.

 

[BIRDBRAIN]

Yeah if you need the action to be 100% up to date to the second a streaming service is not for you, stick to Foxtel.

 

[jim boy]

I am technologically illiterate and don’t understand half the things you’ve said. But I just did the speed test and it came back at 54mbps. I don’t know if that’s good or bad.

Ps: my only issue with Kayo is I find it’s a few seconds delayed. The WhatsApp messages go off about a goal before I’ve watched it happen and it annoys the s**t out of me.

54mbs is plenty for Kayo - and it will always be delayed by at least 30 seconds, that's just the nature of the technology

 

[Billy ray]

that's just the nature of the technology

Odd when new technology is worse than old technology.

All hail the 🛰