Forum Topics
Technical Support: VOD Buffering
Right now, and for quite some time, there is no benefit to vip. Daily vod, unwatchable. Recorded privates, unwatchable. I hope this is resolved soon, please.
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Sorry for the delay guys. We are still working on this. We really appreciate everyone's patience. Once we have an update we will let you all know! 
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Patience is not the word I would have chosen to describe this group 😂🤣
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Do you have any update Ashlee/Angela?
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I checked in with Systems and it looks like they are going to lighten the load on the equipment that serves VOD, commercials, and photos. They are doing a final integrity check on new servers and will start the transfer tomorrow which will reduce the volume of processes on the current equipment. While the transfer isn't anticipated to be completed until the 29th, they are optimistic that as the transfer is happening, the VOD servers will be less stressed and playback will improve prior to the 29th since the redistribution of traffic over twice as many servers should balance the load.
We apologize for this inconvenience. As you know, we have been growing at an alarming rate in model rooms, site features, and traffic volume, and continue to add infrastructure to accommodate the growth. Unfortunately, we did not anticipate the volume of photo traffic and suffered a bottleneck in requests. Our goal is always to provide you with the best experiences, but every once in awhile, we step on our own shoelace and stumble. We thank you for your patience as we go through these growing pains and we look forward to delivering you new premium experiences with our expansion and upgrades.
What is the status on this? Its now February 3rd. The VOD buffering seems to persist. Did the new servers get deployed? I hope not, because just now watching a VOD, it was buffering so badly that it was not worth the price...
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We apologize for this inconvenience. As you know, we have been growing at an alarming rate in model rooms, site features, and traffic volume, and continue to add infrastructure to accommodate the growth. Unfortunately, we did not anticipate the volume of photo traffic and suffered a bottleneck in requests. Our goal is always to provide you with the best experiences, but every once in awhile, we step on our own shoelace and stumble. We thank you for your patience as we go through these growing pains and we look forward to delivering you new premium experiences with our expansion and upgrades.
What is the status on this? Its now February 3rd. The VOD buffering seems to persist. Did the new servers get deployed? I hope not, because just now watching a VOD, it was buffering so badly that it was not worth the price...
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Based on our testing, it appears the systems team was able to finally able to clear the way for VOD traffic.
Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as we sorted out this matter. Please let us know if you find the issue continuing. Quote
Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as we sorted out this matter. Please let us know if you find the issue continuing. Quote
Created by:
graybearphx
2/3/21 @ 9:57pm
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Posts: 569
Based on our testing, it appears the systems team was able to finally able to clear the way for VOD traffic.
Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as we sorted out this matter. Please let us know if you find the issue continuing.
The good news: Yes, it is a dramatic improvement over what I saw even a couple of days ago. Even though I did not have enough time to watch a complete VOD tonight, I tried a sample of three VODs in my "vault" (one a week old, one a year old, one almost two years old).
The bad (but not awful) news: Not 100%. I'd give it about a 90-95% right now, as I still see some BRIEF buffering delays in the two older VODs. A little annoying, but not enough to make them unwatchable.
I don't recall any buffering AT ALL at the very beginning, when I joined F4F and started watching VODs here like 2 years ago. So, can we hope for perfection, as you keep working on it? (Honestly not that important to me, but it would be nice.)
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Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as we sorted out this matter. Please let us know if you find the issue continuing.
The good news: Yes, it is a dramatic improvement over what I saw even a couple of days ago. Even though I did not have enough time to watch a complete VOD tonight, I tried a sample of three VODs in my "vault" (one a week old, one a year old, one almost two years old).
The bad (but not awful) news: Not 100%. I'd give it about a 90-95% right now, as I still see some BRIEF buffering delays in the two older VODs. A little annoying, but not enough to make them unwatchable.
I don't recall any buffering AT ALL at the very beginning, when I joined F4F and started watching VODs here like 2 years ago. So, can we hope for perfection, as you keep working on it? (Honestly not that important to me, but it would be nice.)
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I would say that there is still as much buffering, but the pauses seem to be shorter
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Created by:
graybearphx
2/4/21 @ 6:19pm
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Posts: 569
I had some time to do more testing of the "fix" mentioned, and I have to agree with the response right above.
There is STILL a LOT of buffering going on, with the pauses as frequent as before, but they do not LAST as long as they did. I would actually say that about 75% of the problem was fixed. Better, but NOT GOOD ENOUGH, F4F. Quote
There is STILL a LOT of buffering going on, with the pauses as frequent as before, but they do not LAST as long as they did. I would actually say that about 75% of the problem was fixed. Better, but NOT GOOD ENOUGH, F4F. Quote
Created by:
male4622
2/6/21 @ 10:35am
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: United States
Posts: 571
Based on our testing, it appears the systems team was able to finally able to clear the way for VOD traffic.
Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as we sorted out this matter. Please let us know if you find the issue continuing.
It doesn't appear its cured. I'm still seeing buffering though it appears to be improved.
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Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as we sorted out this matter. Please let us know if you find the issue continuing.
It doesn't appear its cured. I'm still seeing buffering though it appears to be improved.
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I have to agree... this isn’t addressed. I’ve gotten to start a video, pause so that some video segments are downloaded. At about the 3 minute mark of cached video, I start.
At 6 minutes, I see the prefect is falling behind. At 9 minutes, it’s now buffering and stalling and can not keep up with normal video playback.
This was just now fir a video recorded today!!!
It’s not fixed folks... please do not say it is... buffering and passing every 3 seconds.. Quote
At 6 minutes, I see the prefect is falling behind. At 9 minutes, it’s now buffering and stalling and can not keep up with normal video playback.
This was just now fir a video recorded today!!!
It’s not fixed folks... please do not say it is... buffering and passing every 3 seconds.. Quote
I have to agree... this isn’t addressed. I’ve gotten to start a video, pause so that some video segments are downloaded. At about the 3 minute mark of cached video, I start.
At 6 minutes, I see the prefect is falling behind. At 9 minutes, it’s now buffering and stalling and can not keep up with normal video playback.
This was just now fir a video recorded today!!!
It’s not fixed folks... please do not say it is... buffering and passing every 3 seconds..
Thank you legman61, for posting those details. I've passed this along to the developers that are working on this as it may help them with their investigation. We thought it was fixed, but discovered that it was still happening intermittently. Our apologies for jumping the gun. We are going to continue to find a fix for this, so it may take a little longer than expected. Thanks again for your patience.
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At 6 minutes, I see the prefect is falling behind. At 9 minutes, it’s now buffering and stalling and can not keep up with normal video playback.
This was just now fir a video recorded today!!!
It’s not fixed folks... please do not say it is... buffering and passing every 3 seconds..
Thank you legman61, for posting those details. I've passed this along to the developers that are working on this as it may help them with their investigation. We thought it was fixed, but discovered that it was still happening intermittently. Our apologies for jumping the gun. We are going to continue to find a fix for this, so it may take a little longer than expected. Thanks again for your patience.
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Thank you legman61, for posting those details. I've passed this along to the developers that are working on this as it may help them with their investigation. We thought it was fixed, but discovered that it was still happening intermittently. Our apologies for jumping the gun. We are going to continue to find a fix for this, so it may take a little longer than expected. Thanks again for your patience.
lol it's been two months since the first complaint about this, maybe you need to spend a little more and get programmers who actually know what they're doing!
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I have to agree... this isn’t addressed. I’ve gotten to start a video, pause so that some video segments are downloaded. At about the 3 minute mark of cached video, I start.
At 6 minutes, I see the prefect is falling behind. At 9 minutes, it’s now buffering and stalling and can not keep up with normal video playback.
This was just now fir a video recorded today!!!
It’s not fixed folks... please do not say it is... buffering and passing every 3 seconds..
Lehman, you can count yourself very lucky if you can go 3 minutes before any buffering! I still get as much buffering, but definitely for a much shorter time
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At 6 minutes, I see the prefect is falling behind. At 9 minutes, it’s now buffering and stalling and can not keep up with normal video playback.
This was just now fir a video recorded today!!!
It’s not fixed folks... please do not say it is... buffering and passing every 3 seconds..
Lehman, you can count yourself very lucky if you can go 3 minutes before any buffering! I still get as much buffering, but definitely for a much shorter time
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I am having this issue as well. All older videos are stuttering and freezing completely unwatchable. this is both happening in the latest version of chrome and safari on a mac. Other sites are not impacted.
I am wondering if the dropping of support of Flash has made the issue worse...? i say this as I didnt notice the issue before Christmas. Quote
I am wondering if the dropping of support of Flash has made the issue worse...? i say this as I didnt notice the issue before Christmas. Quote
I originally thought it was just the older VODs that were really buffering a lot. But I tried viewing VODs made in the past week, and they are just as bad.
Not QUITE as bad as they were when this thread started, but darned close. The pauses are not as long, but still as frequent and annoying. Definitely not acceptable. Quote
Not QUITE as bad as they were when this thread started, but darned close. The pauses are not as long, but still as frequent and annoying. Definitely not acceptable. Quote
This is getting ridiculous, this has been going for 2 1/2 months now and it is still not fix. I am starting to regret renewing my membership for 6 months. The one thing I have noticed that best time watch VOD's without much buffering problems is 6pm CST. I have notice this for a few weeks now.
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Created by:
male4622
2/17/21 @ 10:35am
(EST) |UTC - 5:00
Location: United States
Posts: 571
Started this thread on 12/9. It's 2/17. There has been little progress. I think it's time that Flirt4Free levels with us about this and if there will ever be a fix at all. We have been asked to be patient and to ride it out, and I've been apologetic when my frustration has boiled up a bit. I just don't think this must be a priority because if it was a priority, it would have been fixed. That's just my opinion, and I'm sorry if that seems harsh.
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We totally understand everyone's frustration, we really do. We couldn't be apologetic enough. I can assure you that getting this resolved is one of our top priorities. It's just been a tough nut to crack. This is not an easy fix and will take a bit more time to get it resolved. The team of developers have been meeting daily and working diligently together to get this matter resolved. We promise there will be a fix, it's just going to take a bit longer than we expected and for that we are very sorry. Thanks again for your patience.
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