I’m in Spain with an internet connection that delivers about 10Mb/s of usable throughput (billed as more but that’s life). Recently using ExpressVPN to get to the UK to watch iPlayer has become a nightmare. Essentially it starts but after a very short time (minutes, sometimes seconds) pauses, plays for a minute or two, restarts, and this repeats. Pausing play helps for a while (clearly it builds up a buffer) then back to that behaviour.
I’ve tried with both the native app for the Firestick and connected to a router based OpenVPN connection and the same behaviour is exhibited on both the Fire Stick and Roku (the latter of which does not have a native VPN app).
Other UK streaming services have much less problem, although they do freeze occasionally.
FWIW this is on the “UK Docklands” server the default “recommended” server from the app. I did briefly try it on “UK East London” with the same effect on iPlayer, but less success as other services (in particular ITVhub) detected the VPN so even if had solved the issue would not be great as ideally a single connection for all the UK services is best (swapping VPNs to watch a different programme is hardly “wife friendly”).
Anyone else seeing this and any thoughts on if it is fixable?
Same happening with me. I asked similar Q here few months back.
Other people have experienced same problem but with no fix using the vpn unfortunately.
Hopefully you have more luck as it is a nightmare !
I swapped to a different VPN provider (Nord) and the problem has not reoccurred. I will await a few weeks to see if this is a coincidence (it could be effects on the underlying connections after all that have gone away), but right now it is not looking like the ExpressVPN subscription will be renewed.
We managed to watch all of Line of Duty live last night without a single glitch, so that kept my wife happy at least.
I put the iplayer on standard video settings from best quality it has helped. When I watch a 30min show it does crap out and I have to reopen and resume and normally plays for the rest of it. I think bbc I just strangling all connections they suspect are from a vpn service.
I can’t even get the iPlayer to even launch.
I change to standard setting as a matter of course and it helps a bit. I think it is a mix of the iPlayer video being poorly designed compared to other streaming services (its bandwidth accommodation is nowhere near as good as Netflix’s or Amazon’s) and the VPN behaving poorly at times too. I think the better buffering and quality back off on Netflix/Amazon hides the stutters in the VPN that iPlayer just pauses on.
That sounds more like an issue with stick than the VPN. As much as it’s a pain, I would be inclined to do a factory reset on the stick, then install the VPN and get it active, then install iPlayer (so it thinks you are in the UK during the install).
Normally iPlayer launches for me, but if the VPN is not active gives an error when you start to play something. The error seems device specific, sometimes it just tells you you are in the the wrong country, other times it is something obscure.
The problems I have are when it is actually streaming. I think I have worked out that part of it is just poor design in iPlayer - it is not nearly as smart in its bandwidth handling and buffering than other streaming services like Netflix or Amazon - and in part how the VPN interacts with my connection (which is prone to occasional dropouts). NordVPN is definitely better than ExpressVPN for iPlayer, but is still not perfect, but whereas with Express it is often more or less unusable with pauses every minute or so, with Nord it might hiccup only once or twice an hour.
It was very bad a few months ago with most BBC content not playing at all. Then it was fixed and has been fine since end Jan.
I’m in South East Asia.