BT Sport buffers on PC

[CarlHY]

Two years ago I had issues with BT sport buffering when viewed on my desktop PC. The solution proffered by BT was install an app on the PC. This worked fine and I had no issues watching live sport.

Today i went to watch Southampton vs Manchester United and found the app is no longer supported.

I tried to watch it on the PC but the same issue from two years ago still exists i.e the picture/sound is constantly buffering/freezing and its impossible to watch.

I tried it on Firefox, Chrome and Edge, all with the same buffering issue.

I also tried watching live badminton on BT SPort 2, this also buffered, so the problem is just not limited to football.

I have watched live football from Sky and Amazon Prime on the PC, it is only BT Sport that gives me this problem.

I can watch the game on a mobile but not a PC.

Why have BT removed the desktop PC app and why have they not resolved this issue with buffering in the last two years ?

[DarrenDev]

99% of customers don't have any issues with buffering in the web player @CarlHY - it's just unfortunate that some hardware fails with it miserably. It's even more rare for all 3 major browsers to fail.  I don't believe there's anything more we can do to improve it - the hardware isn't able to keep up with processing the BT Sport video stream.

The only suggestions I can make are to ensure your Windows and browser versions are fully up to date, and that your PC hardware drivers are too.

The Windows app was written for Windows Phone, which Microsoft stopped supporting in 2019. The desktop app was just an added bonus. It has been allowed to continue for the last few years with only minor modifications to keep it working, however we have major changes coming to BT Sport over the next couple of months that have required us to upgrade all of our back end services.  It would have required a major re-write of the Windows app for it to continue working, and that wasn't deemed worth the expense as the web site offers everything and more.

[CarlHY]

Thank you for your detailed reply.

My windows and browser versions are perfectly adequate for watching live sport on other platforms e.g. NowTV and Amazon Prime.

Two years ago when i first experienced the issue, A BT engineer took over remote control of my PC and could find nothing wrong with the settings/software and/or hardware of my PC, hence i was instructed to download the app.

This issue with buffering has been ongoing for several years, judging by my own experience and that of others who have written to this forum and yet it has not been resolved.

Your technical team should be testing any product before release on all major operating systems, browsers and combinations of both and ensuring it works for 100% of customers.

My other bugbear would be that the BT site is found wanting when it comes to finding information e.g

What are the recommended operating system/browser version/security setting requirements etc for watching live sport on BT Sport?

What systems/PC's etc is it known not to work with or issues exist?

Regards

Carl

[DarrenDev]

The site is tested on all major browsers across all supported operating systems, however it is impossible to test on every hardware combination and no-one can ever guarantee 100% support.
The video we broadcast runs at twice the frame rate of most other providers, and uses content protection that puts a greater strain on the hardware (either the graphics card if it natively supports it, or on the CPU if it doesn't).
Web sites usually offer video at a quality level that your bandwidth is able to support, but don't usually consider whether your hardware can keep up. I've asked the dev lead whether we can either have an option to limit quality, or have it recognise that the hardware is struggling and drop the video quality itself.

[supertoffee1]

It has always been the same for me. It is happening now as I watch Leeds v Everton. The website keeps buffering and the phone app works perfectly. With the amount of complaints about it on this chat there must be something wrong.

[ajfinnie1064]

Same thing here with both the Leeds game and the Southampton game. The app always worked superbly. Buffering very annoying. It's got to the stage where I've ditched trying to watch it on the PC and swapped to the app on my smaller android tablet.

[DarrenDev]

Tonight's Premier League matches were also shown on BT Sport channels 5 to 8 at lower quality. Do they also suffer with buffering?

[CarlHY]

I watched the Leeds v Everton game on the mobile, will any of the games being broadcast tomorrow be on those channels?

If so, I'll make a point of watching to see if the buffering disappears with the lower video quality.

[DarrenDev]

Yes, tomorrow is a huge day for BT Sport with matches on all 10 channels. Check out any of the channels 4-10 for the feeds at a lower frame rate that I'm really hoping your PC will be able to handle.

If all goes well, I'll try to push through a setting to force all channels down to that level.

[CarlHY]

Hi

Channels 1-4 all buffering/freezing to a lesser/greeter extent.

Channels 5-10 all OK, no buffering or freezing even in enhanced video.