Effect of Internet Service Quality on Streaming?

@jkevinoc , I believe you are correct in the way that modern playback software works. But I don’t believe the “captured” and cached stream would be a bit-perfect copy of an equivalent purchased local file at the same bit rate. Possibly due to differences in the streaming company’s source file, and possibly due to errors introduced in the stream that the cached copy came from originally (due to noise or jitter). And yes, I am aware that the Ethernet protocol has error correction built in, but I still believe noise and jitter are still factors.

@jeffseight , I am based in western Canada. Never heard of the device you are referring to but I’ll look into it - thanks for the suggestion.

I’ve not been able to measure the quality of my power as I don’t have a meter that reads THD. I mentioned above that I had measured my internet service quality using Fusion network tests (a website you go to and click to start the test). Measures jitter, latency, download and upload speed. And as I mentioned, when the sound is bad, jitter and latency go from their normal 3ms and 12ms to spikes of 40ms or so and 70ms, respectively.  I’m simply guessing that AC quality is also poorer during those times.

@nyev Could the TV be sending out some sort of interference? Could it be one of the components (doubtful). What kind of lights are in use near by? Is there some big eclectic using appliance near by? Micro wave tower near by?

Perhaps I missed it but have you tried another streamer?

’Round suppah time is when internet usage in residential areas is highest.

FYI I use starlink and that’s way up from the 12MB service before it.

@wsrrsw I’ve tried cutting power to the TV, and yeah, I did think of that.  No devices or appliances are near my system. LED household pot lights are near by. No cell towers or anything nearby that I know of.  It’s generally (but not always) the same time windows when quality tanks so pretty sure it’s related to AC and possibly internet service quality blips.

Yes, I’ve tried three different streamers (Innuos, Grimm, N20).

@jeffseight just read up on the Add Power devices and they sure look interesting.  Would definitely like to try one if I could but at the same time, it doesn’t look designed to deal with the specific issues that I’m having.