Cathe App Consistently Inconsistent (buffering or stopping) despite steps to restore

L

laurawd

Cathlete
Hello, I have been having a lot of trouble playing videos via the Cathe App on Apple TV and on my iPhone (with both home WiFi AND cellular data), The videos stop constantly, and do not restart. I often have to close out of the APP and come back in to try to get it to play. I have deleted the APP from both my iPhone and AppleTV AND re-downloaded the APP and logged in; I have turned off my routers and my devices. None of this has fixed the problem.

All my other APPS, videos and streaming options are working fine. Please advise?
 
Hi laurawd, We've posted several threads in the Cathe Live & OnDemand Forum about this. We just recently moved Cathe Live to the Akamai network and this means that until all of the Cathe Live videos propagate and are cached from the Akamai storage server to an Akamai cloud server in your geolocation you can expect quality and freezing issues. On my iPhone using the Cathe Live app the videos I have played all are playing fine without any issues, but I've only played some of the videos so far as it takes time to watch 282 videos.

We're continuing to test videos every day just in case there is an unknown problem, but as time passes the video problems seem to become less as expected. I would suggest you try playing all of the videos you want to do for the week now and see what happens. This will also force the videos to be cached in a day or two on a server in your geolocation.
 
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forum_admin said:
Hi laurawd, We've posted several threads in the Cathe Live & OnDemand Forum about this. We just recently moved Cathe Live to the Akamai network and this means that until all of the Cathe Live videos propagate and are cached from the Akamai storage server to an Akamai cloud server in your geolocation you can expect quality and freezing issues. On my iPhone using the Cathe Live app the videos I have played all are playing fine without any issues, but I've only played some of the videos so far as it takes time to watch 282 videos.

We're continuing to test videos every day just in case there is an unknown problem, but as time passes the video problems seem to become less as expected. I would suggest you try playing all of the videos you want to do for the week now and see what happens. This will also force the videos to be cached in a day or two on a server in your geolocation.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I should have specified that my problem is with the OnDemand, not Live App. Is the migration also affecting OnDemand?
 
Hi laurawd,

No, Cathe OnDemand has always been Akamai and the recent change to Cathe Live shouldn't affect anything for Cathe OnDemand.
 
Hi lauarad,

Since this is a problem with Cathe OnDemand I would suggest doing a speed test at https://www.speedtest.net/ . This test will give your download speed and your ping. Obviously, if your download speed is too low you will have issues, but what a lot of people are not familiar with is "ping". If your ping is too high you will get freezing. The good news is "ping" can be adjusted by your ISP by calling them. I'm not saying this is your problem, but it's something you should definitely look at as a possibility. Your ping should be below 11.
 
forum_admin said:
Hi lauarad,

Since this is a problem with Cathe OnDemand I would suggest doing a speed test at https://www.speedtest.net/ . This test will give your download speed and your ping. Obviously, if your download speed is too low you will have issues, but what a lot of people are not familiar with is "ping". If your ping is too high you will get freezing. The good news is "ping" can be adjusted by your ISP by calling them. I'm not saying this is your problem, but it's something you should definitely look at as a possibility. Your ping should be below 11.
Click to expand...

Hello,

I do not have a problem with any other streaming APPs or videos, so I do not think it is the ping speed.
 
Hi laurawd, a speed test is really simple to do. It may not be the answer to your problem, but it gives a starting point to figure out what the issue might be and is a very important first step.
 
forum_admin said:
Hi laurawd, a speed test is really simple to do. It may not be the answer to your problem, but it gives a starting point to figure out what the issue might be and is a very important first step.
Click to expand...

Download - 33.9; Upload 45.6; Ping 9ms; Jitter 12ms; Loss 0%

Thanks
 
I am having a similar issue, On Demand, over half of the videos series are missing from the selection. Were these intentionally removed? I was in the middle of the LITE series and these no longer show as an option.
I have cleared my cache. what other trouble shooting suggestions do you have?
 
shrader471 said:
I am having a similar issue, On Demand, over half of the videos series are missing from the selection. Were these intentionally removed? I was in the middle of the LITE series and these no longer show as an option.
I have cleared my cache. what other trouble shooting suggestions do you have?
Click to expand...

Funny. I tried a short LITE video today on both AppleTV APP and iPhone. The videos show up and start to play, but stop a few seconds in. I'm glad I had a non-Cathe workout, but I am frustrated. It's been about a month of this problem, and I really think that customer service should offer a 1-month refund for this problem. I love Cathe and hope they can solve it, but if it continues I'll have to cancel until it is.
 
shrader471 said:
I am having a similar issue, On Demand, over half of the videos series are missing from the selection. Were these intentionally removed? I was in the middle of the LITE series and these no longer show as an option.
I have cleared my cache. what other trouble shooting suggestions do you have?
Click to expand...

Hi Shrader, we haven't removed any videos from Cathe OnDemand. If you're using the web instead of our apps we had a few days where the search wasn't working correctly for the web version, but all of the videos were and are still there. You just needed to scroll down to find them. But this was fixed yesterday and you can now search again.
 
laurawd said:
Funny. I tried a short LITE video today on both AppleTV APP and iPhone. The videos show up and start to play, but stop a few seconds in. I'm glad I had a non-Cathe workout, but I am frustrated. It's been about a month of this problem, and I really think that customer service should offer a 1-month refund for this problem. I love Cathe and hope they can solve it, but if it continues I'll have to cancel until it is.
Click to expand...

Hi laurawd, we're having issues with Cathe Live right now because of the move, but Cathe OnDemand is working fine and I don't think we have had any other reported playback issues for Cathe OnDemand. This is not something that is a system-wide issue, and as far as I know only affects you, which makes this difficult resolve. I saw your speed test results and your ping is fine. Your download speed is not great but should work unless it fluctuates. But let's simplify things by only testing on your iPhone for now. I would like you to do the following:
  1. Force close the Cathe OnDemand App by swiping it off the screen.
  2. Now launch the Cathe OnDemand app and login again.
  3. Try playing a video? If it doesn't work go to step 4.
  4. Click on the settings icon at the top of the main screen
  5. Make sure " Only Stream over WiFi" is selected.
  6. Go back and try to play another video. If it doesn't work go to Step #7.
  7. Click on the settings icon at the top of the main screen again.
  8. This time turn off " Only Stream over WiFi" and try playing a video again, but make sure you're not in range of your Wifi. We want to make sure this attempt is on cellular. If it doesn't work go to step #9.
  9. Click on the settings icon at the top of the main screen again.
  10. Change the quality setting to good. Also, turn wifi back on
  11. Go back and try to play another video.
I will not be surprised if the above steps don't work, but let's try so we can rule them out. This sounds to me like it might possibly be a DNS issue at your ISP not resolving correctly with the Akamai content cloud server in your geolocation or something with your security login token that has become corrupt. So, contacting your ISP and telling them about your problem and that the content your trying to view is on an Akamai server might help solve this issue. Of course, a lot will depend on who you get in support at your ISP.

Lastly, since you live in Thailand I doubt we have very many Cathletes accessing the Akamai cloud server we use in your area. This means if Akamai has an issue I doubt we would know about it. We can try reaching out to Akamai for help on this, but let's try everything else first. We can also try logging into your account and testing from here, but you will need to contact our customer service for this option. This will only test that your account is working correctly as the server we will connect to will bo an Akamai server in our area, not Thailand. This will not be easy, but I'm sure we can figure this out, so hang in there.
 
forum_admin said:
Hi laurawd, we're having issues with Cathe Live right now because of the move, but Cathe OnDemand is working fine and I don't think we have had any other reported playback issues for Cathe OnDemand. This is not something that is a system-wide issue, and as far as I know only affects you, which makes this difficult resolve. I saw your speed test results and your ping is fine. Your download speed is not great but should work unless it fluctuates. But let's simplify things by only testing on your iPhone for now. I would like you to do the following:
  1. Force close the Cathe OnDemand App by swiping it off the screen.
  2. Now launch the Cathe OnDemand app and login again.
  3. Try playing a video? If it doesn't work go to step 4.
  4. Click on the settings icon at the top of the main screen
  5. Make sure " Only Stream over WiFi" is selected.
  6. Go back and try to play another video. If it doesn't work go to Step #7.
  7. Click on the settings icon at the top of the main screen again.
  8. This time turn off " Only Stream over WiFi" and try playing a video again, but make sure you're not in range of your Wifi. We want to make sure this attempt is on cellular. If it doesn't work go to step #9.
  9. Click on the settings icon at the top of the main screen again.
  10. Change the quality setting to good. Also, turn wifi back on
  11. Go back and try to play another video.
I will not be surprised if the above steps don't work, but let's try so we can rule them out. This sounds to me like it might possibly be a DNS issue at your ISP not resolving correctly with the Akamai content cloud server in your geolocation or something with your security login token that has become corrupt. So, contacting your ISP and telling them about your problem and that the content your trying to view is on an Akamai server might help solve this issue. Of course, a lot will depend on who you get in support at your ISP.

Lastly, since you live in Thailand I doubt we have very many Cathletes accessing the Akamai cloud server we use in your area. This means if Akamai has an issue I doubt we would know about it. We can try reaching out to Akamai for help on this, but let's try everything else first. We can also try logging into your account and testing from here, but you will need to contact our customer service for this option. This will only test that your account is working correctly as the server we will connect to will bo an Akamai server in our area, not Thailand. This will not be easy, but I'm sure we can figure this out, so hang in there.
Click to expand...

Please try to reach out to Akamai for this. I will of course follow your instructions (again), but I have tried playing the APP over SEVERAL WiFi servers as well as by using Cellular Data, and it is not working. (I did notice that a couple of other folks are indeed having trouble with OnDemand, so while there may be few, I am not the only one with issues.) Thanks for your help.
 
forum_admin said:
Hi Shrader, we haven't removed any videos from Cathe OnDemand. If you're using the web instead of our apps we had a few days where the search wasn't working correctly for the web version, but all of the videos were and are still there. You just needed to scroll down to find them. But this was fixed yesterday and you can now search again.
Click to expand...
I see the option to select LITE, but when you click on it, no videos show....it does not matter what PC/ computer I use, LITE series never show..I'm trying to attach a screen shot.
7055
 
Please let me know how to correct this, or provide a refund since I have been using CAthe On Demand for over 6 months, and in the last several week something on your end has changed and I no longer get all the series that I am paying for.
 
Hi laurawd, if you're referring to the comments in the "Ask Cathe" they're referring to mainly Cathe Live. The posts about problems with OnDemand are referring to videos missing when doing a search on Cathe OnDemand. This issue was due to a database table that was out of sync, but this has nothing to do with videos not playing and this issue has been fixed.

As for your issue, the most likely cause is a DNS problem. We've seen something similar to your issue before with Cathe Live and it was caused by one or two ISP's that updated their DNS software. So definitely make sure to contact your ISP.

We can also contact Akamai, but they will need your ip address, city, and country where you live and your ISP. Make sure to only send this information to our customer service at [email protected] - don't post it here where everyone can see it.
 
What can the ISP do to fix the DNS software? I really don't understand how I can fix this issue from here. I have no problems with ANY other services, APPS, videos, streaming, etc. Only Cathe is a problem, and OnDemand specifically. Live doesn't have the same issues.
 
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laurawd said:
What can the ISP do to fix the DNS software? I really don't understand how I can fix this issue from here. I have no problems with ANY other services, APPS, videos, streaming, etc. Only Cathe is a problem, and OnDemand specifically. Live doesn't have the same issues.
Click to expand...

Hello again. I did contact my ISP and told them the problem with the website and APP. I told them what you suggested (about the DNS), and they will test. However, I would so greatly appreciate it if you could work on this from your end as well, since this problem seems to be only between me/my streaming and Cathe services. I find it very odd... (*Still a problem, no matter if I stream via web or APPS, or if I am at home or using another Internet provider.)
 
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