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Hi -
I recently set up my Vulkano Flow and purchased the $12.99 app to be able to view on my iPhone and iPad. The iPhone is a 4S (64GB) and the iPad is an iPas 2 (64GB). The performance on the iPhone is phenomenal – 1 second of buffering and a crystal clear pic that never stops. The iPas is a different story. Upon launching the app, I get a message saying "Not enough memory available on your device. Timeshift is being disabled." After lengthy buffering I get a mediocre picture that is nowhere near the iPhone results. I notice that the steam Kbps remains lower than on the iPhone and if I ever do get a decent picture it is after 5 min or so and very hard to maintain.
Why would their be such a difference between these devices and the results I see? This is all in my home, over WIFI and in the same spot of the house.
So I researched more and realized I needed more space on my iPad to fix the time shift issue. I freed up 5 GB and that works now. I am still, however, noticing significant quality differences between the devices. In the last test, the iPhone 4S topped out at 3800 Kbps and hovered around 3000 Kbps. The iPad 2 topped out at 1100 Kbps and hovered around 900 Kbps. I can't think of any reason why this would be?
I have a similar issue on my Android phone vs. my Android tablet. The phone works great at all quality settings. On the tablet, only the low quality setting works. Using the medium or high quality setting results in choppy video or half speed video even though the streaming bitrate is fine at over 2 Mbs. I talked to Monsoon customer support and the app developers and what was their answer to the problem?? "Use the low quality setting because its the only one that works". They made no offer to fix their bug or even admit that it was a bug. Terrible support………
That's really strange. I tried the Mac Player as well and I was around 2700 Kbps. So the iPhone 4S and Mac Player are both awesome but the iPad sucks? It doesn't make sense. I am pretty sure the iPad 2 is just as powerful as the iPhone 4S and regardless, that shouldn't reduce the streaming bitrate by 1/3.
A note on your situation with Android vs mine. I have the same issue at all setting (i.e. putting it on High doesn't increase the bitrate).
Yeah, I understand, I"m just saying that the Vulkano mobile apps are buggy and they don't seem to care about fixing them
Well, I have an iphone 4, my wife and iphone 4S, and we have an ipad 2. I just picked up my Flow over lunch ($80 at Radio Shack on sale, who would've thought RS carried these?). I'll be hooking up tonight and will post with my comparison speeds. Although, sounds like I'll be experiencing the same thing as you. I do know that Apple did improve the wifi and 3g hardware in the 4S so that it will download faster than a 4, but not sure about faster than an ipad 2. The ipad 2 has the same processor as the 4S phone, dual core A5 chip. In everything I'm seeing, speed wise the 4S and ipad 2 perform the same with app loading times, rebooting, respringing (now that the new jailbreak is out 
). I'll let you know tonight.
Thanks. I am curious about other users' experience. I noticed today that the iPad did get up to 3800 Kbps but it was after a looong time (15 min?) whereas the iPhone takes about 20 seconds to get there. This is terribly annoying when changing channels because the "build up" to a good picture is lengthy every time.
It definitely isn't (shouldn't be) an issue with hardware. 3800 Kbps on our own network (not going remote) should be nothing. It seems to be that either the Flow is having trouble getting the video to the iPad or the app is not functioning correctly on the iPad.
Despite these issues, I must say that this thing is a beast at under $100 (I paid $99 on Amazon). I haven't tried it remotely and would probably rarely ever use it that way (and likely only on wifi). The performance in network at home to a Mac and iPhone 4S is very impressive.
If we could just get the app on the iPad working smoothly and some fullscreen video out via airplay it would be incredible.
Well, got home and got it all hooked up and all I can say is "wow". I was not expecting the video quality I'm getting. I am used to the original Slingbox AV (the first one they ever put out) and the quality difference is night and day. I have the component input feeding the Flow from a Comcast basic HD box. I fired up the ipad 2 and connected in no time. I start out slow, like you say, around 500 Kbps, but pretty quickly jump up to ~1,000 in a few seconds, and then by about 20 seconds I'm at ~2,450 and hover there. Even at that bit rate the quality is amazing. It's so near HD quality I just can't believe it. Coming from an old Slingbox this is night and day. I'm trying to figure out how I get to the 3,600 Kbps range like you're seeing after a long time. Maybe if I let it go longer? I'm just now updating the kernel and firmware to the latest version to see if that makes a difference. I haven't tried it on the iphone yet, so in love with the picture on the ipad. High action sports (watched the 76ers NBA team tonight) is just the way it should be. Very happy with my $85 purchase today!
Ok, as I was typing the above reply I was updating the firmware. Just fired up the ipad app again and it's now pegged at 4,000 Kbps, up from the 2,500 I was seeing before. They must have updated that in the firmware upgrade. The firmware that was on it from purchase was a good bit behind the firmware out now. Wow, 4,000 Kbps and it now gets there pretty quick, probably in about 15 seconds.
I agree with you in the picture quality. It is incredible. I tried upgrading the firmware but (as suspected) I had the newest version. I also deleted and re-installed the app from my iPad and it didn't make a difference. I timed it last night and it took 14 min to get up to "HD" quality. It takes about 15 seconds on the iPhone and Macbook Pro. Oh well. It isn't a deal breaker; I was just hoping to get the same results on it.
If you don't mind, could you post the settings you are using on your iPad app (and also what router you use)? I don't think there are many to list. I am just curious.
I'll check my settings when I get home tonight, but pretty sure I have it set to "Best" or "High" picture quality on the Ipad. There's also a setting on the Mac/PC player that you can change that affects the bit rate. I had set that to limit to 1,000 Kbps for remote, and for some reason last night it was limiting me to that while watching at home on the wifi. I was not getting above 1,000. So went on the PC and changed that back to "Best Quality" instead of limiting by bit rate and then it shot back up.
One thing you migth want to look at is your router, and the quality of the signal where you are watching. The ipad wifi antenna is not real great as I'm sure you know and I can see the bit rate drop the further I get from the router. Also things like cordless phones and baby monitors can create a lot of interference and reduce speeds. One thing you should try is going to speedtest.net (or better yet get the free app. It's iphone only, but does the trick on the ipad even if you need to blow it up 2x) and run a speed test from where you watch. That is mainly a test for your internet connection speed, but can be used to look for deficiencies in your signal when on wifi. I get upwards of 20 Mbps download from my viewing location on the ipad. If you see lots of spikes or dips in the feed as its running the test you might have an interference issue.
I do have an wireless dual band N Netgear router. The ipad will pick up either the 2.4ghz or 5 ghz N signal, but the 2.4ghz surprisingly is faster and more consistent. If you have an older G router that would also not be helping your cause. I really like my router (N600 I believe) and it gets a good 3 beacon signal to my ipad and iphone with it in the basement and the devices on the first floor.
Anyway, those are some things to try. I would not settle for it taking 15 min to reach HD quality level. Like you say, generally you aren't watching things real long on the ipad, so sometimes that might be over half the time you have to watch something.
One other thing, today I was playing around a little bit with some settings. When I got home and tried the Ipad it seemed to top out at 1,000 Kbps again. I did some reading on the forum and it appears that the Vulkano boxes have a common problem that over time their bit rate starts fading. Maybe playing around with the settings does it? Anyway, I pulled the power on the box and when it reset and got back on the network the speeds were back again up in the 3,500-4,000 range. I would try this first to see if it fixes the problem.
