VMB: Problem with Sky Channel 5 on demand
 

I have found that over a Virgin Media business broadband service a Sky+HD box (DRX890) cannot download Channel 5 on demand content. As an example their" Worlds Greatest Bridges" series all fail after a lengthy pause. iPlayer downloads on the same box, in comparison, work fine.

I am wondering if anyone could test this for me on a VM Consumer broadband account, as when talking to VM about this it would be useful to know if the problem is limited to their business service or not.

Re: VMB: Problem with Sky Channel 5 on demand
 

it works for me on a residential connection.

Sky on demand programmes (from all channels, including BBC/ITV/C4/C5) are served from cdn.sky.com. However Channel 5 also uses Sky Adsmart to deliver custom adverts which it retrieves at the start of the download. If your box can't connect to the ad server this may be causing it to fail.

When trying the download of World's Greatest Bridges episode 1, my router showed the Sky box accessing the following URLs. Can you ping/tracert them all?

2018-1-01 13:36:04 images.metadata.sky.com
2018-1-01 13:36:04 adm.sky.com
2018-1-01 13:36:06 cdn.sky.com
2018-1-01 13:36:06 a564.hsar.cdn.sky.com

Re: VMB: Problem with Sky Channel 5 on demand
 

Thanks for this testing to help me - I really appreciate it.
I can ping all of those hosts apart from adm.sky.com, which resolves to 80.238.13.1, but doesn't respond to a ping. a trace gets as far as ip-80-238-0-245.bsysb.com [80.238.0.245] but no further.

From a BT ADSL connection adm.sky.com resolves to 176.255.205.153, but also doesn't respond to a ping.

Downloading works for ADSL but not Virgin Media Business.

Re: VMB: Problem with Sky Channel 5 on demand
 

80.238.13.1 / adm.sky.com shows the same result for me, it times out after "ip-80-238-0-245.bskyb.com". However the programme successfully downloads, along with the adverts, so the Sky box must be able to access it.

As you're able to access BBC content your box must be able to reach the download server, the only difference for C5 content is it connects to an ad server too. Do programmes from Sky One (or any other Sky branded channel) work? as these also use dynamic adverts.

Re: VMB: Problem with Sky Channel 5 on demand
 

Thanks for your continued help with this. I've tried a few things this evening - all work fine via BT broadband, however via Virgin Media Business I can download content on the Sky box from BBC channels and ITV, but Sky 1, Channel 4 & Channel 5 content all fails in the same - way a long pause while it says downloading, but the red light does not come on and then fails. So I think this supports your idea that this might be a failed connection to the dynamic advertising system. Question now do we know what that is so I have something specific to go to Virgin with?

Re: VMB: Problem with Sky Channel 5 on demand
 

I would say it's gotta be down to the sky box not liking the GRE tunnel? Maybe as it thinks it's going through a VPN? Only a possibility though I'm not an expert of any sort on these things!

Re: VMB: Problem with Sky Channel 5 on demand
 

It works just fine for iPlayer / ITV though, and used to work fine for Ch5 etc. So I think cje85 is onto something here with a potential failure to connect to the dynamic adverts server.

Re: VMB: Problem with Sky Channel 5 on demand
 

Yea that's what I meant, maybe the ad server doesn't like the tunnel?

Re: VMB: Problem with Sky Channel 5 on demand
 

Ah I see what you mean. Could be the case - though it used to work ok ...