MK802: Video performance and Youtube issues

In a lot of previous posts, I have talked about having video performance problems and Youtube connection issues.  There was some evidence that suggested that both were related to having overall network issues on my home network.  It seems like some video formats could not use the hardware decoder if there was streaming issues.  Also, Youtube seemed to buffer and hang a lot, on both HD and SD modes.

While traveling for the holiday's, I brought my MK802 with me.  In a previous post, I talked about how my family really enjoyed the technology.  This event did give me an opportunity to use the device in another network to see what issues occur or disappear.

As far as video performance, AVI/XVID files on the SD card were still not using the hardware decoder in MX Player.  That didn't seam to be an issue, though.  The software decoder was able to handle the load.  MX Player still could not play HD content, though.  I had to use the bundled HD Player.  This made it a bit awkward, because depending on the type of format I was about to play, I had to switch between video players.  This caused people to be a little confused, but as long as I was the one that was controlling the device, everyone was fine with it.  All local videos did play fine, however.

Next, I fired up the Youtube app.  I tried playing an HD video, but it wouldn't play.  The buffering progress bar wasn't moving.  I switched it to SD and the buffering bar started to move, but it still took 30 seconds before a video started.  This was worse when a commercial would play because it took 30 seconds for the commercial to buffer, then another 30 seconds of silence for the video to buffer.  This could an issue with the Wifi at the house, though.  The WiFi signal was kind of low there.  I fired up Wifi Analyzer on my phone and discovered that 4 WiFi networks were sharing channel 6.  There was a 5th network on channel 7, but none above that.  There were 3 networks below channel 5 but their signal strength made it seem like they were farther away.  The local WiFi was strong enough that I could stream Pandora with no delay, however.

This leads me to believe their might be something wrong with the networking on the MK802.  My buddy has an MK802 and he doesn't seem to have the problems I do, but he hasn't done as much as I have with the device.  I'm waiting for the opportunity to test it on another network.