COX Throttles Amazon Video ?

I think as far as our end is concerned we need to find out if you're experiencing any service level issues.  I would start by asking what tier of service you're subscribed to.  Also, can you sign into your cox.net account and run the speed test under Internet Tools a few times and see what speeds you're getting?  It would also be helpful if you could go to http://192.168.100.1 in your browser and post the signal stats and modem logs if they're available on your particular modem.  Have you done any testing without your router to see if that makes a difference?

From me to many US based servers I routinely see 60Mbps... and generally service appears robust (reasonable DOCSIS3 error rates).

The issue appears service between COX servers and Amazon is being hampered: very specific traffic. Though, I've also noticed recent reliability issues when making FTP transfers to my domain hosts (NetSol). Again, I can't prove its COX yet... but I just moved the Amazon traffic to a network I can use NetMonitor to see what's really going on.

Maybe some trace routes between you and your desired destination will show something regarding latency along the path we can look at.

Sony Tech Support just hinted they may have recently changed the Bravia TV apps (updated when a person "refreshes" internet content), and no longer support HD and 5.1 audio...

Why they would do such a thing is beyond me, unless there is some licensing issue between Sony and Amazon. Amazon Tech Support is a bit surprised since their Sony units have also gone backwards... one day doing HD/5.1, the next only stereo...

It sounds like you may be closer to the solution to your problem although I though your issue was performance related unless there is somehow a connection between the audio and performance.

Amazon was initially pointing fingers at my setting, then my network, and then since my network is working normally, something between my ISP and Amazon (my question about throttling)... Then a day later when Amazon internal devices started showing the same symptoms I went to Sony for answers.  They claim no changes... so still no resolution. But my TV is set to do automatic updates, and I think did an Internet Content Update within the time frame things went south... pretty sure owners of Sony Bravia Internet TV's have been screwed and will never get the HD service back.

I see my speeds stay around 50mbs (as I pay for) and like you, I have laughable slow speeds on streaming sites in general....Hulu, Amazon, and YouTube.

I would say that it must be those other servers except when I pull out my Verizon LTE phone....I get virtually 5x the speed on those sites.

If you try without the router to you see the same results with streaming sites? 

Chris - 

I have been using the same HW configuration for nearly four years (10 months at this address), and have had great success watching streaming video in HD/5.1. Around April 17 that all changed and now Amazon is reporting I have a slow internet connection ("It appears the bitrate we receiving is 956Kbps which barely meets the standard definition quality."); I have tested other video sites and can get reasonable HD from them (though YouTube seems lacking when selecting 1080p content). 

Since my router hasn't changed, and all my SpeedTest results remain excellent (60Mbps down/20Mbps up), I really doubt my router has failed or is giving me any new problems (and its a gigabit router, so it can sleep through 10 meg WAN rates my TV is using). 

Other cable users are having similar problems with Amazon video. And they are reporting their issues started about the same time I noticed it:

http://www.amazon.com/forum/amazon%20video%20on%20demand/ref=cm_cd_t_rvt_np?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx3EQAX98ED5WQ3&cdPage=6&cdThread=Tx1LEEPMR1UI9MS#CustomerDiscussionsNew

Problem is that trying to determine the cause of the slowness is really difficult when you don't have access to both ends of the wire; and Amazon isn't forthcoming with the IP addresses of their servers so a person can do net tracing to find where the issue is. 

If you try without the router to you see the same results with streaming sites? 

It's possible there is an Amazon capacity issue however we won't be able to confirm that one way or another.  Trying without the router is something that can be done to at least determine if it has any effect on the problem or not.

I thought may as well since I hate to give up and cancel my Amazon account...

I RESET my TV back to factory...

I unplugged the cable modem...

I direct connected the TV GigE port to the cable modem...

Powered up the cable modem...

I set the TV to find the network (DHCP)...

Ta-da !!!  As I expected, exactly the same.  Removing the router made zero difference.  

If only I had access to the routers between me and Amazon - I could use my CCNA/CCNP experience to find out what's really happening. But I doubt COX nor Amazon would like that.

Some trace route data between you and the target host may yield useful data.  If you're not sure of that information you might be able to obtain it using wireshark or perhaps tracking your DNS request traffic.

NetMonitor or Wireshark would help me id the stream servers -- but its "not my problem" in the sense Amazon or COX changed something that affects more than me. And, even if I find something - nether COX nor Amazon will let me talk to anyone that can fix it. Its a business level decision that will take attorneys to solve.

My hope would be that should you turn up something quantifiable that suggests a problem within our network I could take that to somebody that could take corrective action. 

What makes me believe COX might have a hand in the "slowness" is the secondary fact even with my '95th percentile' ISP data rates I can't reliably stream YouTube at 1080p, either.  I seriously doubt Google's servers are unable to keep up with demand at the times of day I am playing in my sandbox.  To be honest, I had better luck with streaming on my first 1.5 meg DSL link than I am having with my current 50 meg COX link...  At my last residence, my Comcast 25 meg link was far superior for streaming and overall reliable data movement (a Linux distro or DVD full of dev tools came in at a solid 3 MB/s). COX comes in at 2.5MB/s for similar downloads (half of what I am paying for since 50Mbps should be close to 5MB/s).

I'm about ready to go back to ink and paper...