I watched the TVU Network through to the end without any problems whatsoever with regard to the stability of the Versus feed. No stuttering or buffering problems at all. I do not know who these TVU people are, but their network capacity must very, very high. As you know, today was a flat stage for sprinters, and I was half expecting the increased load on their network to cause problems during the last 20 km or so, but we were pleasantly surprised.
I used an old Compaq laptop today for the viewing with IE ver. 7+, Windows Media Viewer ver . 11, and have a dedicated - hardwired (no routers) - DSL comm. line at 3.3 Mbps max. Measured the line speed at 2.2 Mbps prior to the race and at 2.1 Mbps after the race. The Versus stream was stable even at the end when I thought that, as more viewers would join the stream, the increased load would cause network problems. There were none. During the race, I measured the speed of the TVU-Versus stream to be 305 Kbps. Stream was quite watchable throughout the entire race.
This feed is the same Versus feed that is available on cable and satellite TV. The TVU Versus feed seems to be out of time sync. with the DirectTV sat. feed by about 2 seconds - not that this should bother anyone though. I have reason to suspect that these TUV people are acquiring their Versus feed from DirectTV.
Would recommend that when you update your TdF web site later today, you mention that Versus will be broadcasting an "enhanced" replay of today's stage at 20:00 hours EST each evening for the duration of the TdF (for those velo addicts who cannot catch the live Versus feed via TUV). Tell your readers to refer to the Versus TdF schedule you link to on your web site.
TVU's viewing portal installed quickly and easily - no problems whatsoever. Cannot speak, at this time, as to the integrity of the software, i.e. whether or not it contains malicious code or "spyware" - but will run the viewer through some security software soon to check it out.
Also recommend that you consider mentioning this feed for the Vuelta which is coming up in September - Versus carried the Vuelta last year.
Later,
David