# Remote Desktop lags on videos/android emulator



## copenhagen69 (Feb 12, 2017)

i have my home server setup for RDP and I remote in while at work. 

However when I try and watch YouTube or mess around on bluestacks (android emulator) it's laggy. I turned the virtualization setting on in BIOS. 

I am running the Lenovo thinkserver with Xeon CPU. Everything's runs just fine on the server and only messes up when I'm remoting in. 

Is this normal? I can't imagine this being the norm??


----------



## copenhagen69 (Feb 13, 2017)

anything on this? I have looked over the net and find some ideas on how to fix it, but nothing seems to work.

Also I am running Win7 Pro


----------



## DRDNA (Feb 13, 2017)

so your trying to watch the video on the remote PC threw Bluestacks? If so the issue is internet bandwidth I believe. I have a 25 down 2.5 up and have had this issue always. If you lower the quality settings it can get smooth BUT terrible is the quality of the transmitted video. You'd fair better watching the movies or vids from your gmail drive.


----------



## copenhagen69 (Feb 13, 2017)

DRDNA said:


> so your trying to watch the video on the remote PC threw Bluestacks? If so the issue is internet bandwidth I believe. I have a 25 down 2.5 up and have had this issue always. If you lower the quality settings it can get smooth BUT terrible is the quality of the transmitted video. You'd fair better watching the movies or vids from your gmail drive.



sorry for the confusion ... I watch either youtube or play games on the android simulator through blue stacks. Both of those give me the lag. I do not have anything set on high res ... or at least try not to to help with bandwidth needed and all that.


----------



## newtekie1 (Feb 13, 2017)

Yes, this is normal.  Remote desktop, and most of the other remote control applications, isn't designed to do things like video.  Most internet connections don't have a high enough upload speed to stream the full screen constantly changing, especially home internet connections.


----------



## eidairaman1 (Feb 13, 2017)

newtekie1 said:


> Yes, this is normal.  Remote desktop, and most of the other remote control applications, isn't designed to do things like video.  Most internet connections don't have a high enough upload speed to stream the full screen constantly changing, especially home internet connections.



Ive seen the mouse cursor lag on remote desktop in the past.


----------



## copenhagen69 (Feb 13, 2017)

well dang, not what I wanted to hear lol

I was hoping it would have been a little better than this, but I guess I will just have to live with it


----------



## Kursah (Feb 13, 2017)

There's some network issues or serious packet loss if you're seeing mouse cursor lag on modern RDP sessions dude.

RD sessions aren't usually too laggy as far as standard UI in my experience, but it was designed to manage remote systems more-so than stream media and games from them.

I use RDP all the time over my OVPN tunnel to hit my servers and systems at home from all over the country and have no issues as-long-as the site's Internet where I'm at is at least mildly decent. RDP isn't too heavy on bandwidth in my findings and usage of it. I love using RDP to be honest, from a management perspective it sure has been convenient. Between that and remote server management services really make handling Windows Servers a breeze.

But RDP has a place, and media streaming really isn't it. With that, I will say that with Windows 8 and newer, RDP has been improved and I'm able to watch videos just fine over an RDP session to my Win 8.1 VM, and W10 VM. They obviously use more bandwidth to get this done, but it works fine that way. Not sure if it'll work for gaming though...even with emulation.

How are you connecting to RDP? Did you open up port 3389 on your WAN and forward it? Be careful doing that BTW. I'd mask the port with something else or use an Open VPN server tunnel.


----------



## copenhagen69 (Feb 14, 2017)

hmmm I may have to look into win 8 then. I just have not looked at updating my server OS in a long long time since it works for me. Does Plex work with win8? Last time I was thinking about this, it was having issues with win8 or maybe it was win10?

I am connecting through my work laptop and yes I opened a RDP port, but not 3389 I gave it a new port.

What does Open VPN do better than RDP? I have not looked into this ... maybe I should take a look.


----------



## Black.Raven (Feb 14, 2017)

OpenVPN is not remote software. It is a program with a server and a client version.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenVPN

With a client you can connect to a server. The pc/laptop of the client will then be in the network of the server. So this is strictly network, and when you connect to the server you are in your home network via a secure connection.

It then allows you to rdp to the lan ip of your pc/laptop.

Basicly you are protecting the connection to your home network with an extra layer. OpenVPN is lightweight, secure and open source
so you won't have to pay a thing. Takes some more configuration than a standard vpn solution though.

Edit: clarified it a bit


----------



## Kursah (Feb 14, 2017)

copenhagen69 said:


> hmmm I may have to look into win 8 then. I just have not looked at updating my server OS in a long long time since it works for me. Does Plex work with win8? Last time I was thinking about this, it was having issues with win8 or maybe it was win10?
> 
> I am connecting through my work laptop and yes I opened a RDP port, but not 3389 I gave it a new port.
> 
> What does Open VPN do better than RDP? I have not looked into this ... maybe I should take a look.



I've been using Plex for years on 7, 8, 10, Ubuntu, Android and iOS without issue. Plex runs through your web browser for streaming, now if you're talking about running the server services I use Server 2012 R2 (related to Windows 8.1) and have no issues. 

OpenVPN is a VPN tunnel, you should look into it and become more familiar with the concept of VPN, it could treat you well in the future. 

A quick summary, VPN is a Virtual Private Network, what it essentially does is give you an encrypted connection to your LAN over the Internet. OVPN works by having a device or router host the server services on your LAN, then you run a road-warrior configuration where you're connecting a single device to the VPN tunnel so that device has access to the LAN. You can use RDP without needing to open any other ports. It is also far more secure thanks to the encryption. But encryption requires more processing overhead so things can slow down either a little or a lot depending on the hardware and software running the tunnel server services. Still totally worth it to be safe and secure.

RDP over WAN can be dangerous because folks can work their way into your network and systems if they know what to do and look for, plus if you have weak passwords on your server or other devices setup to have remote access, they can take remote control over them and royally screw you. This is not a secure method of remote access, you'd be better off using Teamviewer, ScreenConnect, LogMeIn... or since you run a server, if you have an MS Server OS, you could host RDGateway and use authenticated and more secure RDP access.

Frankly I run RDP over my OVPN tunnel and it works great.


----------



## newtekie1 (Feb 14, 2017)

Kursah said:


> There's some network issues or serious packet loss if you're seeing mouse cursor lag on modern RDP sessions dude.



I've had the mouse lag when the upload on the remote controlled computer is super low.  Like sub-128Kbps.



Kursah said:


> But RDP has a place, and media streaming really isn't it. With that, I will say that with Windows 8 and newer, RDP has been improved and I'm able to watch videos just fine over an RDP session to my Win 8.1 VM, and W10 VM. They obviously use more bandwidth to get this done, but it works fine that way. Not sure if it'll work for gaming though...even with emulation.



I can too on my Win10 server.  I can remote in and watch youtube. But I wouldn't call the experience "fine".  Yes, I can watch the video, but the video is very grainy.  It is watchable, but it is basically like watching youtube at 360p and watching something at full screen 1080p requires about 11Mbps upload speed(according to my router's bandwidth monitoring).  That is a pretty high upload requirement, and the video is still grainy.


----------



## copenhagen69 (Feb 14, 2017)

Black.Raven said:


> OpenVPN is not remote software. It is a program with a server and a client version.
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenVPN
> 
> ...



For all my VPN needs I use Torguard and have never had an issue. Quick easy install and I never need to tinker with it or worry if a setting is good or not.




Kursah said:


> I've been using Plex for years on 7, 8, 10, Ubuntu, Android and iOS without issue. Plex runs through your web browser for streaming, now if you're talking about running the server services I use Server 2012 R2 (related to Windows 8.1) and have no issues.
> 
> OpenVPN is a VPN tunnel, you should look into it and become more familiar with the concept of VPN, it could treat you well in the future.
> 
> ...



Yes I meant the Plex server that I have running. If it works on 8.1 that would be great! I think I may look into moving to 8.1 then to get the better RDP.

haha my bad .. I guess my statement of never heard of VPN was confusing .. I just meant that VPN. I do not have a MS Server OS ... I am using win 7 sadly, but it has worked for everything I needed so I have not felt the need to upgrade.

I would assume my passwords are secure enough to block a basic attack, but if someone really wants into my system they can always find a way. I have tried teamviewer and it was not too bad. Although I found myself coming back to RDP for some reason.



newtekie1 said:


> I've had the mouse lag when the upload on the remote controlled computer is super low.  Like sub-128Kbps.
> 
> I can too on my Win10 server.  I can remote in and watch youtube. But I wouldn't call the experience "fine".  Yes, I can watch the video, but the video is very grainy.  It is watchable, but it is basically like watching youtube at 360p and watching something at full screen 1080p requires about 11Mbps upload speed(according to my router's bandwidth monitoring).  That is a pretty high upload requirement, and the video is still grainy.



my upload speed is around 5MB so I guess I would struggle to hit that, but I dont need 1080P ... 720p would be ok and I would assume the android emulator would suck around the same bandwidth as 720P??


----------



## Kursah (Feb 14, 2017)

copenhagen69 said:


> For all my VPN needs I use Torguard and have never had an issue. Quick easy install and I never need to tinker with it or worry if a setting is good or not.



That is an external VPN, you're connecting to someone else's VPN server and then accessing Internet resources through that connection, this is what folks do to not get tracked for certain things they browse, download or view...be it illegal, region locked or wanting privacy for browsing and downloading. 

The suggestion I provided above would have you host your own VPN server and you could connect to it from outside of your network to access your LAN resources, like your server, and do so in a secure fashion. 



> Yes I meant the Plex server that I have running. If it works on 8.1 that would be great! I think I may look into moving to 8.1 then to get the better RDP.



Yep should work fine! Plex has gotten a lot better in the last year or two. I have really enjoyed my time with Plex and can't recommend it highly enough. I run mine on a 2012R2 virtual machine, also have it setup to run as a service so if I gotta reboot the server, Plex starts right up without me needing to login to the server. Keeps things clean and easy to manage.



> haha my bad .. I guess my statement of never heard of VPN was confusing .. I just meant that VPN. I do not have a MS Server OS ... I am using win 7 sadly, but it has worked for everything I needed so I have not felt the need to upgrade.
> 
> I would assume my passwords are secure enough to block a basic attack, but if someone really wants into my system they can always find a way. I have tried teamviewer and it was not too bad. Although I found myself coming back to RDP for some reason.



You don't need an MS Server OS, many folks run network resources from 7, 8, 10. Some folks decide to go Linux which is a good option too, but can be more involving, but is worth it for the experience. If 7 is working fine, then stick with it. 

I have found that RDP is usually faster than Teamviewer. But Teamviewer encrypts the remote connection and provides file transfer, media transfer, chat, and other things that RDP doesn't. As such it has a higher bandwidth overhead. RDP is simpler and thus doesn't need as much bandwidth in most cases.



> my upload speed is around 5MB so I guess I would struggle to hit that, but I dont need 1080P ... 720p would be ok and I would assume the android emulator would suck around the same bandwidth as 720P??



I have 5 upload as well, and it can get taxed if I have my mom on my Plex server streaming movies, and I'm RDP'd on my server from work getting files or lab results or whatever. I would say you're bandwidth won't allow for raw streams at those resolution rates. Not for what you want to do.



newtekie1 said:


> I've had the mouse lag when the upload on the remote controlled computer is super low.  Like sub-128Kbps.
> 
> I can too on my Win10 server.  I can remote in and watch youtube. But I wouldn't call the experience "fine".  Yes, I can watch the video, but the video is very grainy.  It is watchable, but it is basically like watching youtube at 360p and watching something at full screen 1080p requires about 11Mbps upload speed(according to my router's bandwidth monitoring).  That is a pretty high upload requirement, and the video is still grainy.



Ya mouse lag on super low bandwidth is an issue...but no more than any other visual remote access service, but RDP usually doesn't need too much in the first place for management purposes.

I can't say my video experience was really grainy when I tested video over RDP, but I wasn't tracking bandwidth either to see what it was hitting. I'll have to check that out and see what it hits. Honestly when I tested it, it was more for shits and giggles than actual application. I was just impressed that the newer RDP versions were capable of even that much.


----------



## copenhagen69 (Feb 14, 2017)

Kursah said:


> That is an external VPN, you're connecting to someone else's VPN server and then accessing Internet resources through that connection, this is what folks do to not get tracked for certain things they browse, download or view...be it illegal, region locked or wanting privacy for browsing and downloading.
> 
> The suggestion I provided above would have you host your own VPN server and you could connect to it from outside of your network to access your LAN resources, like your server, and do so in a secure fashion.



Oh ok gotcha. I just figured Tor would be good either way. Secure without having to do much besides install. Especially when I am traveling for work in Asia.




Kursah said:


> Yep should work fine! Plex has gotten a lot better in the last year or two. I have really enjoyed my time with Plex and can't recommend it highly enough. I run mine on a 2012R2 virtual machine, also have it setup to run as a service so if I gotta reboot the server, Plex starts right up without me needing to login to the server. Keeps things clean and easy to manage.



Good to hear that they have made great improvements. I may look into that this weekend then and work on the upgrade.



Kursah said:


> You don't need an MS Server OS, many folks run network resources from 7, 8, 10. Some folks decide to go Linux which is a good option too, but can be more involving, but is worth it for the experience. If 7 is working fine, then stick with it.
> 
> I have found that RDP is usually faster than Teamviewer. But Teamviewer encrypts the remote connection and provides file transfer, media transfer, chat, and other things that RDP doesn't. As such it has a higher bandwidth overhead. RDP is simpler and thus doesn't need as much bandwidth in most cases.
> 
> ...



I dont have the time anymore to learn a new OS like Linux. Back in the day before kids ... sure. I tried TeamViewer and it was ok but yes a bandwidth hog.



Kursah said:


> I can't say my video experience was really grainy when I tested video over RDP, but I wasn't tracking bandwidth either to see what it was hitting. I'll have to check that out and see what it hits. Honestly when I tested it, it was more for shits and giggles than actual application. I was just impressed that the newer RDP versions were capable of even that much.



any improvement would be good. It is basically unwatchable now with like 10 seconds lag in the video and it being super choppy.


----------



## Kursah (Feb 14, 2017)

Why not use your Tor VPN and stream directly to your PC then?

Or you could use OpenVPN and tunnel your HTTP traffic and watch Youtube through your VPN tunnel, but you'll be limited to your maximum Internet upload speed of 5Mbps.


----------



## Dethroy (Feb 14, 2017)

I'm quite late to the party and most things have been addressed already, but there's one more thing that I'd like to add: mstsc is inferior to third party solutions like Jump Desktop (macOS) when trying to connect to Windows machines/servers. The remote desktop experience is just way better/smoother when using Jump Desktop. Windows' RD software is simply lagging behind and could use some much needed love.


----------



## copenhagen69 (Feb 14, 2017)

Kursah said:


> Why not use your Tor VPN and stream directly to your PC then?
> 
> Or you could use OpenVPN and tunnel your HTTP traffic and watch Youtube through your VPN tunnel, but you'll be limited to your maximum Internet upload speed of 5Mbps.



I only use Tor on my work machine when I am overseas. While I am at the office I try to keep the bandwidth down on my account so infra team doesnt come knocking. That is why I go through my home server. Maybe I could try out my little chromebook and run Tor on it that way they would only see I am using X bandwidth but now how or why I am using that much. Then I would not have to face the lag or anything and I could route my traffic through a local server so latency should not be a big deal .... right?





Dethroy said:


> I'm quite late to the party and most things have been addressed already, but there's one more thing that I'd like to add: mstsc is inferior to third party solutions like Jump Desktop (macOS) when trying to connect to Windows machines/servers. The remote desktop experience is just way better/smoother when using Jump Desktop. Windows' RD software is simply lagging behind and could use some much needed love.



never heard of that one ... would there be the same latency issues with watching youtube etc?


----------



## copenhagen69 (Feb 15, 2017)

and now I am looking into a cheap chromebook to bring to the office as well. Run Tor on that so they cant see what is taking the bandwidth and could watch youtube or play on the emulator fine. Haha, this is going to end up costing me some money ... like everything else lol. Dang chromebooks!


----------

