Yay!! CenturyLink is finally in my neighborhood. I know most people hate CenturyLink but I’ve had them before and love their service and have never had issues with their customer service. But they don’t run their own cable so their package comes with DirecTV and we can get it via the internet as a stream. OK, let’s start the questions.
The best internet service we can get is 140Mbps. Is that fast enough for 3 people with computers & phones and a couple of TV’s if streaming?
It says it has a ton of titles on streaming? Does that mean we can for the most part get rid of a lot of our streaming services?
And with that, does DTV provide the equivalent of streaming for Disney+, Max, or any other common ones?
Which package should I get? Meaning what is the advantage moving from basic to choice to ultimate?
Is there a separate box for the DVR functions or is that handled digitally?
Lastly (I think) what if my TV does not have WiFi and let’s assume no ethernet connection for the router?
If your TV has an HDMI input, then you can use a Roku or Firestick for a WIFI connection.
More than enough.
It depends what quality of video you’re watching. The worst case (currently) is 4K video which you’ll see most sites say requires 25-50 Mbps. So at the absolute high end, 3 simultaneous streams at 50 Mbps will slightly exceed your bandwidth. But in real life most 4K streams don’t actually reach 50 Mbps; they’re closer to 25 Mbps, so you will probably be ok. If you don’t have a 4K TV or if for some other reason your video sources are lower than 4K, you’ll be perfectly fine.
I think YouTube TV is better than DirecTv Stream. Better pricing.
It has it’s own titles on streaming, not necessarily everything that other streaming providers offer. It will be like the on-demand selection of a cable provider. It won’t necessarily have the titles which are exclusively on Netflix, Amazon, etc. But it will have on-demand episodes of many cable shows and movies being shown on the cable channels.
If you want to test out the bandwidth, log all the computers into DTV and have them watching stuff while you browse the internet. I think 140M should be okay, but it’ll be simple enough to try out on your own.
Are your TVs smart TVs? If so, they may be able to run the DTV app directly. You can go to the app store of your TV and see if your app is available. It might not be. There are several SmartTV operating systems and not all apps run on all TVs. However, even if your TV can run the app natively, I would recommend you get an external streaming device like Roku, FireTV, or Chromecast with Google TV. The streaming platforms in TVs are often sub-par and will hang, stutter, be sluggish, etc. They’re fine if you just use them occasionally, but they may be frustrating if they are your primary TV watching platform. If you find the SmartTV platform of your TV annoying, get an external device.