What download speed is necessary for streaming video?
I have netflix, HBO GO and hulu plus and use them. Recently Comcast informed us that if you went over 300 GB permonth you would be charged $10 for every extra 50GB.
I do a lot of surfing and reading online which I can’t imagine uses much. The Comcast rep I talked to said Netflix and other streaming video uses a lot. I also have an XBOX and occasionaly play online. After I realized they were charging I began to change my viewing habits. I don’t use Netflix or other video programs nearly as much, but still my usuage seems as high as it was when I used them all the time. It’s the 13th and I’m already at 75% of my limit.
It occurs to me that Comcast has to abilty to do what AOL used to do when they billed hourly. Tack on a few dollars to a million or so customers and most will accept and pay it without question.
Looking at switching usage and I noticed ATT offers several different speed plans. Their highest one , 24Mbps, is recommened for streaming video. It’s about what I get with Comcast. Can I get by with a lower speed and still watch streaming video? What I’ve read online is that you don’t need that for streaming video unless you insist on HD. I don’t.
I had no particular problems watching streaming video (including Hulu) when I had a 10Mbps connection (nominally: it rarely actually showed that much on speed tests). I have 30Mbs now, but it is not noticeably better for video. Consistency of connection is probably more important than speed above 10Mbs.
I stream HD content from the BBC on my Bluray player and my connection is just a bog standard ADSL with a speed of 14.5Mbps (advertised as "up to 16Mbps) and it streams perfectly.
I have a 400GB/month download allowance and despite the amount that I stream I’ve never come close to using that much.
I have 16 Mbit nominally, but never really get more than 10. I can stream HD video from the internet to an AppleTV while doing a network backup on two computers at the same time, no problem. I use Hulu+, Netflix, and Apple’s streaming library. My understanding is that 2Mbit is enough for standard def, and 6Mbit should work for most HD stuff (8-10 for 1080p). That seems to match my experience. 24 Mbit, if you actually get that, should be enough to watch iTunes, Hulu and Netflix HD material simultaneously on three devices.
I do get a little stuttery at about 7 pm most days, but I think that’s external to my network (just a lot of folks on the net then), and even with that it’s not bad.
Streaming media, Hidef or not, is trivial traffic on a wired LAN (usually 100 or 1000 Mbps these days), and even on a wireless LAN (usually 11Mbps - 300Mbps) it wouldn’t put too much of a dent in the available bandwidth.
Your 7pm slowdown is almost certainly a contention issue, a lot of people are trying to stream at the same time on the same network, so you get a slowdown.
Interesting. It makes me suspiciious that after I make a pretty drastic change in my viewing habits I still and already almost there. I remember AOL playing games with people when they charged hourly because they knew most people didn’t keep track. Now Comcast is saying , “trust us , we wouldn’t exaggerate and charge a shitload of people an extra ten bucks”
I think I’ll expiriment. Check my usage at the beginning of the week and watch no streaming video. Then the next week check it and watch plenty of streaming video and see.
There was an issue with people logging in to my wireless, but I’ve put on a password and haven’t seen it since then. Nobody else in the household, although I suppose it’s possible Comcast is adding someone elses to mine. I live in an old apartment building with quite a few units. I wonder how they separate usage?
I’d say you can do with a lot less than that. I don’t do a lot of video streaming, but when I do, 2Mbps works passably well. By “passably” I mean that, as slow as 2Mbps is, it’s still plenty fast enough to deliver the content in less time than it takes for it to be watched. In other words, provided your connection is reliable, your playback will never have to wait for the download to catch up to it.
I do experience buffering delays occasionally, but that usually happens only when I first establish the connection.
I would probably bump up my service level if I did more online streaming, but as it is, it isn’t worth it to me.
ETA: What video streaming I do use is watched through web browsers on my notebook screen, for example from the websites of TV networks. I assume performance would be similar for Netflix but I don’t know for sure.
With my DirecTV setup, on-demand programs are downloaded through the wifi connection. I do have to wait a bit before I can watch this type of program, but it’s not that bad.