How much speed to you need

[lemodrop9344]

All,
Was roaming around the internet yesterday and found this site:
https://broadbandnow.com/guides/how-...peed-do-i-need
Along with some useful information regarding the speed tests & throttling, there is a bandwidth calculator I found sort of interesting.
While the information is a little short on cellular internet, it's still informative.

[Kahoona]

Another thing not mentioned is consistency. If your signal varies in speed markedly as you use it it can be less useful than one that is slower but more consistent. an example would be our ATT wireless hotspot ($90/mo from OTR.) Although it can average 30m it fluctuates wildly from 30m+ to 3M or less, often over a few minutes. It can download prodigious amounts of data but in day to day use it has problems. When working online it will be fine some time then nothing will load, error massages pop up and regular reloading is needed. Connections are lost and transactions fail. When streaming the picture may stop and make a "loading" symbol while the buffer fills again.

The other example is our ATT unlimited phone hotspot. It did not add much to our phone service charge. It tends to give us less than 10m on the average. Often lots less. Although it is wretchedly low in speed it is much more consistent and so gives a uniformly slow but steady internet. We will wait for it to load but we won't get dropped. On Zoom this means we get "Low bandwidth" often whereas on ATT we get dropped completely often.

I think this is how the Phone data systems prevent the hotspots from slowing the phone. The Hotspots get the excess data and are cut by algorithms as specified by the company. The point is that you need to find out about the actual usability of the source before you commit. You are better with a stable thow slower signal than a really fast one that goes away a lot.

[docj]

Originally Posted by lemodrop9344

All,
Was roaming around the internet yesterday and found this site:
https://broadbandnow.com/guides/how-...peed-do-i-need
Along with some useful information regarding the speed tests & throttling, there is a bandwidth calculator I found sort of interesting.
While the information is a little short on cellular internet, it's still informative.

With all due respect, this sort of information tends to discourage people from trying to stream video because many of us lack the ~25 Mbps that is recommended. However, if you're willing to watch a picture that is 720p quality (or even, heaven forbid, SD) you can make do with a lot less download speed.

[Rolling Chaos]

Originally Posted by docj

With all due respect, this sort of information tends to discourage people from trying to stream video because many of us lack the ~25 Mbps that is recommended. However, if you're willing to watch a picture that is 720p quality (or even, heaven forbid, SD) you can make do with a lot less download speed.

Without doubt you are spot on. Unless you want 4k or 1080 you don't really need more than 7 meg download to stream 720 or SD. We spent this entire past season work camping in Colter Bay and used nothing , but our Connect2.0 . My speed test never showed better than 12 megs down. Most the time it ran around 5 to 10 megs download. Yet we used 2 pc's and streamed all at once with little to no issues using the Roku. You could tell when it went from 720 down to SD. LOL the picture would really drop in clarity . I might add we use google voice for phone service ( It''s free and works great). All this we did with the above stated bandwidth in use. If you have been to Colter Bay you know how hard it is to get any signal at all there.

[lllkrob]

That article was definitely written by an internet service provider trying to justify higher bandwidth sales. Their speed requirements are total BS. I can stream 2 different 4K movies on different TV's at the same time on a 25mbs cable internet system without any buffering. A 1080P movie will stream on 3 to 5mbs bandwidth without buffering as long as it is the only thing on the system. As long as you get a constant 5+mbs multiple computers or tablets can be used or a single 1080P movie stream is possible.

[lemodrop9344]

Originally Posted by docj

With all due respect, this sort of information tends to discourage people from trying to stream video because many of us lack the ~25 Mbps that is recommended. However, if you're willing to watch a picture that is 720p quality (or even, heaven forbid, SD) you can make do with a lot less download speed.

Joel, Don't necessarily agree with all their requirements & the lack of information regarding cellular internet would seem to suggest the information was some what dated. If people are discouraged from trying to stream video based on this information, I can assure you that was not my intent. It was posted as a source of information for evaluation.



I did not interpret the article to imply one needed 25Mbps to stream video, rather, 25 Mbps was recommended for what they considered acceptable internet service. I came away with the impression they (BroadbandNow) were advocating for better coverage in the under served areas.


I would hope we are are well informed enough to understand the providers are most likely going to 'cushion' the requirements/recommendation on the high side so as consumers, we are not disappointed. A sort of 'buyer beware' disclaimer.


The following was a copy & paste from the Netflix site regarding speed recommendations for their service.


Below are the internet download speed recommendations per stream for playing TV shows and movies through Netflix.

• 0.5 Megabits per second - Required broadband connection speed
• 1.5 Megabits per second - Recommended broadband connection speed
• 3.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for SD quality
• 5.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for HD quality
• 25 Megabits per second - Recommended for Ultra HD quality

Now for what I actually used while streaming media formats over the internet to validate the data. I streamed media from various sources yesterday in different resolutions from SD to HD (do not have 4K). I did this because I believed both BroadbandNow & Netflix had overstated the download speed requirements.



If I understand the conversion correctly, MB to Mbps, you multiply MB by 0.125 to arrive at the average download speed. Doing the math on the hour with the highest consumption, it comes out to around 0.17 Mbps. Assuming I did the conversion correctly, Netflix has substantially overstated the recommendations.



https://www.gbmb.org/mbps-to-mbs






This calculation would seem to support my hypothesis the download speed requirements are overstated, based on my actual usage, & is further supported by the remarks associated with the comments on this post.

[lemodrop9344]

Originally Posted by lemodrop9344

Joel, Don't necessarily agree with all their requirements & the lack of information regarding cellular internet would seem to suggest the information was some what dated. If people are discouraged from trying to stream video based on this information, I can assure you that was not my intent. It was posted as a source of information for evaluation.



I did not interpret the article to imply one needed 25Mbps to stream video, rather, 25 Mbps was recommended for what they considered acceptable internet service. I came away with the impression they (BroadbandNow) were advocating for better coverage in the under served areas.


I would hope we are are well informed enough to understand the providers are most likely going to 'cushion' the requirements/recommendation on the high side so as consumers, we are not disappointed. A sort of 'buyer beware' disclaimer.


The following was a copy & paste from the Netflix site regarding speed recommendations for their service.


Below are the internet download speed recommendations per stream for playing TV shows and movies through Netflix.

• 0.5 Megabits per second - Required broadband connection speed
• 1.5 Megabits per second - Recommended broadband connection speed
• 3.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for SD quality
• 5.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for HD quality
• 25 Megabits per second - Recommended for Ultra HD quality

Now for what I actually used while streaming media formats over the internet to validate the data. I streamed media from various sources yesterday in different resolutions from SD to HD (do not have 4K). I did this because I believed both BroadbandNow & Netflix had overstated the download speed requirements.



If I understand the conversion correctly, MB to Mbps, you multiply MB by 0.125 to arrive at the average download speed. Doing the math on the hour with the highest consumption, it comes out to around 0.17 Mbps. Assuming I did the conversion correctly, Netflix has substantially overstated the recommendations.



https://www.gbmb.org/mbps-to-mbs






This calculation would seem to support my hypothesis the download speed requirements are overstated, based on my actual usage, & is further supported by the remarks associated with the comments on this post.

Ooops, usage did not copy over.

[Camper25]

I need 5 Mbps.

[MSHappyCampers]

We use the AT&T Connected Car Unlimited Data Plan and usually get between 10 & 20 Mbps. Sometimes it even goes down to 5Mbps but this is fine for us as we never do any streaming. At $23.49 per month it works for us!

[paul65k]

Originally Posted by MSHappyCampers

We use the AT&T Connected Car Unlimited Data Plan and usually get between 10 & 20 Mbps. Sometimes it even goes down to 5Mbps but this is fine for us as we never do any streaming. At $23.49 per month, it works for us!

Same here! I've seen speeds as high as 80 Mbps but we typically seem to settle in around 10 - 20 Mbps with our Nighthawk modem.....but then again we try to stay away from metro centers.

[tetranz]

I agree that speed is kind of overrated. Of course it depends what you're trying to do but Visible's 5 Mbps hotspot seems to work fine for streaming Sling TV etc.

But that said, it's nice to have plenty

This is me right now on my Mac tethering my Moto G Power phone on Visible through my little Raspberry Pi "adapter" and VPN which works around the hotspot limit. I have seen it do 60.

[Calson]

We could stream 720P content with a 1 Mbps connection if the provider was able to buffer the content, which Amazon could do but not Netflix. It also depends on how many devices are using the connection. Add one gamer to the queue and a larger broadband pipe is needed.
[moderator edit ]

[az99]

At my S&B the best we can get is 10mbps DSL service. It does everything we need including streaming.

[docj]

Originally Posted by Calson

We could stream 720P content with a 1 Mbps connection if the provider was able to buffer the content, which Amazon could do but not Netflix. It also depends on how many devices are using the connection. Add one gamer to the queue and a larger broadband pipe is needed.

All video streaming is buffered. It's not at all like watching a continuous video feed. It's much more akin to continuously filling a bucket that has a hole in the bottom. As long as you fill the bucket fast enough a continuous stream of water flows out of the hole.

I'm surprised that you are having worse luck with Netflix than with Amazon. My experience has been that Netflix has the most sophisticated ability to handle changes in internet speed without needed to pause to fill the buffer.

Joel (AKA docj)