To use online streaming do I need to be a geek with unlimited fibre broadband?

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Beecee

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#157111 20-Nov-2014 08:47

To use online streaming do I need to be a geek and have unlimited fibre broadband?

I'm not and I don't. 40GB on ADSL is me. No fibre here for 2+ years.

Will I be able to use it on my 2 year old Panasonic?

After TiVo, Igloo attempts using traditional TV dropped out of favour will Netflix be the only real VSOD to survive?

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#1179950 20-Nov-2014 08:55

ADSL can be fast enough for streaming, though it depends on the quality you want.

You should watch your bandwidth usage. If you approach your limit add bandwidth or upgrade your plan.

You'll likely need some kind of box to stream to, that will output to your TV over HDMI.

rendezvous

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#1179954 20-Nov-2014 09:05

I have a slow VDSL connection and generally have no issues. Occasionally at peak times there are 1-2 pauses for a few seconds, but nothing significant. I was finding that 150GB of data was getting used up, but that was with watching a couple of hours of shows/movies a day, plus all the normal web browsing. I ended up changing to an unlimited VDSL plan. I don't know if I still need it, but as soon as you change to unlimited with Spark, the usage meter disappears!

vexxxboy

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#1179961 20-Nov-2014 09:23

it's strange for years i managed to be around 200 GB a month but i switched to unlimited 3 months ago and my usage is now around 600GB a month, im just streaming everything in full HD and if i download a video then it's a full HD video. So it seems im not watching any more content but just a better quality of content which is what Fibre unlimited is all about.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

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#1179963 20-Nov-2014 09:26

We're "above average" for Netflix use, and our monthly data use is approx 600GB (thats inc all other traffic such as downloads, browsing etc) a month - takeaway all our downloads etc, and youll probably still find out Netflix traffic sits quite high (min 100GB).

It really comes down to the quality of the stream youre watching, and how often youre watching streaming video.

Any form of streaming I think youre best to go onto unlimited just to cover yourself.... it can be quite an addiction finding all these services you can now stream.... ;)

XPD / Gavin

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robcreid

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#1179965 20-Nov-2014 09:29

I'm on ADSL and the quality of Lightbox is fine for me.
I was on a 40GB plan before I signed up, I upgraded to 80GB and I'm blowing that each month now just watching one or two episodes each night so you will probably want to consider unlimited depending on your usage.

bongojona

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#1179971 20-Nov-2014 09:38

I was able to stream full HD Netflix & Youtube on my old ADSL connection (10Mb) fine it seems, but I didn't have many ppl sharing the bandwidth.

Now on VDSL (40Mb) and unlimited data (and about to upgrade to UFB)

If you want to keep your data cap at 40GB/month, then you should lower the stream quality, as HD uses way more data than SD.
Also, many shows on Netflix look surprisingly good in the next setting down (medium?) with a good clean image

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bongojona

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#1179975 20-Nov-2014 09:43

forgot to add - many old shows/movies on Netflix don't have an HD option, for obvious reasons.
I actually like watching old classic TV !
Getting through The mini series 'The Winds of War' at present, which I remember a child.

marlinz

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#1179983 20-Nov-2014 10:03

I don't have the fastest VDSL either , but its sufficient for Netflix etc Fire TV zero buffering

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marlinz

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#1179985 20-Nov-2014 10:05

marlinz: I don't have the fastest VDSL either , but its sufficient for Netflix etc Fire TV zero buffering

www.speedtest.net/my-result/3922702281

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sen8or

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#1179996 20-Nov-2014 10:45

40gb plan? Time to move into this decade. With lots of telcos offering some very good data plans for not very much money it seems a good time to re-look at things.

We use 6-10gb per day on Netflix and youtube, more on the weekends, outside of 1-2 programs on broadcast TV plus news / 7 sharp we watch bugger all else.

Saranis

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#1180008 20-Nov-2014 11:14

You absolutely need unlimited for streaming. Speed wise 10 down should be the bare minimum for a stable enjoyable experience.

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Rikkitic

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#1180030 20-Nov-2014 11:49

It gets depressing sometimes hearing everyone go on and on about their unlimited ultra-fast whatever connections. Here in the outback where I live, where we have line of sight to Hastings but even an ADSL connection seems to be beyond the technological grasp of NZ telcos, we have suffered beyond imagining for years on dial-up. This taught me to become very creative in how I surf the web (javascript off, images blocked, mobile versions of sites where possible, Proxomitron to block downloading of ads, etc.).

Then RBI came to our area. Thank you oh Zog for this blessing! We can now surf at a blazing 1+ Mb/s with a munificent 40 gb (20-20) data cap. We can even stream HD video. I tried it briefly just to see.

The discipline I learned from my years in the dial-up wilderness is still put to good use. The reptilians who run the world want to force streaming on everyone so we have to eat their advertising and can’t keep our own copies of what we watch, but I have found some good download managers that can get around a lot of the obstructions so I can usually download anything I want to watch. This also avoids any streaming dropouts if they do occur. I also have a good screen recorder for those sites I can’t download. Of course this is not HD but I use it for documentaries and on-demand stuff, playing them at night during my off-peak data. Afterwards I use VideoRedo or Womble where necessary to adjust HD and SD formats and play back through the media player on the big screen TV.

This must all sound terribly 20th century to all of you city dwellers, but after the purgatory of dial-up I feel positively hi-tech. However, the point I wanted to make is that data caps can be massaged with the right approach to get the most from the resources you do have.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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#1180045 20-Nov-2014 12:14

Rikkitic:

This must all sound terribly 20th century to all of you city dwellers, but after the purgatory of dial-up I feel positively hi-tech. However, the point I wanted to make is that data caps can be massaged with the right approach to get the most from the resources you do have.

Yup, and youre right, I use to survive on 5GB a month just a few years ago, just have to be smart about what youre doing.

But if the option of unlimited is available (usually only $5 or so more than capped), then might as well take advantage of it.

XPD / Gavin

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wasabi2k

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#1180051 20-Nov-2014 12:20

yeah - netflix + twitch is roughly 12-20GB per day at our house.

Lurch

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#1180256 20-Nov-2014 18:05

On our old ADSL2+ plan with Vodafone we could stream Netflix HD on the Roku, Netflix HD on my partners desktop while she played WoW and my son was watching something on his tablet with no issues.

I could browse etc with problems.

On Bigpipe ADSL2+ if I am lucky I can stream netflix HD part of the movie and the rest is a blurry mess, Huluplus constantly buffers and twitch tv and WoW have issues. So it really comes down to how good your connection is.

But I'd recommend unlimited you can easily max out 500GB+ in a month just on streaming.

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