SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    Internet speed required for streaming to multiple TVs?
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Internet speed required for streaming to multiple TVs? Login/Join 
Three Generations
of Service
Picture of PHPaul
posted
Still searching for an alternative to Satellite TV. Thinking it might be cheaper to bump my internet access speed up (if that's even possible in East Overshoe) and go to streaming.

Current DSL is good for about 2.9 Mbps and works consistently well for 1 TV.

Understanding that faster is better, what sort of minimum speed should I be looking at to stream to 3 TVs simultaneously?




Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
 
Posts: 15180 | Location: Downeast Maine | Registered: March 10, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Not as lean, not as mean,
Still a Marine
Picture of Gibb
posted Hide Post
5 Mbps is the minimum I would recommend for multiple TV's. It still might drop to SD resolution if there are more than 2 devices at the same time.

Generally I recommend a 25 Mbps connection if you can get it. That allows for multiple connections at HD resolution with room for growth (if wanted)




I shall respect you until you open your mouth, from that point on, you must earn it yourself.
 
Posts: 3352 | Location: Southern Maine | Registered: February 10, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Oh stewardess,
I speak jive.
Picture of 46and2
posted Hide Post
For each unique stream:

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306

quote:
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
 
Posts: 25613 | Registered: March 12, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Nullus Anxietas
Picture of ensigmatic
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PHPaul:
Current DSL is good for about 2.9 Mbps and works consistently well for 1 TV.

That would be standard definition. You're not going to get high definition with 3mb/s.

quote:
Originally posted by PHPaul:
Understanding that faster is better, what sort of minimum speed should I be looking at to stream to 3 TVs simultaneously?

Depends. If all you want is SD on each: At least 9mb/s. If you want 1080P on each TV: At least 15mb/s. If you want 4K: 45-75mb/s.

Internet Speed Requirements for Video Streaming

We use OTA TV with a local networked DVR for broadcast TV, so the only high-bandwidth Internet requirements we have is when we watch 4K UHD stuff on Amazon Prime Video (we refuse to pay the extra for 4K on Netflix), and we do that on only one TV at a time. So 50mb/s was doing it for us. We have 75/15, now, only because I recently renewed the contract and that's the new speeds at the same tier. (We're actually seeing 88/18.)



"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
 
Posts: 26009 | Location: S.E. Michigan | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fighting the good fight
Picture of RogueJSK
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Gibb:
Generally I recommend a 25 Mbps connection if you can get it. That allows for multiple connections at HD resolution with room for growth (if wanted)


Yep. I'd shoot for minimum 20-25, if possible.

(2.9 is low for even just 1 TV.)
 
Posts: 32421 | Location: Northwest Arkansas | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Don't Panic
Picture of joel9507
posted Hide Post
You might want to look into satellite Internet service, HughesNet, etc.

While the pings suck (out and back to orbit takes a while) and some have monthly data quotas, the speeds generally beat DSL.
 
Posts: 15001 | Location: North Carolina | Registered: October 15, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fourth line skater
Picture of goose5
posted Hide Post
I was having problems with this. Have a terrible dead spot in my basement. Could not get reliable streaming down there. We upped our plan to 100, but I still had to hardwire my downstairs streaming device. The first time I tried the cable I must have not completed the setup properly. This time I did and its working fine.


_________________________
OH, Bonnie McMurray!
 
Posts: 7506 | Location: Pueblo, CO | Registered: July 03, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
Eek

back when I was house sitting ,
the people had 5 tv's and 70 channels through the puter.

If you ever wondered if you are on the attention deficit spectrum ,
THIS will answer your questions.

I saw 11 minutes of 43 programs ,one day .

and they were all good Big Grin





Safety, Situational Awareness and proficiency.



Neck Ties, Hats and ammo brass, Never ,ever touch'em w/o asking first
 
Posts: 54500 | Location: Henry County , Il | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fighting the good fight
Picture of RogueJSK
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by joel9507:
You might want to look into satellite Internet service, HughesNet, etc.

While the pings suck (out and back to orbit takes a while) and some have monthly data quotas, the speeds generally beat DSL.


I've heard nothing but complaints from people I know who have satellite internet, including HughesNet specifically.

Seems like it's better than dialup/nothing, but not by much. Especially for resource-intensive usage like streaming or online gaming. But I know there are areas out in the boonies where it's apparently the only option.
 
Posts: 32421 | Location: Northwest Arkansas | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Three Generations
of Service
Picture of PHPaul
posted Hide Post
I got a HUGE increase in speed and reliability when I shitcanned HugesNet and went to DSL.

Might be my high latitude, but they sucked balls.




Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
 
Posts: 15180 | Location: Downeast Maine | Registered: March 10, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fighting the good fight
Picture of RogueJSK
posted Hide Post
Cellular internet could potentially be an option too, if you have decently strong 4G cell service at your home. (I'm not sure what the cell phone signal strength is like in East Overshoe... Wink) If it's good, you could talk to your cellular provider about getting a standalone hotspot, or using your smartphone as a hotspot (if yours is capable of that).

Just be wary of data caps, which can be pretty low with many cellular data plans. And understand that while it'll probably be faster than the ~3 megs you're getting from DSL currently, your cellular data still may not be capable of much more than ~10-20 megs on average.

If you have a smartphone with a data plan currently, download the Speedtest app, and run it while connected to cellular data (e.g. not on wifi) at your home. That'll give you an idea of what kind of cellular data speed you'd be getting, and if it's ~15 mbps or more, it'd be worth exploring home cellular internet options (price/data limit/speed/etc.) further with your cell phone provider.


That said, that'd still be my Plan B, if affordable higher speed DSL is available. You're most likely looking at greater reliability and much higher potential speeds with DSL, depending on your exact situation.
 
Posts: 32421 | Location: Northwest Arkansas | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Three Generations
of Service
Picture of PHPaul
posted Hide Post
My cell phone is an add-on to my daughter's plan. She lives near a good-sized town and has a cellular hotspot for her TV.

Coverage in East Overshoe is adequate for phones but I would imagine borderline if that for TV.

I'm going to check with Spectrum Cable and see what they offer.




Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
 
Posts: 15180 | Location: Downeast Maine | Registered: March 10, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fighting the good fight
Picture of RogueJSK
posted Hide Post
Yeah, if cable internet is an option, that's definitely worth exploring. Everywhere that I've lived over the past 20ish years, cable has been better and faster than DSL.

You may have to pay an install/setup fee up front, if your house isn't already hooked up for cable TV, since they'd have to run a cable to the house and connect it in to the house's coaxial wiring. But provided they're not having to run the new cable over a long distance, it may be worth it in the grand scheme when comparing speed/price with the DSL options.
 
Posts: 32421 | Location: Northwest Arkansas | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Nullus Anxietas
Picture of ensigmatic
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PHPaul:
I'm going to check with Spectrum Cable and see what they offer.

If Spectrum (FKA Charter) has your street (?) wired, and neither AT&T U-verse nor Verizon Fios is available, than Spectrum broadband is probably your only workable option.

Sounds like you're trying to be in the 21st Century on the cheap, though, and things like cable Internet, U-verse, and Fios aren't cheap.

You might be able to save a buck or two by buying your own broadband modem. Then you won't be paying the monthly modem rental fee. (Usually around $7-$10, last I knew.)

Plus, for residential/consumer Internet, they've all outsourced their customer "service" to off-shore call centers. From the residential customers with whom I've talked, working with these people is inevitably a hair-pulling exercise. That's one of the reasons we're paying the premium for Business Class service.

(One time I called Comcast about an issue. The responses I was getting from the other end were... *cough*... "unexpected." Finally I said "You do realize I'm a Business Class customer, right?" "You are?" and transferred me to the correct CS people. Turned out Business Class CS had been exceedingly busy and they'd been overflowing the excess call volume to Residential CS.)

The state of Internet connectivity/service in the U.S. is an embarrassment Frown



"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher
 
Posts: 26009 | Location: S.E. Michigan | Registered: January 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Maybe not so fabulous after all
posted Hide Post
I'd hang on for a little while longer until SpaceX Starlink comes online. The Starlink satellites are in low earth orbit (250 miles up) instead of geosynchronous orbit (22000 miles up), so the latency is significantly reduced.
 
Posts: 127 | Registered: August 31, 2020Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Buy that Classic SIG in All Stainless,
No rail wear will be painless.
Picture of cee_Kamp
posted Hide Post
I recently signed up with Starlink to be a Beta tester.
They did send an email noting they had received my communication.
Haven't heard anything since.
My rural cabin has nothing. No cell signal, no high speed internet.
Only Frontier land line telephone and DSL available, or one of the satellite providers.
We were up there last weekend and chatting with the closest neighbor.
They had hooked up to Frontier and subscribed to a land line with DSL.
Our neighbor gave us his WiFi password and now we could make an emergency call if we go up and connect to the WiFi on the neighbors front porch. (150 yards away from our cabin)
I was pleasantly surprised with the DSL performance, vs NO connectivity.
In your case PHPaul, you have no time for watching TV, get outside and do some Kubota work! Razz



NRA Benefactor Life Member
NRA Instructor
USPSA Chief Range Officer
 
Posts: 1497 | Registered: December 14, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of maladat
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by PrinceAliFabulousHe:
I'd hang on for a little while longer until SpaceX Starlink comes online. The Starlink satellites are in low earth orbit (250 miles up) instead of geosynchronous orbit (22000 miles up), so the latency is significantly reduced.


There actually was an interesting fuss between SpaceX and the FCC not long ago.

SpaceX is trying to get funding for Starlink from the government under a subsidy program for providing broadband internet in rural locations without current broadband offerings.

The issue comes down to latency. Latency is how long it takes your computer to get a response back after it sends a request out to the internet.

To qualify under the subsidy program, ISPs must demonstrate latency below 100 milliseconds (1/10th of a second). Typical cable/DSL/fiber latency in urban areas is probably something like 10-20 ms (1/100th to 1/50th of a second).

Current satellite internet providers (with their satellites WAY up in space, as you note) have latency around something like 600 ms (more than 1/2 of a second). For some things, like video streaming and getting emails, that isn't really a problem. For other things, like web browsing, it's a minor nuisance that introduces a small but noticeable delay in page loading. It makes other things, like playing fast-paced online games like multiplayer shooter games, effectively impossible.

The tussle is that the FCC has said they don't think Starlink can meet the 100 ms latency requirement, while SpaceX maintains that they absolutely can and that their current beta test is seeing bandwidth over 100 Mbps with latency of 30 ms with an ultimate target of 20 ms or less.

If SpaceX can really hit those numbers with a large customer base at a reasonable price, it will be both a huge boon to rural areas in the US (and of UNIMAGINABLE benefit in undeveloped countries) and a significant blow to the entire ground-based ISP industry in the US.
 
Posts: 6319 | Location: CA | Registered: January 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of smlsig
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by maladat:
quote:
Originally posted by PrinceAliFabulousHe:
I'd hang on for a little while longer until SpaceX Starlink comes online. The Starlink satellites are in low earth orbit (250 miles up) instead of geosynchronous orbit (22000 miles up), so the latency is significantly reduced.


....If SpaceX can really hit those numbers with a large customer base at a reasonable price, it will be both a huge boon to rural areas in the US (and of UNIMAGINABLE benefit in undeveloped countries) and a significant blow to the entire ground-based ISP industry in the US.


Much like cell phones have done to land lines.


------------------
Eddie

Our Founding Fathers were men who understood that the right thing is not necessarily the written thing. -kkina
 
Posts: 6309 | Location: In transit | Registered: February 19, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Maybe not so fabulous after all
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by maladat:
quote:
Originally posted by PrinceAliFabulousHe:
I'd hang on for a little while longer until SpaceX Starlink comes online. The Starlink satellites are in low earth orbit (250 miles up) instead of geosynchronous orbit (22000 miles up), so the latency is significantly reduced.


There actually was an interesting fuss between SpaceX and the FCC not long ago.

Personally, I think they will be able to get under 100ms. The latency from ground to the satellite at 250 miles up is around 1ms.

Personally I don't see why they can't. The latency isn't going to be from the ground to the Satellite. The latency will be getting the signal relayed to the ground. Starlink uses satellites in a sort of mesh network. In cases where you're talking to a satellite where it doesn't have to hop through a bunch of other satellites to go to a ground station, it should be reasonably fast.

SpaceX is trying to get funding for Starlink from the government under a subsidy program for providing broadband internet in rural locations without current broadband offerings.

The issue comes down to latency. Latency is how long it takes your computer to get a response back after it sends a request out to the internet.

To qualify under the subsidy program, ISPs must demonstrate latency below 100 milliseconds (1/10th of a second). Typical cable/DSL/fiber latency in urban areas is probably something like 10-20 ms (1/100th to 1/50th of a second).

Current satellite internet providers (with their satellites WAY up in space, as you note) have latency around something like 600 ms (more than 1/2 of a second). For some things, like video streaming and getting emails, that isn't really a problem. For other things, like web browsing, it's a minor nuisance that introduces a small but noticeable delay in page loading. It makes other things, like playing fast-paced online games like multiplayer shooter games, effectively impossible.

The tussle is that the FCC has said they don't think Starlink can meet the 100 ms latency requirement, while SpaceX maintains that they absolutely can and that their current beta test is seeing bandwidth over 100 Mbps with latency of 30 ms with an ultimate target of 20 ms or less.

If SpaceX can really hit those numbers with a large customer base at a reasonable price, it will be both a huge boon to rural areas in the US (and of UNIMAGINABLE benefit in undeveloped countries) and a significant blow to the entire ground-based ISP industry in the US.


My hope is they totally wreck the land line based ISP industry. No group of people deserve it more.
 
Posts: 127 | Registered: August 31, 2020Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Maybe not so fabulous after all
posted Hide Post
By the way, Starlink should be able to meet those numbers. I believe that the satellites use lasers to send data between the satellites in a sort of mesh network topology in order to relay your signal to a downlink station. That is where the latency in their system will come from. It won't come from the round trip up and back.

The satellites orbit at 210 miles high, which is about 100 microseconds from the ground station if my math is correct.
 
Posts: 127 | Registered: August 31, 2020Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Lounge    Internet speed required for streaming to multiple TVs?

© SIGforum 2024