how fast of Internet speed do you need
to stream TV streaming data is like a
river it can be small or large or in
between the larger the stream the more
you get but at a greater cost your goal
should be to get just enough to do what
you want to do and keep your costs down
so how much is enough this is a good
question since Internet service
providers or ISPs may try to convince
you that you need the more expensive and
higher speed connection to watch
streaming TV such as Netflix or Hulu but
that simply isn't true your goal is to
be able to watch a program smoothly and
in good quality with a minimum amount of
buffering or none at all and to do so as
cheaply as possible after all the reason
you cut the cord in the first place was
to get away from overpriced TV
programming you don't want to pay more
for a high-speed connection if you don't
need it so what speed you need for an HD
stream according to the Netflix website
you need 5 megabytes per second download
for each HD stream which means if you
want to watch two HD streams at the same
time you need 10 megabytes per second
hulu recommends a minimum of 3 megabytes
per second for a 720 HD stream 6
megabytes for a 1080 HD stream and 13
megabytes for a 4k Ultra stream so if
you want to watch two programs on two
different TVs in 1080 HD at the same
time on Hulu according to them you would
need to have 12 megabytes per second
download speed so they say that but then
what they say isn't necessarily true at
least according to our tests first we
ran a speed test to see what our
download rate and ping was pane was a
decent 66 milliseconds anything 100 is
considered good as you can see download
speed came in at 5 point 2 5 megabytes
per second which is short of the 6
megabytes were paying for on a frontier
DSL connection according to the minimum
requirements posted by Netflix and Hulu
we have sufficient bandwidth to watch
one stream on one device from one
provider however the reality is much
different than that we normally have two
HD TVs running throughout today until 11
p.m. plus two computers online all day
with one of them connected to YouTube
quite a bit plus one or two phones using
Wi-Fi periodically throughout the day
despite the high demand for bandwidth or
what we perceive to be a high demand we
rarely run into a streaming problem
occasionally one of the computers get
sluggish but a reboot usually fixes that
and sometimes a TV will buffer in the
middle of a program but we always figure
it's a connectivity issue with our ISP
which isn't always reliable keep in mind
that even ISPs that promise a 99.9
percent connectivity rate that point
zero zero one percent equals one point
four four minutes per day where there is
no connection six megabytes per second
of speed is plenty to accommodate this
households demand for video streaming in
HD since there are no gaming connections
going on we are unable to comment on
those bandwidth demands the only time we
ran into a problem was when we tried to
watch a 4k stream which didn't work too
well there was more buffering than we
wanted to deal with so we abandoned that
experiment
besides HD fits the bill before you
commit to a high speed and costlier
connection start out at a slower and
cheaper rate to test the waters you
could always jack up the speed if you're
not satisfied with the results if you do
have problems at the lower speed and
then lower is six to ten megabytes you
can run some tests on your equipment to
make sure there isn't a bottleneck there
there are four things to consider the
quality of your ISP your download speed
your home network and your computer you
could have a very fast connection but it
won't do you much good if your source
for material isn't up to par with their
upstream
it isn't something you can test either
but it's safe to assume that Netflix
Hulu YouTube all the major players their
upstream quality dialed in to work in a
top-notch fashion however this is the
Internet and even the best systems can
experience hiccups every so often the
rest of the system can be easily tested
starting with a speed test like the one
found at speed test that net running a
speed test will tell you how fast your
download speed is and what the latency
pane of the connection is ping is
measured in milliseconds and ascertains
if you are connected and what the
response time is between your machine
and the provider anything under 100
milliseconds is considered good we are
assuming that you are using Wi-Fi is
your connection to your modem and if
your download speed numbers don't meet
your expectations try connecting
directly to the modem via cable and see
if that makes a difference in speed if
it doesn't then there may be a problem
with your internet service provider you
can call them and they can usually run a
test on the line from their location to
check your status if they find a problem
and can't fix it from their location
they can send someone out to fix the
problem if you're connected to the modem
via cable in your numbers your download
speed is faster than it was through
Wi-Fi then your Wi-Fi connection has a
problem using a Wi-Fi connection on your
phone makes it easier to run additional
speed tests from different parts of the
building to see if there is any
significant change in download speed if
the speed is is significantly lower than
what you are paying for it may be a good
idea to get a new Wi-Fi unit if the
speed is where it's supposed to be in
most areas of the building but drops off
in some areas either avoid those areas
or any Wi-Fi range extender to your
system final link in the chain is your
computer which you may or may not use to
watch TV but if you do then you want to
check it out usually in our case if
things are running slow a reboot usually
solves the problem please check in the
description for updates since it is
easier to add new information in the
description than in the video thanks for
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