[RTC List] Broadband speeds and stability for streaming video?

[Larry Goldberg]

I purchased one of these for Christmas and have had mixed results.  I  
really like the idea and when there's sufficient bandwidth, it works  
great, but given SuddenLink (and you know THAT story) it's very  
unstable (at least here in Trinidad).  While SuddenLink promises "up  
to 8 Mbps" the reality, as you know, is much less - especially at 7 PM  
most everywhere.  If you watch a movie at 10 PM, it works GREAT, but  
if you want to watch something at 7, it's hit-and-miss.  The unit  
takes a couple of minutes to initially load the stream and once it  
starts it indicates one of four quality levels (based on your  
bandwidth, I suppose).  At the low end, the picture is a little soft,  
but very viewable.  On the 3rd or 4th level (I've never hit 4th level,  
so I don't know what  that's like) it's as good as a DVD.

When the bandwidth dips, the unit has to re-buffer, so you get a black  
screen with buffering bar which can take another 1-2 minutes (I've  
even seen it take 5 minutes when SuddenLink really "bottoms out").  It  
can be very frustrating sometimes (to the extent that we decided to  
cancel a download) if it repeatedly takes re-buffering during a movie  
- not a fun movie experience (especially with kids).  The best advice  
I could give is try watching a movie on your computer first with their  
computer viewer and if that's adequate (the stream speed is similar)  
then you should be OK.  The Roku unit works on both Ethernet or  
wireless connection which is pretty convenient if you don't want to  
run more wires around your house.

I love the fact that you can decide on a movie literally on-the-spot  
(you do that on your computer with your NetFlix instant queue) and  
instantly it's available on the Roku box.  If SuddenLink ever gets its  
act together, it will be a great "appliance" for anyone to own (and  
it's a great deal - all the movies you can stream in a month for one  
monthly fee).

This is an important issue to look at for broadband demand  
forecasting.  If EVERYONE starts to use these devices, what will the  
network require?  Many policy issues are emerging as a result of these  
consumer-grade devices becoming commonplace, so we need to factor this  
into our broadband policy.

On Jan 28, 2009, at 2:10 PM, Dave Thewlis wrote:

> We have started to look at the Roku Netflix box, which is a  
> streaming video gadget to connect internet directly to a TV.  Roku  
> say they need a minimum of 1.2 Megabyes/second to provide a decent  
> quality picture.
>
> Has anyone experimented with one of these things?  My current  
> Suddenlink download speed is 953 Kilobytes/Second and 64 Kilobytes/ 
> second upload.  This is a a lot below their stated average of 6  
> Megabytes/second download and 512 Kilobytes/second upload.  It may  
> be a fixable problem but other statements on this list suggest that  
> SL customers in our area get significantly slower speeds than  
> advertised, so I'm wondering if streaming video is practical for  
> this area.  Or possibly DSL is better? I can't get DSL here so  
> cannot do a comparison.
>
> What about 101NetLink?
>
> Dave Thewlis
>
> -- 
> Dave Thewlis, DCTA Inc.
> +1 707 840 9391 (voice) · +1 707 498 2238 (mobile)
> http://www.dcta.com · dthewlis at dcta.com
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