Streaming

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imoldernu I'm not much good on the speed factor... My comcast is supposed to be over 10Kb/s with a burst speed of 20Kb/s. I don't notice a slowdown with two media players working... It looks to me as if the normal speed for that shows on Netflix is about 3Kb/s and it seems to operate without buffering. If on DLS, the situation may be different, as I think the max download is about 3.5Kb/s so there could be some slow down there... I hope someone smarter than me can explain this.. It's a little bit over mmy head.

A potential bottleneck could be an ISP modem, like what Comcast supplied. Let's say you have an older modem, DOCSIS 2.0, then that needs to go back to Comcast for the latest and greatest.

Next potential bottleneck is the wireless router. I mentioned I have a Netgear WNDR3700v2, and this has 5GHz and 2.4GHz B/G/N. If your wireless router is older, then it doesn't support newer 5GHz, and does not have features you can turn on to enhance video streaming.

If you're going through a PC, then to TV, the older notebook and all the Windows crap can throw glitches into the experience. A great example is that with my setup I get a random pause on Netflix, and I suspect it is Windows. However, it could be the evil Comcrap Empire.

Inherent in all of the experience is the fact that your ISP is shaping traffic.

So much tech, and so little time...

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NanoSour We're pretty much an all Apple household. 3 iMacs, 3 iPads (each kid), 1 Macbook and a 3rd Gen Apple TV all connected to the internet via Comcast Cable and an Apple Airport Express. We gave up cable 6 months ago and went with Streaming Netflix and a Mohu Leaf antenna ($35) for OTA TV. We're only 5 miles from the local network antennas so our HD reception of OTA signals is excellent. We get over 40 channels including all 4 major networks and several PBS stations. The only thing I'm missing is the Food Network and ESPN. The few times I wanted to watch a sporting event I couldn't get OTA, I used www.livetv.ru to watch the game on one our 27" iMacs. Seems an acceptable alternative to $1200/year cable subscription. We have a 30MB internet connection which in reality is only 17-22MB. Have yet to see 30MB and have only 1 Airport Express as a router. It does b/g/n and seems to meet all our needs with strong signal strength throughout the house. We have 5 different users on the Netflix streaming account and haven't seen a limitation on how many users can watch at the same time. We have at least 3 videos streaming to different devices at the same time without any problem. Of course this would be based on your internet bandwidth. 30MB service seems to do the trick for us. It's $50/month, but I remember 10 years ago it was $50/month for 1.5MB service so I guess we're making progress. As for streaming to the big screen TV (50" Plasma); we can use airplay via the Apple TV, but only one of the iMacs and 2 of the iPads are new enough to support airplay and we never have much use for that. Mostly just stream movies/TV shows via Netflix app on the Apple TV. It's taken years to get to this point and I'm just about done with even trying to keep up with the technology update cycle. I'm hoping we can get excellent utility out of this set up for at least 5 more years. The 6 month update cycle gets expensive for an early retiree.

All Apple household here too. Two TV/stereo systems each with own AppleTV box plugged directly to Internet via Ethernet. Laptops, iPad, iPhone connected by WiFi through Apple WiFi router. 10mbps Internet connection to house.

We mainly use Hulu+ directly thru AppleTV but I've started to use some of the other services available. For example - the Bloomberg service in "live TV" mode works very well - like watching cable TV except it's hi def. Amazon video streaming works very well too - but requires an IPad or laptop as intermediary to send the content to the Apple TV. In this scenario the Apple TV remote still works for pause, resume, rewind, etc., so it's very close in experience to having Amazon Prime video directly available in the AppleTV. We never had a Netflix subscription - and now have enough movies available by Amazon Prime.

The streaming content available keeps growing by leaps and bounds without us having to change the hardware! I like that!

[audreyh1]

On Internet speeds - 6 Mpbs is enough to support 1080i hi def. My Dad's 3-4 Mbps DSL connection seems to support 720p well enough which is the highest def his TV can display anyway. We have a 10 Mbps connection at home which seems to work really well, although we rarely stream to two different TVs at the same time.

[imoldernu]

Thanks to you tech guys... Yeah am forever confused about "bytes"...
I did get the Docsis 3.0 from Comcast. and it DID make a big difference... Before, normal was about 5Mbps... now:

[robnplunder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imoldernu Thanks to you tech guys... Yeah am forever confused about "bytes"... I did get the Docsis 3.0 from Comcast. and it DID make a big difference... Before, normal was about 5Mbps... now:

You got plenty of speed there, urolderthanme. It should even be able to support Neflix's UHD in 2014 (if it comes through).

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort I am not sure if this answers your question, but our kids bought a wireless keyboard and mouse. They sit in the couch and use the TV as a monitor without any cables running from the TV to the couch.

Yes, that would be a bit better. I'd still kind of like it wireless to the TV, so I could move the computer from one TV to another, w/o plugging and unplugging cables.

If Chromecast would allow mirroring of the computer display, that would be it. But from what I'm reading, Chromecast (despite appearances) doesn't really display anything from the computer at all. The computer is just directing it to the streaming info in the internet, and the Chromecast device reads that stream.

-ERD50

[Live And Learn]

Wow - I need to retire so I can do some homework and figure out what y'all are talking about !

[aja8888]

I just installed a Roku box in our house so DW can watch movies at home. She was not thrilled...

I asked why....(since she goes to the movies with her brother and his wife frequently

Her answer was: "I like to GO to the movies..."

Oh, I said..

Anyway, the little jewel of a Roku is facinating (to me) so far.

[calmloki]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 I just installed a Roku box in our house so DW can watch movies at home. She was not thrilled... I asked why....(since she goes to the movies with her brother and his wife frequently Her answer was: "I like to GO to the movies..." Oh, I said.. Anyway, the little jewel of a Roku is facinating (to me) so far.

Well shoot. Here - this will give her the sniffles (and I bet you too). She won't go to the movies and see this. Assuming you got a Roku 3 got to the channel store and load the Youtube channel. Then stream this:

Red Dog 2011 720p BrRip x264 - YouTube

BTW, also available on Netflix and was suggested by someone on the netflix movies thread here. My thanks to them (too lazy to go see who it was in the middle of typing).

[aja8888]

Wow! Thanks!

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imoldernu Thanks to you tech guys... Yeah am forever confused about "bytes"... I did get the Docsis 3.0 from Comcast. and it DID make a big difference... Before, normal was about 5Mbps... now:

Woah! You should be able to simultaneously stream 4+ 1020i hi-def movies there pardner - no problem!!!! You gots the bandwidth!!!!

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 I just installed a Roku box in our house so DW can watch movies at home. She was not thrilled... I asked why....(since she goes to the movies with her brother and his wife frequently Her answer was: "I like to GO to the movies..." Oh, I said.. Anyway, the little jewel of a Roku is facinating (to me) so far.

Cute.

Well she can still GO. But now she can also watch at home, AND she could even have her brother and his wife over to watch movies.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 Cute. Well she can still GO. But now she can also watch at home, AND she could even have her brother and his wife over to watch movies.

That's the next milestone...

[imoldernu]

The whole concept of streaming is still in the infant stage. One of the things that needs some explaining, is whether you can stream 0ther TV input (OTHER = other than cable TV, Satellite TV, or OTA (over the air) TV to your current TV.

The basic question is whether you need a media player like Roku, or XBox to receive information from the internet, and convert it to a signal that can be recieved by the TV...
OR
Whether your TV can accept wired or wireless signals without a device or wired connection to a player. This is called a "Smart TV".

This website may help in understanding what can and cannot be done, depending on what manufacturer or media player you use.
(and then again, it may serve to confuse the issue, even more)
What is Smart TV?
The website also has considerable information about the differences in TV's, Plasma, LCD, viewing angles, brightness, power usage, remote controls and a myriad of other factors that could help in a buying decision.
(I noticed a 2012 date on one of the articles, so there could be some recent changes)

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imoldernu The whole concept of streaming is still in the infant stage. ...

Not really. The original broadcasts were 'streaming'. Radio and a crystal set, B&W and then color TV. All OTA (though we never used that term before, because that was all there was) was/is 'streaming'. You view the content as it is broadcast.

It was only when digital came along (and relatively large digital storage at the user end), that we started downloading an entire file, a music or voice recording (typically mp3 format), or maybe video. Back then, you downloaded the entire thing - you could not play it until the download was complete, as the player needed to access the finished file. So that was not streaming - you had to wait for the whole thing.

Sometime later, they started to be able to offer the option to start playing the file before it was finished downloading, but you still ended up with the entire file when you were done.

Later, only a small portion of the file was buffered up in memory as you 'streamed' ( a few seconds to a few minutes) - nothing was kept as a file at all. This helped to keep copyrighted material secure. I think this is what we generally think of as 'streaming' today.

So before radio, what was a telegraph? Well, to the receiving telegrapher, it was streaming, letter by letter. But then he would write down the entire message (stored in a memory system), and it would be delivered to the end user as a complete 'file'. So at that end it wasn't streaming.

History may not repeat, but it rhymes?

-ERD50

[imoldernu]

Quote:

Not really. The original broadcasts were 'streaming'. Radio and a crystal set, B&W and then color TV. All OTA (though we never used that term before, because that was all there was) was/is 'streaming'. You view the content as it is broadcast.

Right! Good point... what goes around, comes around...
I remember downloading hundreds of midi files... before MP3.
Still have my collection.

So... streaming TV in 2013...
Another thing to explore... Google TV...( the EXTENSION in Google Chrome).

Posting a pic that kind of explains the hundreds, maybe thousands of free international and US streaming stations that are available....

A caveat... when you first try the extension... stay away from the two big click-ons in the opening screen..."Download" and "Play Now"... Don't quite know how I did it, but downloaded a baddy, that is supposed to make the app work better, but added five programs to my system. If you use the extension, start off with the United States, and something like CSpan 3.

Am still learning, but so far, have had some fun, watching live news from India, Israel, Ireland and the British BBC...

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imoldernu Right! Good point... what goes around, comes around... I remember downloading hundreds of midi files... before MP3. Still have my collection. So... streaming TV in 2013... ...

One of the differences in 'streaming' in the old days and now was that there was a central broadcast. You had to 'tune in' to the stream (and maybe adjust the horizontal and the vertical - something my kids have no concept of) and you got whatever was broadcast at that moment on that station.

Today, I can start a stream of a movie, and you can start a stream of that exact same movie a day, hour, minute, or a second later. We each get our own personal stream.

To me, it is mind-boggling that this much data can be flowing around, and we pay $30/month to access it (my ISP cost, assuming the streaming content is from a 'free' (ad supported) source).

-ERD50

[Ronstar]

This streaming stuff is amazing. I haven't streamed much, but I've been streaming Christmas music and family photos for the last few days through Apple TV, occasionally interrupting the streaming slideshow with my iPad or iPhone to stream incoming videos/photos to the TV.

There's a lot of room for technology to run with this.

[audreyh1]

I love being able to watch what I want, WHEN I want to, without having to record it myself. Not only that, but everything I watch remembers where I stopped to resume when I finally get back to it. It's awesome!

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 I love being able to watch what I want, WHEN I want to, without having to record it myself. Not only that, but everything I watch remembers where I stopped to resume when I finally get back to it. It's awesome!

What I don't like about streaming though, is for something where I want to jump around a lot - not a typical movie so much, but maybe a video/audio presentation that is in chapters, or if I want to search for a certain scene or scenes to review.

If I have the whole file, I can jump in an instant, and often get a very detailed 'scrub bar' to see right where I am. With streaming it's hunt, buffer, hunt, buffer. Can be a drag with a not-so-speedy connection.

-ERD50