150Mbps - 400Mbps

[thisdude 27]

I'm in the process of moving and choosing a cable/internet package. And could use some advice/recommendations/tips on just how fast of internet speed do I really need.

At the most/peak family times 3 smart tvs streaming some service (including an xbox), 1 laptop and 2 smartphones all connected to wifi in the house. Again at the most and this wouldn't be a regular thing.

I'm trying to be frugal in paying for a plan. So what do you think would be sufficient or even best, 150Mbps or 400Mbps. Thanks!

[sc302 1,765]

My only thing that concerns me is if you have a monthly bandwidth cap.  I haven't heard about this in a while but it was active in some areas.  Usually the higher plans have either no cap or a much higher cap.  

 

IMO, I think you will be fine with the 150....if it is causing issues you can always upgrade to the better service offering.   Check on those caps.  Upload is usually 10Mb/s I can stream/game on every tv (3), computer (6), and Ipad (3) without issues.  

[thisdude 27]

On 5/30/2019 at 12:54 PM, sc302 said:

My only thing that concerns me is if you have a monthly bandwidth cap.  I haven't heard about this in a while but it was active in some areas.  Usually the higher plans have either no cap or a much higher cap.  

 

IMO, I think you will be fine with the 150....if it is causing issues you can always upgrade to the better service offering.   Check on those caps.  Upload is usually 10Mb/s I can stream/game on every tv (3), computer (6), and Ipad (3) without issues.  

I'm pretty sure there is. I've had family that have Xfinity and they've received a message on their screen (WTF) saying they're approaching their monthly bandwidth cap but if they go over they'll get the overage for free since it was their first time. That's not a direct quote but something like that saying they'll get this month free if they go over but not month they won't. But they have heavy downloaders, torrents, downloading movies to their laptops and phones, downloading console games.

 

Now that it's summer so I'm sure we'll be watching more TV than during the school year. However, I'd be very surprised if just watching streaming services puts us over a typical monthly cap no? Shoot, I'd imagine we'd have to be streaming on all our devices simultaneously 24/7? 

[+BudMan 3,586]

Depends on what your streaming... Netflix UHD streaming can be quite a bit of bandwidth for example. Says 1 hour is up to 7GB..   Few devices watch a few hours per day at UHD.. And you could be easy be pushing 100GB a day..  Summer if you leave the TV streaming, etc. etc.  You would be surprised how fast it can add up

[sc302 1,765]

6 hours ago, thisdude said:

I'm pretty sure there is. I've had family that have Xfinity and they've received a message on their screen (WTF) saying they're approaching their monthly bandwidth cap but if they go over they'll get the overage for free since it was their first time. That's not a direct quote but something like that saying they'll get this month free if they go over but not month they won't. But they have heavy downloaders, torrents, downloading movies to their laptops and phones, downloading console games.

 

Now that it's summer so I'm sure we'll be watching more TV than during the school year. However, I'd be very surprised if just watching streaming services puts us over a typical monthly cap no? Shoot, I'd imagine we'd have to be streaming on all our devices simultaneously 24/7? 

You can see here, I use quite a bit.  We are a streaming household. No torrenting, video games and streaming only.   I also don’t have a cap on my tier. I have a lot of devices streaming Netflix or YouTube or Comcast tv or music or gaming or something all of the time. Family of 5....no tv, complete cord cutters (Comcast streaming beta app for tv)   A lot is just to have some noise in the background, I don’t have any 4K devices all of this is HD. 

 

 

[Marujan 104]

100 more than enough

[thisdude 27]

On 6/2/2019 at 3:29 PM, BudMan said:

Depends on what your streaming... Netflix UHD streaming can be quite a bit of bandwidth for example. Says 1 hour is up to 7GB..   Few devices watch a few hours per day at UHD.. And you could be easy be pushing 100GB a day..  Summer if you leave the TV streaming, etc. etc.  You would be surprised how fast it can add up

I just have the basic subscription not the standard of premium subscriptions.

[thisdude 27]

On 6/2/2019 at 5:24 PM, sc302 said:

You can see here, I use quite a bit.  We are a streaming household. No torrenting, video games and streaming only.   I also don’t have a cap on my tier. I have a lot of devices streaming Netflix or YouTube or Comcast tv or music or gaming or something all of the time. Family of 5....no tv, complete cord cutters (Comcast streaming beta app for tv)   A lot is just to have some noise in the background, I don’t have any 4K devices all of this is HD. 

 

 

I would love to completely cut the cord. But my wife and I like to watch the local news (lol yes I know we're old). That's really cool how it shows you that on the app. Is that the My Account Xfinity app?

[+BudMan 3,586]

So you watch in SD?  Uggghhhh

[sc302 1,765]

9 hours ago, thisdude said:

I would love to completely cut the cord. But my wife and I like to watch the local news (lol yes I know we're old). That's really cool how it shows you that on the app. Is that the My Account Xfinity app?

Just by going to the xfinity site on my phone and opening up my services and internet. 

[Marujan 104]

choose 640*480 for streaming

[thisdude 27]

13 hours ago, BudMan said:

So you watch in SD?  Uggghhhh

Haha! Yeah but I can't really tell the difference. I know our living room TV is a LG 4K UHD. The others are just 1080p or 720p on the smaller ones. But I can't tell the difference. And no one else has groaned about the quality. Hm, maybe I'll try it and see how much of a difference it is. But that's like an extra $50 a year for HD and $85 for UHD!

4 minutes ago, Marujan said:

choose 640*480 for streaming

?

[sc302 1,765]

Yearly 50 bux isn’t all that much. If we are talking a month, that is a big difference. On a had tv, standard definition has artifacts, extra shadows, etc that isn’t supposed to be there.  I mean it is ok but sacrifices are made.  Hd to 4K I can see the meh.  You really need a large tv to see the difference.   I don’t see it on a 55 inch.   Just like to appreciate 1080 you you need a 55”.  32-42” is good for 720p, hard to see the difference between that and 1080p.  But you certainly can see the difference, almost painful, going to 640x480/standard def. 

[thisdude 27]

@sc303 hm, ok so yeah our main TV is 4K but like I said we've never complained about the video quality with standard. But you're saying bumping up to the HD plan would make an actual view-able difference vs UHD? 

[sc302 1,765]

Viewable difference from standard to hd yes. Depending on tv size upping to uhd, yes. 

[thisdude 27]

7 minutes ago, sc302 said:

Viewable difference from standard to hd yes. Depending on tv size upping to uhd, yes. 

Ok so I have a 40, 48, & 60 all 1080. Those should see a definite difference. Our living room is a 65 4K so that one wouldn't see much of a difference then?

[sc302 1,765]

Your eyes are your eyes.  Try it and see for yourself.  I am not going to tell you what you can and can’t see.  I can see a difference, it is so bad I can’t watch standard def any more, it isn’t ok for me. 

[+BudMan 3,586]

Your telling me you can not tell the difference on a 65 inch tv between sd and hd?  Yeah you must be blind!   I can not really tell the difference between 4k and 1080.. But the UHD package gets you more than just higher res.. You also can stream to more devices at a time.. And get the ability to download for offline viewing.

 

Basic plan only allows you to stream to 1 screen, UHD plan allows you to stream to 4 at a time..  With that many tv's your telling me netflix is only ever watched on 1 at a time?

 

HD plan is only 2... Its less than a cup of coffee difference per month, I spend more on a single beer stopping after work.. I don't see how someone with that many TVs is worried about the cup of coffee difference per month to actually watch ###### in 4k on their 4k tv

[thisdude 27]

 

5 minutes ago, sc302 said:

Your eyes are your eyes.  Try it and see for yourself.  I am not going to tell you what you can and can’t see.  I can see a difference, it is so bad I can’t watch standard def any more, it isn’t ok for me. 

Ok I can understand that. Yeah I might try the HD plan and "see" what the family thinks of the difference, if any to them. 

 

1 minute ago, BudMan said:

Your telling me you can not tell the difference on a 65 inch tv between sd and hd?  Yeah you must be blind!   I can not really tell the difference between 4k and 1080.. But the UHD package gets you more than just higher res.. You also can stream to more devices at a time.. And get the ability to download for offline viewing.

 

Basic plan only allows you to stream to 1 screen, UHD plan allows you to stream to 4 at a time..  With that many tv's your telling me netflix is only ever watched on 1 at a time?

Maybe I can, just never paid attention. And I'm near sited (maybe that has something to do with it IDK lol) and don't watch a lot of TV either. YouTube gets the most viewing time on the TVs over everything else. And if someone wants to watch Netflix but can't because someone else is watching it they just watch Hulu, regular TV or again YouTube.

[+BudMan 3,586]

You mean the youtube tv subscription, or just videos?  Both of which can be 1080, The tv subscription is what 50$ a month and your worried about a few bucks extra on netflix?  Hulu isn't free - and while their whole library is not 1080 they do have lots of content at 1080..

 

Your saying you watch all these other things at SD as well?  Or maybe that is why they don't mind watching hulu or youtube when netflix is busy - because the picture is better

 

Keep in mind with 4k its not always the diff in resolution that pretty sure is hard for the human eye to see... Its more the HDR features of 4k that make the picture better... This I can notice for sure!  But 4k non hdr, vs 1080 no you can not see much dif with.. Atleast I can not..

[thisdude 27]

23 minutes ago, BudMan said:

You mean the youtube tv subscription, or just videos?  Both of which can be 1080, The tv subscription is what 50$ a month and your worried about a few bucks extra on netflix?  Hulu isn't free - and while their whole library is not 1080 they do have lots of content at 1080..

 

Your saying you watch all these other things at SD as well?  Or maybe that is why they don't mind watching hulu or youtube when netflix is busy - because the picture is better

 

Keep in mind with 4k its not always the diff in resolution that pretty sure is hard for the human eye to see... Its more the HDR features of 4k that make the picture better... This I can notice for sure!  But 4k non hdr, vs 1080 no you can not see much dif with.. Atleast I can not..

@BudMan just regular YouTube not the TV subscription service. Yeah that could be why no one has complained or they just don't care meh.

 

I get Hulu free with my Sprint plan. Otherwise I wouldn't pay for it. 

[+BudMan 3,586]

Well what I would do it change your plan for 1 month on netflix, to the uhd.. So you can check out stuff in 4k with Dolby Vision or HDR10, if your tv does - I have to think your 65" 4k does - unless it was the like the lowest of lowest budget buy models?

 

See if you notice the difference vs your basic SD

 

If you don't see the difference then change it back... Worse case your out the cost of a cup of coffee, or a decent beer   ###### 1 of the craft beers had the other day was 10$ for the can.. Didn't include tax and then tip.. ###### that was the UHD plan right there pretty much... While the beer was Delicious!!!  I get way more enjoyment over the month that beer I enjoyed for a few minutes..

 

This is from my checkin on untapped.

 

[sc302 1,765]

11 hours ago, BudMan said:

Well what I would do it change your plan for 1 month on netflix, to the uhd.. So you can check out stuff in 4k with Dolby Vision or HDR10, if your tv does - I have to think your 65" 4k does - unless it was the like the lowest of lowest budget buy models?

 

See if you notice the difference vs your basic SD

 

If you don't see the difference then change it back... Worse case your out the cost of a cup of coffee, or a decent beer   ###### 1 of the craft beers had the other day was 10$ for the can.. Didn't include tax and then tip.. ###### that was the UHD plan right there pretty much... While the beer was Delicious!!!  I get way more enjoyment over the month that beer I enjoyed for a few minutes..

 

This is from my checkin on untapped.

 

I think tonight I am going to open up a bottle of Victory Golden Monkey, Twisted Monkey is nice for after a workout...Golden Monkey is nice after a hard day of work.  This week has been rough....might switch to an 18 year GlenFiddich.  

[thisdude 27]

So it's been a couple weeks and things have been great with 150 mbps. No streaming issues or lag when someone plays a game.

 

We tried the Ultra HD Netflix plan and really couldn't tell a difference between the HD plan. So we're sticking with the HD plan, noticeable difference between it and the standard. So thanks for all the advice on it guys!

[SnoopZ 268]

22 minutes ago, thisdude said:

So it's been a couple weeks and things have been great with 150 mbps. No streaming issues or lag when someone plays a game.

 

We tried the Ultra HD Netflix plan and really couldn't tell a difference between the HD plan. So we're sticking with the HD plan, noticeable difference between it and the standard. So thanks for all the advice on it guys!

Wondering what your Upload speed was in the end now you can tell us?

[thisdude 27]

19 hours ago, SnoopZ said:

Wondering what your Upload speed was in the end now you can tell us?

 

Here you go. Is that bad or good?