Forum Discussion

Damselfly72's avatar
Damselfly72
New Poster
7 years ago

10gb to stream a movie

Really? I was completely out of data, aside from bonus bites. Bought 10gb and ordered a movie from Amazon Prime, (HD). No other devices connected to the network other than the router and the Samsung s...
Data Management
  • Amanda's avatar
    Amanda
    7 years ago

    Hi Damselfly72,


    I believe this is because apparently Amazon is using a higher bitrate and does not seem to allow quality/rate adjustments outside of their own proprietary Fire TV products. Basically this means that Amazon won't automatically adjust itself based on multiple factors (screen size, bandwidth, device capability) like other video providers do, resulting in you having to receive video in the format Amazon has on file. Adjusting this setting using built-in options on devices like Roku's may change what you see, but won't change what you get. Sometimes this will also cause buffering or poor visual quality. Read more here

     

    Regarding your mobile provider... I'm not sure who you have, but many providers are now automatically turning on their own versions of "VDS" to help save mobile data and ease network congestion. This might be enabled on your service plan, so it's worth a check. VDS is enabled for all customers on Gen4 and Gen5 service plans.

     

    I hope I was able to offer some helpful info :) 

     

    -Amanda

GabeU's avatar
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

You mentioned a router being connected.  Does it have the ability to monitor data usage, and if so, does it have the ability to break the usage down by device? 

 

A two hour film shouldn't use 10GB of data in HD, but a spotty WiFi connection can cause higher data usage, as can things using data that you aren't aware of.  

 

Other than your Smart TV, what devices do you have that utilize your WiFi, and how do you ensure that they cannot connect at any given time?  

 

 

Damselfly72's avatar
Damselfly72
New Poster
7 years ago
This was basically a test. We made sure all other devices were disconnected or turned off. We have another satellite ISP with business class service for our primary provider and had turned off the router and modem for it as well. I only use it for business purposes, not entertainment.
I could see a spotty connection being an issue at times to cause excessive data usage, but not to this extent. Unfortunately, I don't have a meter on the router connected to the Hughesnet modem.