Forum Discussion
internet and direct tv
At this time I have Direct TV and I am trying to find out how to get rid of this service and just watch my programs through the internet. I am old so all of this is new to me. How does this work? I do not understand MB and GB. Can I use, netflix as example, for my tv viewing and get rid of my money sucking Direct TV? At this time I have the Prime Plus plan with Hughes Net. Is this enough MB's and GB's? Can anyone help me? Or direct me somewhere that can help me?
Hi rbhowell . Without going into a bunch of technical stuff the short answer is even the highest plan on satellite Internet is not meant to be a cord cutter service where you can move all your TV and movie viewing to it.
There is not enough monthly data available to do all that. Plus because of the delay caused by going through a satellite some people experience problems when streaming video especially at higher definitions.
So no, it is not recommended to use HughesNet for all your TV and movie watching unless you do very little of both and do it at lower definition, as in lower video quality. Even at lower quality 50 GB (Gigabytes) will not last long if doing a lot of video streaming.
EDIT: Mark beat me to it while I was typing.
Thank you. I guess living in the middle of nowhere does have its downfalls. Bummer!
rbhowell wrote:Thank you. I guess living in the middle of nowhere does have its downfalls. Bummer!
I've had DTV for quite a long time. I've not been a fan since ATT took over. Just try ordering a replacement remote for an HR24 now - you can't. Plus, they cancelled beIN sports (that really torqued me) even though they still use their logo on their plan site. So... sympathies.
Just a suggestion, if you're looking to do your TV viewing over the internet, you do not really want to do it with any satellite internet service:
1. I'm not sure there's a plan large enough for full time television viewing. As an example, an hour of HD is roughly 2-3GB if you just downloaded it. Streaming it may take a lot more because of the constant handshaking required. The amount is significantly less at 320p, but still.2. The demand that streaming video at resolutions much above 320p puts on satellite internet due to just the inherent latency is enough to cause a lot of buffering on your end. It also loads the servers down so everyone else that uses that gateway is affected.
Bottom line: Satellite internet is not a drop-in replacement for TV viewing in the same way that terrestrial-based internet is.
