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Data Saver problem or TV problem?

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semiresponsive
Freshman

Data Saver problem or TV problem?

On August 31 I noticed a marked increase in the amount of data I'm using. I did, that day, buy my first 1080p TV, but I use data saver (always have, even when the only 1080 screen in the house was a laptop). Shouldn't the data saver be limiting the quality of the video coming in to 720p or less? Shouldn't my data consumption have stayed pretty much the same since the only change has been this model television, not how much I'm watching on it? I did check to make sure there were no unauthorized devices on my network, and it looks good. No changes... except this new TV. Any suggestions? As it was, before this, I was buying at least 50GB more data each month. But this is getting very expensive...

8 REPLIES 8


@semiresponsive wrote:

On August 31 I noticed a marked increase in the amount of data I'm using. I did, that day, buy my first 1080p TV, but I use data saver (always have, even when the only 1080 screen in the house was a laptop). Shouldn't the data saver be limiting the quality of the video coming in to 720p or less? Shouldn't my data consumption have stayed pretty much the same since the only change has been this model television, not how much I'm watching on it? I did check to make sure there were no unauthorized devices on my network, and it looks good. No changes... except this new TV. Any suggestions? As it was, before this, I was buying at least 50GB more data each month. But this is getting very expensive...


  There was a recent glitch with the VDS, did you actually check to see if it was still turned on?

 

  Call me an old fogey, but I've never understood this fascination with streaming video over a data limited satellite

internet connection,  For what one would pay for data tokens, one could probably get the most expensive satellite TV plan, or buy Blurays, and not have to worry about buffering or data limits. 

 

  But like I said, I'm an old fogey.  :<)>

 

Truthfully, I've always had satellite until (eta: I'm editing this because something I said got me bleeped... maybe the amount of money I saved?) as the next guy that this is (was) saving me money. Smiley LOL I think it can be boiled down to me having always streamed at least some media watching less and less broadcast TV as the years have worn on.

 

I did check in on the video data saver. The app on my cell and the one on my laptop both have the little green light saying it's on. And I've been checking periodically for the last couple of weeks. Sometimes these things fly over my head, so it's possible it's not working, but I'm not sure how I'd know.

maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

Just FYI, the system is having a bleep issue, in that it randomly bleeps things.  It's programmed to bleep certain words, and expressions, but lately it's been bleeping whole sentences randomly.  You can always preview what you've written to see if the system will bleep something, and if it keeps doing that, you can take a screenshot of your text and post that.

 

HughesNet is working on this issue, but who knows how long it will take to get to the root of the problem (keep in mind the forum is provided to them by a third party).

 

semiresponsive wrote:
(eta: I'm editing this because something I said got me bleeped... maybe the amount of money I saved?)

 

Regarding high data usage, especially with regards to streaming:
1. Satellite internet by nature is a high latency system where the time it takes to make a round trip from you to any other location in the world is at minimum 525 mSec. That's based the laws of physics and determined by the speed of light the signal travels and the path the signal takes: From you to the satellite, then down to a ground station on the West Coast, then out through the internet to whatever site you're trying to reach, and the reverse path back to you.

2. That minimum latency time can be impacted by several other factors: Server delays at the ground station, propagation disturbances (weather or foliage attentuation, signal refraction, signal reflection, etc.), as well as any transfer delays along the internet path up to and including the server you're trying to reach.

3. Streaming is not like downloading a file in one shot. It's a semi-asynchronous and interactive process where you request a stream, the server starts to send portions of what ever media you're trying to view/listen to, and requires you to send an acknowledgement that you received that portion at the correct time and in the correct time sequence. IOW: many little files of a fixed size, rolled into one.

4. Depending upon whatever protocol the server uses, it may automatically assume that you never recieved the portion if an acknowledgement isn't received from you in a specific timerame, so it automatically resends another one even though it was successful. Since it was performed on your account, it gets charged as received data to your account, whether you actually used that data or threw it away as surplus.

 

The end result is increased data usage, just because that particular server wasn't designed for sufficient enough of a time delay that may have been attributable to normal satellite internet usage.

 

It's worthwhile to point out that the portions don't usually change with resolution, but because higher resolutions inherently require more data per visual frame, it increases the frequency at which an acknowledgement is required, therefore also increasing the probability of a missed acknowledgement.

 

Should also point out that when you have a lot of people trying to stream at the same time, it may cause a significant amount of congestion at the ground station, ironically causing extra unnecessary latency for everyone else using that ground station. Don't have to tell you the negative spiral that something like this causes to the system.


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.

Yes, that all makes sense.

 

Per the previous tips, I installed GlassWire and was able to determine that my network is functioning as expected (no rogue devices), and that my laptop is consuming the expected amount of data. I streamed approximately 40 minutes of TV from Amazon Prime. The total data useage I can attribute to my TV was right in the neighborhood of 2GB. And that useage rate is right on point with HD rather than SD. So now I'm wondering if/how the data saver actually works.

 

Unless... is it possible that the latenency issue mentioned above would be enough of an issue to more than double the necessary data typically required to watch SD video?

 

ETA: I think it heard me talking smack about it. the next 40 minutes of streaming TV were ~500KB of data. That's resonable and manageable. I do think there are some small apps on my laptop eating a bit more data than I'd like. I appreciate all the tips and tricks, guys. It's bad enough to have to go with the expensive internet, so to have it run off on its own is a giant pain!

Remember that old joke:
"Doctor, it hurts when I do this"
"Then don't do that"


* Disclaimer: I am a HughesNet customer and not a HughesNet employee. All of my comments are my own and do not necessarily represent HughesNet in any way.
maratsade
Distinguished Professor IV

It's probably the new TV tapping the internet in ways the other one didn't do.  You can download the free Glasswire software to see what's using the data.   See the info in this post about identifying data leeks (Edit: Leeks? Really??  I meant LEAKS) as well: https://community.hughesnet.com/t5/Tech-Support/Where-s-my-bytes-Testing-for-data-leaks/m-p/77194#M5...

 

semiresponsive wrote:

On August 31 I noticed a marked increase in the amount of data I'm using. I did, that day, buy my first 1080p TV, but I use data saver (always have, even when the only 1080 screen in the house was a laptop). Shouldn't the data saver be limiting the quality of the video coming in to 720p or less? Shouldn't my data consumption have stayed pretty much the same since the only change has been this model television, not how much I'm watching on it? I did check to make sure there were no unauthorized devices on my network, and it looks good. No changes... except this new TV. Any suggestions? As it was, before this, I was buying at least 50GB more data each month. But this is getting very expensive...


 

Thank you for the links! Hopefully one will shed a little light.