Downloading vs Streaming data use

[Mb123]

I read a post about using the Play On software. My question: if I were to use Play On to download during my Bonus Data, will simply downloading to watch later offline use less data than streaming to watch? My intentions would be to connect my laptop to my tv. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

[Jeff_T]

@Mb123

Hi, I replied to your other post on this subject but did not address what you ask here, PlayOn has an option to select video quality which is directly related to the amount of data a video takes to record. I leave the quality setting at auto and it records at the "standard" quality which uses about 1GB for each hour of recording, you can record at higher quality but auto works just fine and gives you about 50 hours of video a month from the bonus time.

[MarkJFine · Accepted solution]

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@Mb123 wrote:
I read a post about using the Play On software. My question: if I were to use Play On to download during my Bonus Data, will simply downloading to watch later offline use less data than streaming to watch? My intentions would be to connect my laptop to my tv. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

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The short answer is, maybe.

Streaming gives more opportunity for in-process packet errors, meaning more repeated packets being sent, meaning more data being used.

Downloading means you get the whole thing in one shot with hopefully less time for packet errors to occur.

All things being equal, downloading should mean less data usage than streaming.

And by equal, I mean the same program at the same resolution and total file size... which brings up another advantage: With downloading you know the data you should be using, whereas with streaming it's best guess by resolution.

If I'm making it seem that downloading is just an all-round better option, it is - not only for your own local bandwidth but for everyone else's as well.

Edit: Should also add that if you're downloading anything much more than 3-400Mb per hour of programming you're probably wasting bandwidth.

[MarkJFine]

@udanwudeligv

Hate to put it this way, but do the math:

Suppose you only have 30GB (30,000MB) per month for an average plan.

Divide that by worst case 400MB / hour = 75 hours.

Divide that by 30.5 days/month = roughly 2.5 hours a day.

And that's just for streaming, not software updates or anything else.

Not to mention the demand that puts on limited satellite resources.

Nine times out of ten, this is where people's data is going when they asked "where'd my data go so fast'? It's thinking you can stream hi-res HD programming and movies, which is >> 400MB/hr.

[udanwudeligv]

Ah, OK, yeah I've figured that out for sure.
And some websites (like NBC) don't even give you an option. Those commercials are in SUPER hi def.

PS don't know what happened to my other post, but meh, Playon doesn't support Macs. 😕