1. First, speeds change invariably over the course of the day, and speed tests will vary depending upon the technology that is used. Not all speed tests will work correctly with satellite. 2. Speed tests won't give you any clue as to the problem you may be having with streaming services because each service is different and not all work very well over satellite. That said, streaming services work very different than downloading a single file, which speed tests are designed to evaluate. Streaming involves several files as well as several parts of files (packets) that must be acknowledged to ensure they are received in order if at all. 3. Stopping and starting of a stream, which may look like and be reported by an app as 'buffering', is generally not a speed issue over satellite. It has to do with data latency across the network and the ability of your streaming app to communicate properly without timing out to the streaming server (and vice versa). Many times if the latency is too high a request for a new set of 'frames' may appear too late for the server to recognize to do something about it, so the server is waiting for either a resend or it just gives up and stops, giving you an error. 4. Latency is typically 500-600 mS at best over satellite (100s of times longer than terrestrial internet) and can't be improved due to the physics of radio waves going from your dish, to the satellite, then down to the ground station, out to the terrestrial internet, and then back through the reverse path. It can be negatively affected by the number of people actively using the internet your spot beam at the satellite, at the corresponding ground station where it connects to the terrestrial internet, or by the routing by the ground station's internet provider and backbone. You can improve streaming performance by ensuring you are using the lowest resolution available, which lowers the amount of pings the app has to make to the server, thus alleviating the potential impact of latency. Most of the apps initially set this resolution and data rate very high with so it's worthwhile to check the settings on each app you use: Roku in particular uses a tremendous amount of data and has a high refresh rate, making it particularly susceptible. Conversely, Netflix does some kind of preloaded caching for movies and shows which is all done in the background. I have no idea where it's stored, but Netflix seems to work extremely well over satellite. We've been watching Stranger Things 4 and other series with little to no problems at all using the lowest setting (configured on the web site, not the app). Other services like Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ depend upon the time of day, day of week, etc., and it can vary quite a lot. For example, I can watch an episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi on a Thursday at 11:30 EDT during lunch on my 55" Samsung TV and it will run all the way through without stopping once. However, once it hits 12:30 it will start to have problems for about an hour where it has to be restarted after about 5 minutes of play. The problems magically go away at 1:30. It all depends upon the user loads mentioned in #4 and could be an indication that others just have the same idea of trying to stream during lunchtime. Conversely, I have very few problems watching anything using the Disney+ app on an iPad while walking or running on a treadmill. This is a fact of how the system works. Techs may find something to improve performance slightly, but you will still have many of these technical limitations no matter what is done. This is what people mean when they say you can either learn to work satisfactorily within those limitations or without the service altogether. The choice is yours.
... View more