Required Bandwidth for Streaming Youtube?

The Green Bean

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2003
6,506
7
81
I'm currently using 5mb DSL which works great when it works. But my phone company are idiots and I'm getting really low line quality despite being only 300m from the exchange. I've tried everything, I even had them visit--it works fine (16mb attainable speed) one day, and goes down (1mb) the next.

This won't do. The next option is 2mb Wimax. I'm currently sharing my connection between 10 PCs, but I'm thinking of getting 2 new connections. Will I be able to stream 320? 420? without buffering?

What about video Skype?
 

God Mode

Platinum Member
Jul 2, 2005
2,903
0
71
Youtube is slow as hell on Fios, RCN Cable, TW Roadrunner. I've had all those services within the last 2 years. All of them played youtube videos like crap. Worst for me was Fios. While still annoyingly slow, Roadrunner loaded youtube the fastest.
 

alent1234

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2002
3,915
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It's blocked in my country.

you live in Jesusland?



who's your phone company? the 5mb is up to the switch. in reality all bandwidth is shared

i have 10mbps from timewarner and max out at 22mbps sometimes. that's why i don't fall for the scam of being up sold on faster speeds
 

The Green Bean

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2003
6,506
7
81
you live in Jesusland?



who's your phone company? the 5mb is up to the switch. in reality all bandwidth is shared

i have 10mbps from timewarner and max out at 22mbps sometimes. that's why i don't fall for the scam of being up sold on faster speeds

SNR Margin US/DS 9.6 / 6.2 Line Attenuation US/DS 31.5 / 45.6
Power US/DS 11.3 / 18.5 Attainable Down Speed 1520

down from this:

SNR Margin (dB): 13.9 20.3
Attenuation (dB): 40.5 22.8
Output Power (dBm): 12.6 19.7
Attainable Rate (Kbps): 13356 1161
Rate (Kbps): 7165 767

The problem is not the ISP, it's the phone company (PTCL)--the area telephone exchange to be exact.
 

Matthiasa

Diamond Member
May 4, 2009
5,755
23
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No amount of bandwidth will ever allow proper streaming from youtube.
Youtube is just to slow.

Skype uses very little bandwidth so anything would work for it.
 

alent1234

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2002
3,915
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how often does the speed drop? i've read peak times for bandwidth consumption are 7pm to around midnight on weekdays
is it all the videos or some? i've had issues where i can't play one video and trying another one solves the problem
 

Baked

Lifer
Dec 28, 2004
36,052
17
81
I have roadrunner through time warner, and it was loading youtube hella slow this morning.
 

The Green Bean

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2003
6,506
7
81
how often does the speed drop? i've read peak times for bandwidth consumption are 7pm to around midnight on weekdays
is it all the videos or some? i've had issues where i can't play one video and trying another one solves the problem

Speed drops randomly. I have to complain for it to be fixed. I also keep losing sync (every hour or when I receive a telephone call) and my telephone is noisy most of the time. The don't have fibre optics in my area just yet. I told them enough is enough--I'm switching ISPs. I just want to know if 2mb is enough for streaming. That's the fastest WIMAX speed available. Will I notice a difference from 5mb in while surfing? I might get 20-30ms extra ping times, though those aren't much considering I ping 300ms to the USA (where most servers are anyways). I don't download much (other than software updates and Steam games and 200kb/sec is enough).
 

QueBert

Lifer
Jan 6, 2002
23,121
1,272
126
No amount of bandwidth will ever allow proper streaming from youtube.
Youtube is just to slow.

Skype uses very little bandwidth so anything would work for it.

Charter here, I watch at least 2 dozen Youtube videos every day. I don't ever remember a video ever pausing to buffer. You must have a different definition of proper streaming? I've watched at least 10 thousand videos always in the highest quality possible and they always play like butter.
 

zCypher

Diamond Member
Aug 18, 2002
6,115
171
116
If your speeds are dropping when attenuation goes up, so it's a physical issue for sure. If you've already ruled out that you don't have a bad phone jack, aren't using a splitter or microfilter incorrectly placed on the modem, then the ISP is definitely responsible for finding and fixing whatever it is. It's not your problem whether it has to do with the phone company or not. You are the customer of ISP, thus ISP responsible to fix. If that involves ISP opening ticket with phone company, so what?

Unless things work completely different over there. That's how it is here in Canada. Have you tried using your modem in any different phone jacks? If it is an inside wiring issue your ISP may very well charge you or just tell you to figure it out yourself.

EDIT: YouTube streams fine for me and has done so across both major DSL/cable ISP here (even on lame 6-8mbps plans).
 

Matthiasa

Diamond Member
May 4, 2009
5,755
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Charter here, I watch at least 2 dozen Youtube videos every day. I don't ever remember a video ever pausing to buffer. You must have a different definition of proper streaming? I've watched at least 10 thousand videos always in the highest quality possible and they always play like butter.

No I really just mean not buffering.

Things from large channels always work, but outside of them that's quite rare.
Just go to some really random stuff and see what happens.
 

freegeeks

Diamond Member
May 7, 2001
5,460
1
81
Speed drops randomly. I have to complain for it to be fixed. I also keep losing sync (every hour or when I receive a telephone call) and my telephone is noisy most of the time. The don't have fibre optics in my area just yet. I told them enough is enough--I'm switching ISPs. I just want to know if 2mb is enough for streaming. That's the fastest WIMAX speed available. Will I notice a difference from 5mb in while surfing? I might get 20-30ms extra ping times, though those aren't much considering I ping 300ms to the USA (where most servers are anyways). I don't download much (other than software updates and Steam games and 200kb/sec is enough).

losing sync when you receive a call is usually a misplaced or bad splitter
 

The Green Bean

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2003
6,506
7
81
If your speeds are dropping when attenuation goes up, so it's a physical issue for sure. If you've already ruled out that you don't have a bad phone jack, aren't using a splitter or microfilter incorrectly placed on the modem, then the ISP is definitely responsible for finding and fixing whatever it is. It's not your problem whether it has to do with the phone company or not. You are the customer of ISP, thus ISP responsible to fix. If that involves ISP opening ticket with phone company, so what?

Unless things work completely different over there. That's how it is here in Canada. Have you tried using your modem in any different phone jacks? If it is an inside wiring issue your ISP may very well charge you or just tell you to figure it out yourself.

EDIT: YouTube streams fine for me and has done so across both major DSL/cable ISP here (even on lame 6-8mbps plans).

That's how it works here too. However, the ISP I was using was bought by the telephone company which is partly government owned. I've complained been complaining for 4 months and the issue hasn't been resolved. I've filed a complaint in a consumer court. Do you think I have a case here? Even the lineman admitted the problem is with the Exchange. However, he retracted that statement and now wants to rewire my house.

I do have a couple of joints through telephone boxes (via CAT6), but if they were the problem, line quality would not be jumping around so significantly within a few hours. Or would it? The Telephone company lineman told me it could be the problem while the electrician (who has done the wiring) says it is highly unlikely.
 

The Green Bean

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2003
6,506
7
81
losing sync when you receive a call is usually a misplaced or bad splitter

Well, I've tried 2 splitters right where I have the modem. Sometimes, upon receiving a call, I get desynced but the next sync is at a much higher rate (10 folds higher). I just can't figure out if this is a local problem or not.

Huge fluctuations in SNR gives me the impression that someone might be tinkering with something at the exchange. Also, it normally takes a complaint to get the speeds back up (in 24 hours) and when the lineman visits, the phone line becomes crystal clear. But losing sync when making/receiving a call and the subsequent upping of speeds makes me go hmm...
 
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zanejohnson

Diamond Member
Nov 29, 2002
7,054
17
81
Well, I've tried 2 splitters right where I have the modem. Sometimes, upon receiving a call, I get desynced but the next sync is at a much higher rate (10 folds higher). I just can't figure out if this is a local problem or not.

Huge fluctuations in SNR gives me the impression that someone might be tinkering with something at the exchange. Also, it normally takes a complaint to get the speeds back up (in 24 hours) and when the lineman visits, the phone line becomes crystal clear. But losing sync when making/receiving a call and the subsequent upping of speeds makes me go hmm...

its just YouTube some bids load quick some load St like 100KB/sec

some Max my 10mbps connection
 

Spacehead

Lifer
Jun 2, 2002
13,067
9,858
136
Well, i've has DSL for all of a week now & only a few youtube vids have buffered for me.
1.5Mbps is what speedtest is telling me i have.
 

Jeffg010

Diamond Member
Feb 22, 2008
3,435
1
0
The Green Bean I feel your pain. I had an outage from Comcast in Dec and all they kept doing was resetting my modem and rebooted everything. Then they send out a tech and he replaces my modem splitter and still slow as hell and most of the it was just timeouts. The tech said if it is the line on the pole then they would need more people to call in and complained.

So I kept calling them everyday and they kept sending out a tech. I kept telling them that it is not my equipment. After a week of this crap I switched over to Fios. Comcast finally fixed it after 8 days but by then I was already signed on to FIOS. I have been really happy with FIOS.
 

0roo0roo

No Lifer
Sep 21, 2002
64,795
84
91
youtube is one of the fastest sites for me, so must be local congestion for you...
 

The Green Bean

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2003
6,506
7
81
I talked to the lineman today and he said I'll have to deal with it until they get fiber (ETA: unknown). Do I get a slower line with better service or stick with this crappy service but relatively fast connection? There is also 10mb cable available but I've heard horror stories about it.
 

boomhower

Diamond Member
Sep 13, 2007
7,228
19
81
YouTube sucks for me regardless of bandwidth. I can stream HD from any other site without issue but even regular youtube videos tend to buffer forever.