Speeds needed for Streaming

Nov 26, 2005
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I'm looking for offers in my area for internet. The cheapest I found offers 5Mbps download and 1Mbps upload.. now is this enough for streaming Netflix and things like that?
 

smitbret

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2006
3,382
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Enough?
Yes

Ideal?
No

Depends on the type of connection, too. Keep in kind that you most likely will not get your advertised speed most of the time. A 5mbps line will probably test out 3.5 or 4.5 instead. DSL will probably be more stable and consistently closer to the advertised rates than cable or wireless services.
 

dawks

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,071
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imagoon has a good link there. It seems to me netflix can scale pretty good. If you have a slow connection, it just uses a lower bitrate. So you can still watch, it might not be as sharp though. If you can handle lower quality, you might be fine then.
 

RadiclDreamer

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2004
8,622
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5mb is plenty for HD as long as it is stable and consistent. My parents have a 5mb package and their quality rarely ever dips below HD. This is with cable connection, connecting wirelessly to a ROKU 2 on 2.4ghz
 
Nov 26, 2005
15,194
403
126
I decided to watch my traffic this morning while streaming Netflix Super HD (Platoon) and seen a jump to 1235.92KB..