Ubifi Rural Internet

[STx]

So let's say you watch a couple/three episodes of The Walking Dead and 3-4 movies each week. How's that affect your data usage?

An hour of HD video will use roughly 1GB of data. We stream all of our TV, live and on demand, and we use over 100GB a month. It's better to just have an unthrottled unlimited plan and not have to worry about it. For us, TV and Internet combined is about $100/mo for every US, British and Canadian channel, including premium, sports and PPV (we don't pay extra for those), so it's cheaper than having satellite or something and trying to stay under some monthly data limit.

 

[Sysop]

Yep that antenna is what I am thinking I will put up in the spring. Life just got in the way of doing it before winter hit.

My goal is to drastically reduce the satellite bill and be one of those cord cutters that I hear the kids talking about.

I'm using one of the house-mounted satellite mounting poles for the antennas. That allowed me to rotate them and get them pointed at the best signal path. The connection quality and speed varies a lot. I generally see no less than 2mbps both ways. On a good day I'll get 15mbps down and a bit over 7mbps up. This is in a location that cell phones are virtually useless.

I was able to connect an Obi VoIP controller (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BUV7C9A/) and switched my phone service to VoIP Provider Phone Power - Home & Business VoIP Phone Services. I now pay $14.07 a month (including all taxes and fees) for my full featured land line.

 

[Sysop]

An hour of HD video will use roughly 1GB of data. We stream all of our TV, live and on demand, and we use over 100GB a month. It's better to just have an unthrottled unlimited plan and not have to worry about it. For us, TV and Internet combined is about $100/mo for every US, British and Canadian channel, including premium, sports and PPV (we don't pay extra for those), so it's cheaper than having satellite or something and trying to stay under some monthly data limit.

I keep one of my Netflix user profiles set to their "low bandwidth" setting and can hardly tell a difference from typical HD for most videos on smaller screens.

According to Netflix, low quality uses 0.3GB per hour - Medium/Standard quality uses 0.7GB per hour - High quality uses up to 3GB per hour for HD and 7GB per hour for UltraHD.

 

[BigBlue1]

I keep one of my Netflix user profiles set to their "low bandwidth" setting and can hardly tell a difference from typical HD for most videos on smaller screens.

According to Netflix, low quality uses 0.3GB per hour - Medium/Standard quality uses 0.7GB per hour - High quality uses up to 3GB per hour for HD and 7GB per hour for UltraHD.

This is closer to my observation. About 3-4GB per hour of HD content from Netflix.

Rob

 

[STx]

I keep one of my Netflix user profiles set to their "low bandwidth" setting and can hardly tell a difference from typical HD for most videos on smaller screens.

According to Netflix, low quality uses 0.3GB per hour - Medium/Standard quality uses 0.7GB per hour - High quality uses up to 3GB per hour for HD and 7GB per hour for UltraHD.

I can tell the difference between the SD, HD and 720 or higher streams in KODI or Titanium, and some on Amazon. I really don't use Netflix anymore, we're going to cancel it. Anything they have is also available on KODI or Titanium.

 

[BigBlue1]

I can tell the difference between the SD, HD and 720 or higher streams in KODI or Titanium, and some on Amazon. I really don't use Netflix anymore, we're going to cancel it. Anything they have is also available on KODI or Titanium.

These other services also carry Netflix original content? Or did you mean they have any movies and series from non-Netflix sources? Asking because Netflix actually makes some decent stuff these days and it is nice to have access to that.

Rob

 

[STx]

These other services also carry Netflix original content? Or did you mean they have any movies and series from non-Netflix sources? Asking because Netflix actually makes some decent stuff these days and it is nice to have access to that.

Rob

They have all the Netflix original content as well.

 

[BigBlue1]

They have all the Netflix original content as well.

How do they manage that?

 

[STx]

How do they manage that?

Someone shares it. There might be a question as to legality but, it's all available, as is all the HBO, Starz and Amazon content and pretty much any TV show or movie you'd want to see.

 

[tractorshopper]

Installed the external antenna this weekend and tried it pointing in various directions, but eventually settled on the one with the most consistent signal strength. This one is maybe 6 miles from my house, but the best I can consistently keep is 2 bars occasionally dropping to 1 and occasionally increasing to 3. To be fair, it was overcast Friday when I set it up and has been overcast and rainy all weekend since I got it, but it has not been as big of an improvement as I thought it would be. I'm probably averaging about 11-12 down now. Almost always getting more than 7 down and once in a while getting 21+ down.

My closest tower is about a mile from my house, but there is a ridge and many trees between that tower and my house. One time I was pointing in that direction and I had 3 bars and speeds of 25-30 down, but it only lasted for a minute before dropping to 1 bar and speeds of 5-6 with the external antenna.

I am still way impressed with this over any internet I've ever had, but for my use, the antenna does work, but isn't a huge gain for my geographic location. Just knowing I'm so close to a tower and can't get a better connection anywhere than -110db is making me sure I will end up buying a signal booster as some point. I'm usually between -120 and -110.