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proudworld

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Data usage disparities in streaming services

I posted here a while back indicating the disparity in the now discontinued VUE and my switch to YouTube TV.  For the past number of months using YouTube TV, my bandwidth usage has been significantly less, and by that I mean less than half....using about 350 GB/month with YouTube.  Nothing in our viewing habits changed.

Prior to that, we would push the monthly 1TB data cap with VUE...but never breached it.

This month I decided to give HULU another try. ..previously they seemed to have buffering issues a while back.  It's better now.  However..  Bam!  Back to pushing 50 GB/day...and that may be a notch above VUE. 

At current pace, we would break the NEW 1250 GB limit.  Again, I've never breached the 1TB limit.

I've been looking for an answer, but there seems little to explain it other than the stream will consume the highest allowable amount for picture quality.  Even if I change setting on Friestick/Roku, etc.

Yet, YouTube TV apparently did not.  What am I missing?

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Bruce

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Honored Contributor III

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The format of the content in terms of megapixels would be a factor...the compression scheme of the provider would be a factor...re-transmission of lost frames from the provider would be a factor.  I'm sure there are more factors.

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proudworld

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I agree...I've thought it was the compression, but why the disparity.  YTTV can transmit more efficiently than HULU?  I would think the ability to compress would be more consistent from provider to provider.

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Bruce

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UHD is not just more pixels but a higher dynamic range, higher frame rate, deeper color bit rate, wider color gamut and more immersive audio.  Netflix, Hulu and Amazon each have their own proprietary technology to format their content.  Those technologies might be completely different from what broadcasters originally use.

As far as compression, it depends on the provider's goal:  quality or efficiency or a bit of both.  Cox only has HD content but still heavily compresses their content.  HULU, on the other hand, might be opting for higher quality with lightweight compression.

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proudworld

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Thanks.  Yesterday...being somewhat conscious of what we are using, we hit 41 GB.  That was HULU only, primarily on one TV.  Approx, 8-9 hours viewing time.

By comparison, YTTV would probably be around 10-12 GB for that type of daily usage.

I don't see a noticeable difference in picture quality in Live TV.  But that's a big difference in data delivery.  IMHO.

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