# Bandwidth requirements for DirecTV On Demand



## dngrant (Aug 25, 2006)

Greetings all,

Comcast recently expanded into my neighborhood and I am on track to get XFinity Internet in the very near future. What kind of bandwidth package should I get to maximize the On Demand experience. I would like it to truly be On Demand, i.e. select the show and start watching while it downloads.

For the Internet, I am looking at Comcast's 50/10 service. Should that meet the requirement?

Many thanks!!


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

That will meet with big margin. Those servers has limit per session what is lower then your DL speed 50 Mbps.


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## Kevin F (May 9, 2010)

50/10 should work just fine for most real time watching. I'd say wait about 30 seconds so the DVR is ready and then start it. I have TWC 30/5 and I can do SD and HD almost instantaneously. To tell you the truth, I don't know if the DirecTV servers can throw 50 Mbps to a single user.

Edit: P Smith beat me to the punch 

All well

Kevin


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

_I don't know if the DirecTV servers can throw 50 Mbps to a single user_, that would be easy to guess: how many simultaneous sessions DTV planned ? And each one is 35-50 Mbps ? Then what bandwidth they should provide and how much it will be cost for them ? I'll be glad if it maxing at 8 Mbps ...


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

P Smith said:


> _I don't know if..._ I'll be glad if it maxing at 8 Mbps ...


7 Mb/s seems to be what's reported.


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## Kevin F (May 9, 2010)

"P Smith" said:


> I don't know if the DirecTV servers can throw 50 Mbps to a single user, that would be easy to guess: how many simultaneous sessions DTV planned ? And each one is 35-50 Mbps ? Then what bandwidth they should provide and how much it will be cost for them ? I'll be glad if it maxing at 8 Mbps ...


Very true. I wonder how many servers out there can really throw out 50 Mbps consistently and simultaneously to 100+ users, let alone a gigabit.

Kevin


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## Kevin F (May 9, 2010)

Also how could I test my speed to DirecTV servers? I would probably have to monitor the stream through a router while downloading VOD.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

That's what I thought - 5 Mbps, perhaps some buffering upping to 7 Mbps ...


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## dngrant (Aug 25, 2006)

Kevin F said:


> 50/10 should work just fine for most real time watching. I'd say wait about 30 seconds so the DVR is ready and then start it. I have TWC 30/5 and I can do SD and HD almost instantaneously. To tell you the truth, I don't know if the DirecTV servers can throw 50 Mbps to a single user.
> 
> Edit: P Smith beat me to the punch
> 
> ...


Thank you all very much. I may scale back my service then and get the next one below....hmmm....NAH!!!!

-dngrant


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

P Smith said:


> That's what I thought - 5 Mbps, perhaps some buffering upping to 7 Mbps ...


I can only do 5 Mb/s, so I have to count on reading others' posts.


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## Kevin F (May 9, 2010)

"dngrant" said:


> Thank you all very much. I may scale back my service then and get the next one below....hmmm....NAH!!!!
> 
> -dngrant


Hahha there ya go. The more speed the better.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

"Kevin F" said:


> Hahha there ya go. The more speed the better.


To a certain point, but there is a point of major diminishing returns.


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## Scott Kocourek (Jun 13, 2009)

veryoldschool said:


> I can only do 5 Mb/s, so I have to count on reading others' posts.


Same here, and on a typical 1080P movie I usually wait 20 Minutes and then can watch without catching up to the buffer.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Scott Kocourek said:


> Same here, and on a typical 1080P movie I usually wait 20 Minutes and then can watch without catching up to the buffer.


This amount of time should require 5 Mbps X 20 min x 60 s/min = 6000 Mb = 750 MB buffer, practically 1 GB. 
Adding to that it will hold the 20 min reserve in case of network speed falling down ...


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Scott Kocourek said:


> Same here, and on a typical 1080P movie I usually wait 20 Minutes and then can watch without catching up to the buffer.


SD can be done here "almost live", while HD averages 1.5:1, meaning it takes 45 mins for 30 mins of program.


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