[RTC List] Broadband speeds and stability for streaming video?

[Andrius Ilgunas]

On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 3:28 PM, Dave Thewlis <dave at dcta.com> wrote:

>
> So whether the Roku box requires 1.2 megabits a second or megabytes a
> second, the Suddenlink speed is not high enough.  Which Larry Goldberg's
> experience would seem to confirm.
>


Sorry all, I just couldn't resist beating a dead horse because it
wasn't dead enough... :)

Patrick brought up a great a point about the
misconceptions/misunderstandings about download speeds.

The semantics are indeed very important in understanding of what
you've ordered  vs. what you're getting.

1.2 Mb (read MegaBITS) and 1.2 MB (MegaBYTES) are two VERY different things.

Patrick wrote:
> 6000 (6 thousand Kilobytes)  / 8 (to turn bits into bytes) = .75 Megabytes/second or 750 Kilobytes/second.


1.2 MB (MegaBYTES) = 1.2MB/second = 1.2MB <= NOT going to happen on a
.75MB connection to the net.

1.2Mb (MegaBITS) = 1.2MB/8/second = .15MB <=WAY doable on a .75MB
connection to the net.


So, by my math, it seems that if Suddenlink even gives you only 20% of
the advertised 6.0Mb/s (NOTE the lower-case 'b') speed,
(.15MB/.75MB), you'd still be good to go with the Roku.




-- 
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Andrius D. Ilgunas
"Technology is the gateway between religion and science."
B.S.
Technocrat
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