network monitor--KB/s?

[Grievous Angel]

Sorry if this is an insanely stupid question . .

. . and in general I find the available documentation on the admin panels to be thin and sparse, so any thing you can point me to on more comprehensive documentation would be appreciated . .

. . but the KB/s in the network monitor--is this Kilobytes Per Second or Kilobits per second?

I assume KiloByes per second but want to be sure.

 

[cariocap]

KB - Capital letter B mean bytes so, it´s Kilobytes

and

Kb - Kilobits

 

[Grievous Angel]

Ok, that's what I thought. Thanks.

Which makes watching this traffic monitor pretty interesting.

We're streaming on Amazon Prime (Roku) and the behavior is interesting. I always assumed these streaming devices would sort of have a constant data usage. So, if you have, say, a 30Mbps connection (which I do) it would take up 3-5 Mbps constantly.

At least with Roku/Amazon, that isn't the way it works. It spikes about once every 30 seconds, taking up the entire bandwidth averaging 2500KB/s, which is around 20Mbps, if you believe this:

http://home1.gte.net/res0psau/bandwidth-unit-converter.html

So, for a few seconds every 30 seconds, it buffers like hell, then goes quiet for around 30 seconds. I assume for a slower connection it would just go a little longer.

I don't know if this is a Amazon/Roku thing but I find it to be a curiosity.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Roku-Netflix

You see the same data flow when watching Netflix on a Roku 2.

That is why IMHO when streaming video using a Roku that having a consistent PING and latency is at least as important as download speeds (above a bare minimum download speed ). Rokus don't have a lot storage to build buffers so when they need data they need it now.

 

[Grievous Angel]

You see the same data flow when watching Netflix on a Roku 2.

That is why IMHO when streaming video using a Roku that having a consistent PING and latency is at least as important as download speeds (above a bare minimum download speed ). Rokus don't have a lot storage to build buffers so when they need data they need it now.

Hmmm . .yesterday when I described that behavior (Amazon/Roku) we were watching Falling skies.

Today we are watching The Lorax on Netflix/Roku (MY KID IS PICKING THESE HONESTLY).

I'm not seeing the same pattern. It's spiky but pretty constant, and eyeballing it looks like around 500KB/s.

A far cry from a 2500KB/s "blast" and then "quiet/rest" pattern from Amazon.

And i just ran a speed test--50+mbps on my connection (for all the crap Charter gets, they rarely cap me at 30mpbs which is what I pay for).

I realize a lot of factors may go into this--different day, a butterfly flapping its wings--but it looks to me like different services have different strategies.

I'm using a Roku 3 if I didn't mention it.

None of this matters--it all works. I just find it interesting. Netflix behaves more along the lines of what I would expect from "streaming."

 

[CaptainSTX]

Streaming

When I stream my SlingBox across my LAN it averages 380 KB/s but with a peak of 780 KB/s.

Point being streaming isn't a smooth flow of data, but as long as your connection can keep up with the data requests your picture quality should be fine.

Both the Roku 2 and Roku 3 both use adaptive streaming to give you the best connection possible without rebuffering.

In my opinion Amazon's picture quality is better Netflix.

 

[Grievous Angel]

"In my opinion Amazon's picture quality is better Netflix."

Hmm. My impression was the opposite. I had been off of netflix for a couple of years but added it back with the Roku.

I may have to do a reference check.

Neither can touch Vudu, though. I understand it's a different service, but there's no way I'm going to "rent" a movie off of Amazon if it is available on Vudu.

Even more interesting, I was always frustrated with my PS3 and Xbox when using Amazon. Too often it would drop out of HD. It works much, much better on the Roku. Which I wouldn't expect given the resources of the consoles.

I don't think I've ever seen the Roku drop out of the HD stream on any service and I've had it a few weeks. I realize there are a lot of factors--load on the streaming service, internet factors, your own ISP, etc. But over time the Roku just works better. I guess their implementation is just a bit more efficient.