How much speed do you need for streaming in 2022?

We all love our broadband connections, and the faster the better.

They help us stay in touch with friends and family, to work remotely. In many cases, they carry our phone calls, and they’re great for browsing the web and keeping our smart devices connected.

But the thing is, as important as all of these things are, many of us aren’t entirely sure just what speed of connection we need to keep doing them well.

One extremely common use of our internet connections that seemingly goes hand-in-hand with having the fastest speed available is streaming. Most of us spend hours every week sat in front of Netflix, Amazon Prime or some other streaming service, but just how much speed do we need for a quality experience in 2022?

Here are five questions to help you decide.

What resolution do you need?

One of the most important things you’ll need to think about when it comes to deciding how much speed you need is the resolution you’ll be watching in.

Most broadcast TV today is transmitted in 1080 (1920x1080 pixels) – that’s your typical ‘high definition’ picture and for many people, it’s enough.

But if you’re watching on a larger TV, or you just want to enjoy every single pixel of the source material, you might prefer to watch in 4K (3840x2160 pixels, also known as ultra-high-definition or UHD).

A 4K picture uses four times the number of pixels as a 1080 picture, which means it’ll need to download a lot more data.

Another thing to bear in mind, apart from resolution, is whether you want to watch in HDR (High Dynamic Range). HDR signals carry much more colour and contrast information which makes streams need more bandwidth (or speed). Lots of modern TVs are marketed as HDR enabled, but only those capable of high levels of brightness and contrast ratios can truly do it justice.

If you want to watch in 4K HDR, you’ll need a high-speed connection to avoid buffering issues. If you’re happy to stream in 1080 SDR (Standard Dynamic Range), those requirements won’t be nearly as demanding. In fact, any fibre broadband connection should be sufficient (depending on what else you’re doing with your connection at the same time).

How large is your household?

If there’s just one or two of you in the home the chances are, while you’re streaming, you won’t be doing very much else online.

That’s important, because it means that all (or most) of your available bandwidth can be dedicated to watching your stream.

If you have more people at home though, it’s important to remember what they’ll be doing online while you’re watching your streams.

The speed of your internet (or your bandwidth) is a finite thing. It will only stretch so far, and the more people online at the same time, the more they’ll be using a chunk of your available bandwidth. And that means less of your bandwidth is available for your streaming.

That’s not a problem if you have a 900Mbps connection, but if your broadband speed is significantly slower than that, it’s possible you may run into some problems.

What else are you doing online?

This ties into the previous point but is perhaps even more important.

After all, if you have five other people connected to your network but all they’re doing is checking emails or browsing the web, they might not have much of an impact.

But if other people at home are streaming at the same time, or you’re downloading a large file while you’re watching TV, those kinds of activity can very easily take a big chunk out of your available streaming speed.

It’s very easy to use up most of your bandwidth on one or two demanding activities, activities that might affect the quality of your streaming.

How many connected devices do you have?

Modern homes often contain dozens of connected devices, from smartphones and tablets to TVs, speakers and other smart home gadgets.

It’s easy in a well-connected home to have many gadgets all taking a piece of your bandwidth. On their own they might be unnoticeable, but collectively they can make a difference, especially if your connection isn’t the fastest. That’s why, for homes with lots of devices, we tend to recommend a full fibre connection.

Do you need an upgrade?

If you’re in a smaller household or you’re not doing anything particularly demanding online, and if you’ve decided to stream in 1080, the chances are that your internet connection will be up to the streaming task.

The best way to find out is to give it a try. If everything runs smoothly, you’re good to go.

If you’re in a larger household though, or you’ve got multiple streams and/or downloads happening at the same time, a faster connection might be a good idea.

To check out the speeds at your address, follow this link and enter your postcode, then give us a call and we’ll be happy to discuss your upgrade options.