28-08-2018 10:59
My home internet is through a mobile phone provider (way out in the sticks!), and watching a 2 hour movie last night used up 4GB, almost one tenth of my monthly data. It's using the android app to cast to a chromecast. Any way of changing stream quality to drop data use to something lower? I can do this with Netflix, and it uses 300mb per hour. Or is this functionality available with the Now TC Stick or Set Top Box?
28-08-2018 12:50
@Anonymous User there is not a way to reduce this on specific devices. You may find different devices have different bit rates @Jason-C can you advise on this.
28-08-2018 16:45
Hi @Anonymous User,
Thanks for getting in touch.
As @4268 says, unfortunately there's no way to change the maximum bitrate on any device. We use an adaptive bitrate which aims to give everyone the best experience based on available bandwidth and network capacity.
We don't have a full list of maximum bitrates available I'm afraid! Although you can likely expect it to be lower on mobile devices.
Appreciate this doesn't solve the issue, but I will pass this comment back to the teams as it may be something we could build into the app in future.
Thanks,
Jason
08-10-2018 19:57 - edited 08-10-2018 20:00
+1 for ability to choose higher (or lower!) bit rates on all devices.
Ongoing issues with NOW TV on Android and Smart TV:
See how the interface is aligned to the edges of the display, but the video is 'framed' by black in the centre? Taking an already low resolution video and making it even harder to watch!
Black box all around the image...
24-02-2019 18:17
Also +1 to being to change video quality. Genuinely surprised this isn't a feature already!
18-06-2019 9:01
23-06-2020 2:51
Please get this to sky and now tv as much as possible as this is really annoying. In one way it keeps buffering while others are using the wi-fi on any device. Then when not having the option to change it to reduce the stream quality to save on data when your using mobile data (4g). I can say by using the size of the screen to stream will depend on your data consumption.
16-03-2021 22:45
Ok so this is probably going to sound bonkers but I THINK that I've found a way to cut data usage from a mobile hotspot by up to half.
I could do with someone else trying it.
I use an Amazon firestick lite but I imagine that the standard firestick is similar in that you can check the mobile hotspot connection in settings/network.
Anyway, I've noticed that if the phone is as far away from the firestick as possible (for me approximately 10 feet with a solid wall between) the signal quality drops from "very good" to "marginal."
The streaming quality drops.
Ive tried this twice on episodes that previously took about 1.2gb per episode.
Test one: 866mb.
Test two: 620mb.
I could do with someone else trying it.
31-08-2019 13:49
A late reply but it may be useful to someone...
You can restrict the bitrate in your wireless router if you're willing to.
Look for QoS (Quality of Service) settings for the LAN and there should be the ability to set a maximum. Sky say you need 2.5MB/s (less for mobile devices).
20-10-2019 23:09
Yes I want this too. I’m using a Huwaei 4G router for internet with a Sky SIM and I have limited data each month.
Streaming NowTv is eating my data allowance too fast so I’m cancelling at the end of the free trial.
Disappointed!