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Anonymous User
Not applicable

massive data usage for 2 films

Hi there,

 

Just recently bought a NOW tv box with free month cinema pass. I watched 2 films at the weekend and it used a massive 13 GB of my data allowance (which is not unlimited) and i only found out because BT contacted me to say i was nearing my monthly allowance.

Is it just movies that use up a lot of data? Or will watching iplayer, all4 etc use up a lot of data also.? 

Thank you in advance.

35 REPLIES 35
SeeMoreDigital
Legend 5
Legend 5

Interestingly, it's possible to see the NOW TV bit-rate on certain playback devices. I've just played a few minutes of 'Today's New Premier' on my LG television and the displayed bit-rate is: 3185Kbps.

 

Todays new premier (movie) has a duration of 136 minutes or 8160 seconds.

3185Kilobits per second x 8160 seconds = 25'989,600Kilobits

25'989'600Kilobits = 3248.7MegaBytes | 3248.7MegaBytes = 3.2487GigaBytes

 

Or looking at it another way. Every hour (60 mins) consumes around 1.7GB of data 😉

 

 

Cheers

Anonymous User
Not applicable

@SeeMoreDigital wrote:

Interestingly, it's possible to see the NOW TV bit-rate on certain playback devices. I've just played a few minutes of 'Today's New Premier' on my LG television and the displayed bit-rate is: 3185Kbps.

 

Todays new premier (movie) has a duration of 136 minutes or 8160 seconds.

3185Kilobits per second x 8160 seconds = 25'989,600Kilobits

25'989'600Kilobits = 3248.7MegaBytes | 3248.7MegaBytes = 3.2487GigaBytes

 

Or looking at it another way. Every hour (60 mins) consumes around 1.7GB of data 😉

 


@SeeMoreDigital  Glad someone did the maths!  My guess of 1.5GB/hour was just finger in the air stuff.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I'm also new to Now TV and will be going back to Netflix who give the option to view at lower quality to preserve data usage. Now TV should seriously consider and implement this option as soon as possible. There are thousands of internet users who do not have the luxury of unlimited data. I'm extremely disappointed that this problem wasn't acknowledged and catered for 😠 Now TV have confirmed to me all movies are steamed in HD. Four gig of data to watch one film!! Unacceptable.
Anonymous User
Not applicable
When will NowTV acknowledge and provide lower quality stream options for those of us with limited data contracts? Netflix do so it's possible. I can't afford to stay with NowTV based on the humongous 4GB data usage for one film. 😠
4268
Legend 5
Legend 5

For info I found out from Sky previously that I used over 100gb of data a month. Main reason was streaming Now and others.
Please take a moment to click thanks or marked as solution if this answered your question. I am a community contributor and pop on when I can.
ukbobboy
Legend

@Anonymous User @4268 @SeeMoreDigital

 

You know IS

 

Whenever this topic pops up in the forum those who take part in the debate have always pointed out that having a limited monthly data plan is not compatible with watching online (streaming) TV.  No one, as far as I can remember, has ever argued for a low or lower quality streaming option.

 

In fact, a knowledgeable forum member, @SeeMoreDigital, has also worked out that his usage of streaming TV, including Now TV, works out at 1.7GB per hour, which IMHO is pretty much an average figure.

 

Also, from a personal perspective, my family's data usage, on a nothing special Internet line, has grown to nearly 300GB per month, almost up to  10GB per day, as we now seem to watch mainly online TV (terrestrial TV just seems so boring).

 

As you can probably guess, most Now TV users have an unlimited data usage account with their ISP's and, simply put, limited monthly data usage is really a bygone plan for a bygone age.

 

 

UK Bob

Anonymous User
Not applicable
Like I said, there are thousands of people that don't have the luxury of
unlimited. I, for example, rely solely on mobile data because I live in a
boat. Netflix offer three levels of quality for their service and the low
quality was perfect and didn't use much data. Just because you can stream
HD with no consequences, not everyone can or needs to.
SeeMoreDigital
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @Anonymous User,

 

Please confirm the device you're using to access the NOW TV service?

 

 

Cheers

Anonymous User
Not applicable
A brand new NowTv box, a Bush smart TV and a mifi for mobile internet
Anonymous User
Not applicable

https://community.nowtv.com/t5/NOW-TV-Smart-Box/Secret-screens/m-p/415253/highlight/true#M2326

might help

 

I believe you can set the stream speed lower.  Never tried it myself, but may work for you.