ShowMax has launched an online bandwidth calculator to help you estimate the amount of data you need to watch streaming video.
This comes after a recent consumer survey, which ShowMax commissioned, revealed that the most common reason for not signing up to internet TV services in South Africa is the cost of data.
The amount of data needed to stream TV shows and movies can be one gigabyte (GB) per hour or more, ShowMax said.
To help manage this, it has introduced bandwidth capping functionality that it says reduces data consumption by as much as 75% by lowering the quality of the video being streamed.
As with most other video streaming services, ShowMax’s apps monitor your connection speed and automatically adjusts the video resolution to the make the most of the available bandwidth.
Subscribers can then select a low bandwidth cap of 0.3 GB per hour, a medium cap of 0.7 GB per hour, or leave usage uncapped.
The low usage setting equates to capping resolution at 360p, medium is standard definition (480p), while uncapped can deliver up to 720p high definition.
ShowMax said that watching five hours per week, which is enough for 15 episodes of The Big Bang Theory or 7 episodes of Suits, the maximum amount of data used would be as follows:
- Low bandwidth cap (0.3 GB per hour): 1.5 GB per week
- Medium bandwidth cap (0.7 GB per hour): 3.5 GB per week
- Uncapped (1.4 GB per hour): 7.1 GB per week
This article first appeared on MyBroadband and is republished with permission.
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AUP stops us from ever watching things like this properly, its a waste to even take it.