Streaming tv

Well I picked a bad time to cut the cord with Dish network. I signed up with you tube tv. It is 1/2 the price but 1/2 the chanels.

We don't have any cable out here so I have to use cell phone hotspot. I have Visible so usage is not an issue.

I am using Roku to stream and they are easy to use, but when every one wakes up and starts using phones I loose my streaming on the Roku's. If I watch utube on my other phone and cast to tv it works pretty good at that time.

I bought a cell booster antenna and I get 4-5 bars but can't stream ?
I also have locast on the Roku and it works early in am but it does nothing after about 8 am.
I can't get locast to work from my phone or I would cast it. It sez I am out of service area which I am , don't no why it connects with Roku.
I guess my question is any ideas on the streaming or is it only so much data going down the virtual pipe.

The 4-5 bars means only that your device can hear the signal from the wifi base station or cell tower. It does not mean your device can successfully send back, which is necessary to complete the "hand shakes" that confirm data delivery. Think of it as a little boy playing catch with an adult man. The man can throw longer and harder than the boy, so a distance that works for him may be much greater than one that works for the boy.

It's also clear that your bandwidth (data volume) is limited, possibly due to frequent errors due to weak signals. At some point the use of data by other devices is limiting the streaming to the point where it is unusable.

It boils down to your pipe cannot handle the amount of data you need to stream and run other devices.  Your booster may be able to compensate if it has a properly aimed and sufficiently high external antenna.  If its just a desktop device with no external antenna, or the antenna is not aimed optimally, it's probably not helping.

  you can also download shows for later watching.  I am doing that with an S10e and an hdmi to C cord.....

We use an Amazon fire stick to cast to TV.

We download everything to avoid streaming issues. We either do this during the day or when out at Starbucks etc. (Obviously this might not happen at the moment).

It amazes me anyone can stream at RV parks as most seem have limited wifi or throttle signal we find.

I figured it's the you can only get so much thru the pipe.
  The booster I am using is an outdoor with an amplifier in the house. It does boost the signal from 2 bars  to 4 -5 if you are near it. I leave my dedicated hot spot phone near it so it has a strong signal.
  I guess its just all the people with nothing else to do on there phones.
  It works great early in the morning.

Fire TV stick is, of course, a streaming device. We have a number of them for use on different TVs at home and in the coach, and use them extensively. We have cable at our S&B home base, and DSL at our summer lot. On occasion, we have to connect via VZW Jetpack, and see the usage rack up.

I think Gary is right. The bars do not indicate how much data you can put through the pipe.
As an example: this past weekend, we streamed about 12 hours from Amazon. Never a missing pixel. The little stair-step signal strength indicator showed just one bar but 4G. I was using my VZW unlimited plan, streaming from my samsung tablet to a Roku dongle.

We're on a campsite right now where we're getting ~30 Mbps speeds with our AT&T hotspot, but we're still seeing very brief 1-2 second buffering with our Firestick from time to time. Between all the working from home folks and all the bored kids getting online during the day, I'm not really surprised. Tomorrow we'll arrive at our upstate NY cottage, and it'll be interesting to see how well the Spectrum cable Internet is working there. AT&T and Verizon are both quite strong there too, so at least we'll have some choices. I may look into some channel bonding options while we're laying low to see how that works out...

Tom said:

Fire TV stick is, of course, a streaming device. We have a number of them for use on different TVs at home and in the coach, and use them extensively. We have cable at our S&B home base, and DSL at our summer lot. On occasion, we have to connect via VZW Jetpack, and see the usage rack up.

Click to expand...

Ou firestick doesn't need the wifi to web, only between devices I think...

Weeks before we are going on an extended trip I start downloading 'stuff' to watch.  We've only been in one place recently where there was enough bandwidth to suppler streaming.  We were less than 1/4 mile from the biggest Dang cell tower I've ever seen.

[quote author=jackiemac]Ou firestick doesn't need the wifi to web, only between devices I think...[/quote]
To clarify, our Firestick devices all receive a wireless signal, from whatever source. In our cases, the source is one of the following (we use all 3, actually 4, depending on the location):

- Router hard wired to a cable internet service.

- Router hard wired to a DSL internet service.

- Wireless modem with internet service provided by Verizon or AT&T.

Amazon also sells an optional ethernet adapter that allows the Fire TV stick to be hard wired (plugged in) to a router instead of relying on a wireless signal. This might be what you have (?)

Tom said:

To clarify, our Firestick devices all receive a wireless signal, from whatever source. In our cases, the source is one of the following (we use all 3, actually 4, depending on the location):

- Router hard wired to a cable internet service.

- Router hard wired to a DSL internet service.

- Wireless modem with internet service provided by Verizon or AT&T.

Amazon also sells an optional ethernet adapter that allows the Fire TV stick to be hard wired (plugged in) to a router instead of relying on a wireless signal. This might be what you have (?)

Click to expand...

No, it's just an HDMI connection into the TV. 

We are not connected to the internet at all whilst using it using downloaded stuff on phone or tablet and casting to TV, unless we want to be.  You need an app that can do it though like Amazon Prime Video or Netflix etc.

Thanks Jackie. Sounds like a different use of the same device.

using downloaded stuff on phone or tablet

Click to expand...

If we didn't have good internet connections, that might be a good option. Meanwhile, we merely let amazon store all that stuff.

it's just an HDMI connection into the TV. 

Click to expand...

Aye, the Fire TV stick is an HDMI device.

You need an app that can do it though like Amazon Prime Video or Netflix etc.

Click to expand...

Yep, we use amazon Prime for all our streaming needs.

We also stream to our tablets/iPad with Amazon Prime. I only use that when I want to watch something in bed (use headphones not to disturb Chris). Again, it's live streaming, and I don't store any of it locally.

Like Jackie, we try to keep some downloaded videos stored on our devices. I download wherever we have a good signal, then watch them later using a lightning/HDMI adaptor for my iPad. I mostly use Amazon for my videos too including my non-Amazon subscriptions. Not everything can be downloaded, but I can usually find a few interesting items. We are too often in locations with non-existent data. When we do get to a place with good data, we feel decadent!

Depending on the device and service you are using there are a few tricks you can play if you don't care about having HD quality.

1st Roku has a hidden menu feature to manually set lower bitrate settings.

Press the Home button five times, then press Rewind three times, and then press Fast Forward two times.

This should take you to a Bit Rate Override menu. Choose ?Manual selection? and then select a maximum bit rate.  A bit rate of 5Mbps will use about 2.25GB of data per hour.

You can un-throttle your video quality by returning to this menu and selecting ?Automatic.?

see https://www.techtimes.com/articles/162197/20160531/access-secret-menus-roku-device.htm

Though not all apps respect the Roku bitrate settings, some of these apps will allow you to manually throttle in a similar way, though again this feature is often hidden.  Netflix will let you do this, but it requires changes in your netflix profile done through a web browser in your account.  For when we are traveling to a slow internet signal locations, I have set up an extra profile, called low bandwidth, with the manual bitrate settings turned down.  Modern programming may be nearly unwatchable at these settings, however when you are watching a 30+ year old sitcom, one hardly notices.

Robert K said:

I have Visible so usage is not an issue.

I am using Roku to stream and they are easy to use, but when every one wakes up and starts using phones I loose my streaming on the Roku's.

I guess my question is any ideas on the streaming or is it only so much data going down the virtual pipe.

Click to expand...

I have Visible, too, and would never rely on it for my one-and-only cellular data plan.

"Unlimited" Visible is limited to speeds < 5 Mbps, 480p video, always network managed, and doesn't use the "best" Verizon networks. I can attest to that as I also have an older 40GB Verizon plan that consistently outperforms Visible.

In short, you could fill your RV with "boosters", but with Visible, even if you receive a good signal, Visible is at best a standby data plan.

Zulu makes a good point. Any 3rd party service that runs on the Verizon (or AT&T or Sprint) network rarely enjoys the full capability of the native network. The network owner is selling excess capacity to the 3rd party service, so there are restrictions on how much bandwidth the 3rd party customers can use.  Especially at peak demand times.  Further, the network owner may have reciprocal sharing agreements to use another company's network in selected area; those agreements allow their own customers to operate there but do not extend to the 3rd party users.

Zulu and Gary those are probably valid points.
Maybe I will try my wifes verizon phone , she has that extra 15 gb of data she will never use.
My phone is a company phone and did not get the extra data.
I will let you know if I see a difference.

Ike I tried that with the Roku and saw a small improvement.

Gary RV_Wizard said:

Zulu makes a good point. Any 3rd party service that runs on the Verizon (or AT&T or Sprint) network rarely enjoys the full capability of the native network. The network owner is selling excess capacity to the 3rd party service, so there are restrictions on how much bandwidth the 3rd party customers can use.  Especially at peak demand times.  Further, the network owner may have reciprocal sharing agreements to use another company's network in selected area; those agreements allow their own customers to operate there but do not extend to the 3rd party users.

Click to expand...

Just to be clear, the Visible service is not a third-party service in the usual sense since it's a Verizon owned product. That said, it does have limitations such as using Verizon LTE towers only with no 3G fallback. We have seen speeds well above the 5 Mbps limit that Visible originally imposed, but that's due to the current no speed limit offer for new and existing customers that could end at any time. As said, Visible works pretty well as a backup to a primary service. During our winter stint in Georgia and Florida, there was only one park where we used Visible as our primary since it was faster than our AT&T hotspot there.

I did test with open signal my Verizon phone numbers download 4.70 upload 3.49 latency 46 ms
my visible phone 665 download latency 324 ms it doesn't complete the test for upload.
This is with both showing 5 bars 4G
And this is Western NY 50 miles from Buffalo or Rochester. That govener of ours is always talking about spending money to get connected for every one but must not include us. Cable lines are within a mile of our house but they won't run them our way.