Broadband Bandwith Limited

**Magnus D** · #1 30-08-2009, 06:57 PM

Hi. I'm looking to stream football over the web. The problem I have is that my broadband company have a fair usage policy, meaning to stay within my limits I will need to watch matches at a lower quality.

Until now I've been using the Sky Player, which allows me to stream at a lower quality, so that each match I watch is around 500-600MB total. But I'm fed up of paying so much for it and want to do the same for free.

So what my questions is, is what is the best option to allow me to adjust the quality of the matches I watch. I would like it so the matches I watch use no more than 500-600MB of bandwith as was the case with the Sky Player. Which of the various software will allow me to adjust the quality, or which web based sites will not eat away at bandwith.

Also, I would prefer English language commentary.

Thanks in advance for helping a newbie

**julioarca** · #2 30-08-2009, 10:11 PM

What kbps (the bitrate of the stream) is the sky player at, in order for you to achieve this 500/600 meg total?

**Magnus D** · #3 30-08-2009, 10:21 PM

Hi. I'm not entirely sure. How could I find this out when using it?

I did look up Sky's site and they say it's 860KB/s, which I'm guessing is for high quality, so low quality would be a third of that probably, so something like 280KB/s. But I couldn't say to be honest.

EDIT: I was just checking my connection while viewing the Sky Player, and it seems a bit more like 150-200KB/s. Again though, I couldn't say for sure.

**julioarca** · #4 30-08-2009, 10:35 PM

Probably in options/ info/source when it's running, but i think thats about right to be honest, 860kbps is high, i know this much.

So if you are using 600 meg on a 280 kbps stream over the course of a match, and this is ok within your usage policy, i'd say you would be fine running any browser steam, i can't think of many that get above that, and most sopcast streams dont get much higher then 300kbps depending on who is streaming what. I would wait on confirmation by our techy wizard Raff67 on the sopcast craic mind, send him a PM if you like, he's busy atm but i'm sure he will check his email.

A browser stream such as this french footy on iraqgoals currently can't be over 280 kbps i wouldnt have thought (and you can alter the quality with a right click and scroll down, if you are worried) so i'd say you are safe with this (and other browser links) until a more definite reposte is worked out.

**julioarca** · #5 30-08-2009, 10:42 PM

edit: Sopcast, i've just stuck on and tried the first channel, shanhai sports, the boxings on, if you right click the screen, when playing, and scroll down to statistics and click, it will tell you the bitrate of the stream that is playing, this is currently running at 410kbps, so i may be a bit off with my last prediction on sopcast, but it is a way of seeing exactly what you are using on this particular bit of software.

Remember, you personally need to be operating at round about 300kbps or under.

**Magnus D** · #6 31-08-2009, 12:09 AM

Hi. I tried Sopcast and as you said it was about 410KB/s. What I did was I went into the options, and turned off most of the options in the Advanced tab in performance, and within that setting the Digital Video tab to it's lowest setting. This seems to have lowered the KB/s a bit when I check my connection (but the program itself doesn't show a difference in bitrate in the Statistics).

Could you maybe try that as well and check your connection and see if you notice a difference to confirm it.

I suppose the best way to test would be to leave it on these settings for 45 minutes, and check the KB/s on the connection. If it's around 250-300MB then this will be perfect, since that will work out to around 500-600MB per match. But if it's higher then I guess I'll have to watch a browser stream as you suggested, or just check the other streams to find one low enough.

**Magnus D** · #7 31-08-2009, 01:57 PM

Hi. Apologies for the double post, but I just wanted to post an update. I opened up Sopcast again and tried Shaghai Sports, and the changes i made appear to have an effect.

Upon checking the statistics, I am getting 28KB/s. The picture is obviously awful, but it is still watchable, and most importantly isn't killing the bandwith in the slightest.

So I'm happy to use this setting, since I will be able to watch matches without using a lot of bandwith (albeit at the cost of good picture quality). I may even be able to watch more than one match a day (which was my limit with the bandwith the Sky Player was using)

**julioarca** · #8 31-08-2009, 08:33 PM

I assume you mean 280kbps,

but good news anyhow.

**Magnus D** · #9 31-08-2009, 09:21 PM

Hi. I'm having issues with the match I'm trying to watch (Barca-Sporting). Pretty much every way I try to watch it seems to have constant issues with buffering channels, having to do so every 5-10 seconds, making the mathces unwatchable.

Is this a problem with my connection, or do I need to go online earlier to avoid this problem. It seems to be happening on every site I try, barring CCTV5 which is foreign language commentary (which I'm not very keen on).

I installed the TCP/IP patch and it didn't seem to have much effect. Is there anything else I can do.