Mifi speeds

[She25]

I'm about to purchase a TV, and was going to go for a smart one so I can indulge my HOuse and Breaking Bad obsessions via Netflix. I have the 3 Huawei E5330 10gb (possibly 15gb) but can't find out what speed it is. Apparently Netflix needs 10 mbps.

Anyone have any ideas?

[nicknorman]

I'm about to purchase a TV, and was going to go for a smart one so I can indulge my HOuse and Breaking Bad obsessions via Netflix. I have the 3 Huawei E5330 10gb (possibly 15gb) but can't find out what speed it is. Apparently Netflix needs 10 mbps.

 

Anyone have any ideas?

The actual device will be fine for that, however the limiting factor will be how fast the cellular data link is, and that will vary tremendously with location, time of day etc. So the answer is that is can work but won't always work. Watching telly over 3G does use a lot of data though, 10Gb won't go that far, less than 3 hrs at 10 Mbps (although that is probably the peak data rate so in reality it will be a bit longer than that). Edited February 25, 2015 by nicknorman

[cuthound]

Netflix starts of with a relatively low bitrate and gradually increases it, so that you get the best picture quality the broadband line can support.

 

I get almost Blueray quality (at least as good as upscaled DVD's) with a broadband speed of 40Mb.

 

I believe it will work from 0.5Mb upwards. See the link below:

 

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306

 

ETA the Netflix link.

Edited February 25, 2015 by cuthound

[OldGoat]

I must be having a bad hair day today - so apologies in advance. I live in an area where any form of electronic communication is dire. Landline speeds 1.2 Meg officially and mobiles even worse. So it angers me when folks want to use such a scarce resource to watch the tele. Pah!!

 

Harumph.

If your boat is in a good signal area, then perhaps you'd be better of with a 4G connection and for that you'll need a Huawei E5776 (?) unit and a decent antenna.

 

IME the 5330 doesn't work well inside the boat - so it's later brother E5332 is better.

[She25]

Interesting, thanks. The model I've found is smart but that's a bonus - also has built in freeview, wifi, usb etc and has good reviews. It's also quite cheap, so even if I don't end up using the smart stuff now, I'll be able to when / if unlimited mifi becomes available.

[Paul C]

I'll be able to when / if unlimited mifi becomes available.

 

Since unlimited Mifi was available but is being cancelled (the Three One Plan), I'd not hold your breath for this. Maybe once 4G becomes commonplace data bandwidth will become cheaper, but for now you pay dearly for it compared to ADSL broadband over a phone line.

 

What network provider and area will you be using? My personal findings (after a lot of testing) are that Three are better in more rural areas but in urban areas, while its fast in off-peak times, at peak times it slows incredibly. Other networks (I tried O2 and EE) don't have such a marked difference between peak and off-peak times, but are much worse for speed in rural areas - urban not too bad though.

 

I think you'll be lucky to achieve 10Mbps reliably with a 3G Mifi - 6-8Mbps is probably about right though.

 

Also did a bunch of tests with/without an external aerial - if the signal is weak leading to a slowish connection, the aerial helps and can speed it up. If its already about 8Mbps, the aerial won't improve it.

[BenC]

We have a 10gb plan with three. which is plenty of data for surfing the net of an evening. however when we watched a film with blinkbox, we used up all the data very quickly, then had no connection for the rest of the month. The good thing was that we didn't incur any additional fee for going above our limit.

[NB Lola]

I would buy a tablet device and the three all you can eat data plan and not worry about tethering, then usb to your telly

Edited February 25, 2015 by NB Lola

[Paul C]

I would buy a tablet device and the three all you can eat data plan and not worry about tethering, then usb to your telly

What all you can eat data plan?

 

EDITED TO ADD: The phone plans won't work in a tablet, and as far as I know they don't do an AYCE data plan (if only they did!)

 

Also.....USB isn't a video connector, it doesn't/isn't fast enough to output a signal to the TV. (And yes, I know about DisplayPort and USB Type C - which if any tablets have this feature? And which TVs?)

Edited February 25, 2015 by Paul C

[NB Lola]

http://store.three.co.uk/mobile/view/searchSimOnly;jsessionid=165FCFAEE06C588FB574A74DB11EC7A2?tariff=204390100&deviceType=SIM_ONLY&site=m

 

I can display my phone onto tv with the adapter I have. That is with the 4gs. Not tried it with a tablet yet but I cannot see a problem if you tv has hard drive. I have an av colleague who I will confer with

[Paul C]

Sounds more like it - what kind of adapter do you use?

[NB Lola]

That's a problem at present as I am 200 miles from home, but I will come back on this, right or, I hope not, wrong.

[tillergirl]

 

I'm about to purchase a TV, and was going to go for a smart one so I can indulge my HOuse and Breaking Bad obsessions via Netflix. I have the 3 Huawei E5330 10gb (possibly 15gb) but can't find out what speed it is. Apparently Netflix needs 10 mbps.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

 

 

 

I'm on 3 and I generally get 54mps after daylight hours.........don't know if this helps

[Richard10002]

I have a three one plan sim that is currently providing about 7Mbps,according to Speedtest.net.

 

Just as a test, I've started Iplayer on my LG Smart TV, and selected Top gear. Its been on for about 3 minutes, and hasn't buffered once. I'm not watching in HD.

 

Now I've been watching in HD for about 3 minutes, and it hasn't buffered once.

 

So it looks like you can watch decent quality HD TV at around 7Mbps.

[Richard10002]

Mmm! Looks like I wasn't watching in HD. Switched to HD after 40 mins of unbuffered viewing, and it buffered a lot.

 

So you can watch Iplayer SD comfortably at 7Mbps.

[NB Lola]

Lightening digital av adapter

[NB Lola]

The adapter plugs into the iPhone and converts the lightning connector to HDMI. You then just use a normal HDMI cable between the adapter and the HDMI socket on your TV. The adaptor also has a lightning socket on it so that you can still charge your phone when the adapter is in use. Be aware that video-out may not be available from all of your apps though!.. (iPlayer apparently does support it for example)

[cuthound]

What all you can eat data plan?

 

EDITED TO ADD: The phone plans won't work in a tablet, and as far as I know they don't do an AYCE data plan (if only they did!)

 

Also.....USB isn't a video connector, it doesn't/isn't fast enough to output a signal to the TV. (And yes, I know about DisplayPort and USB Type C - which if any tablets have this feature? And which TVs?)

I disagree. At home I have a Samsung smart TV connected to an external hard disk drive via the TV's dedicated HDD USB and it records perfectly using the built in TV guide.

[Paul C]

I disagree. At home I have a Samsung smart TV connected to an external hard disk drive via the TV's dedicated HDD USB and it records perfectly using the built in TV guide.

 

I don't think you understood my post, I was talking about the use of USB interface to output a digitised video signal. Your use of USB is to output a file (stream), which is further processed within the TV. There is a subtle difference.

[cuthound]

I don't think you understood my post, I was talking about the use of USB interface to output a digitised video signal. Your use of USB is to output a file (stream), which is further processed within the TV. There is a subtle difference.

Apologies, I thought you were saying USB couldn't handle video.

[Paul C]

I was thinking more of the vast majority of TVs which have an HDMI socket, which is an uncompressed video interface. USB can transfer a compressed video stream at a fast enough rate, but it needs further processing either in the TV itself (like your smart TV) or the Lightning adapter.