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I Switched to Cable. WOW!!!

P

philipk

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 11, 2008
438
190
While using the ATV2 or PS3, Netflix streaming from my old DSL was woefully slow so I switched to cable.

Last night I watched “White Nights” HD on Netflix (PS3). It ran at X-High/HD. At the same time my wife was on the internet doing her school grades!

I got a cable modem installed about 10 AM EDT on Sept. 11, 2001. (How do I remember that date :D) It ran 2.8 Mbps down and .40 up. I kept it three years. However, at night the DNS servers were very slow and there were frequent outages.

Then in 2004 I switched to SBC AT&T DSL running 5.0 Mbps down and .65 up. Over the years there have been only two outages. However the modem would last only a few years at most and slowly die. I was on my third modem.

Before switching, if I started watching Netflix before 9 pm I usually got it running at Medium/HD or High/SD depending on the source. If I paused it at 10 pm and started again a HD source would go to Medium/SD and not improve.

Needless to say, we couldn’t use any computer on the internet at the same time.

My wife is a teacher and is required to do her lesson plans and grades online. For security reasons nothing is kept on her computer and the program is a bit of a bandwidth hog. Thus, she couldn’t do her work while watching Netflix.

My father switched back to cable four months ago. He lives in the next town. He ordered RoadRunner Standard (7.5 Mbps rating) with Turbo boast. He gets about 14.5 Mbps down and .50 up in boast mode.

I decided to try RoadRunner Extreme (15 Mbps rating) with Turbo boast. I have gotten as high as 28.5 Mbps down and .70 up. Normal is in the low to mid 20’s!

I know that the speed tests are a bit rigged. However, in real world use the difference is amazing. I didn’t even know that there was an X-high/HD on Netflix.

So again, last night I watched a HD source on Netflix while my wife did her grades. I watched the first half on the PS3 and the last half on the ATV2 with the same quality.

Speed makes a difference
 
I'm glad that fixed your issues. However, my experience has been slightly different.

I was on cable for years with constant outages. It was so bad that we switched to DSL. I can only remember having two outages in 5 years. I'll admit the low end speed (1.5mbps) isn't the greatest for Netflix but I can stream to at least 3 devices and use the net at the same time with no noticeable loss in quality or speed on a 7mbps connection. Granted that is only SD content. DSL in my area goes up to 40mbps but it isn't cheap.

Personally, I'd take a reliable connection over cheaper raw speed with a flaky connection any day. Hopefully cable has gotten more reliable in the past years.
 
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Give me an example of something that is x-high/hd on Netflix. And where does it say what level of hd it is?
 
davidwarren said:
Give me an example of something that is x-high/hd on Netflix. And where does it say what level of hd it is?
Click to expand...

"White Nights"

I was using my PS3 and hit the "Display" button on the remote. It showed that information on the upper left hand corner of the monitor.

I don't believe the ATV2 has a way to display the quality. The only way is using your eyes to see the difference.

I can't easily tell the difference between Medium/HD and X-high/HD so when using the ATV2 I am not sure which mode that it is using. However, there is a huge difference between SD and HD.
 
QuarterSwede said:
Personally, I'd take a reliable connection over cheaper raw speed with a flaky connection any day. Hopefully cable has gotten more reliable in the past years.
Click to expand...

Agreed. However, in my area the DSL was always there but often unusable for streaming and NEVER could stream more than one video on one device at a time.

Time will tell on the cable. My father has not noticed any outages in four months.

You state that you have had DSL for five years so cable in your area may have improved as it has in my area. However, there is no need for you to switch if it is working. If I had your quality service with my 7 Mbps service, I would have stayed put.

ADDED later

I just noticed your signature line and agree. I recently went to OpenDNS to block porn sites at our family business so my nephews and nieces can't get to the porn.
 
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With Netflix on the PS3, how do you know you are selecting HD movies? I have watched a few, but don't consider it to be HD quality.
 
We had to switch from cable to At&t Dsl. The cable was faster, but it dropped connection too many times. I would be playing WoW, about to melt a warlocks face and BAM! You have been disconnected! It drove me up the wall. But it also helped me give up WoW. Anyways, we've never had our At&t connection drop, but it is a tad slow. I'm hoping we get a fiber optics option in our area soon.
 
I guess some take net speed for granted, I presently have Fios 35mbps up and 35 down, and I cant imagine life without it at this point. 11 or so years ago, dial up was the only affordable option, and now look at it. back then the thought of downloading an mp3 in 2 or 3 seconds, I would have laughed. now you can stream high def tv over it and still have bandwidth left over to do most anything else you need.
 
It's really all regionally based. My cable had superb bandwidth, but the latency was horrible. So streaming was fine, but anything like online gaming was pathetic. I switched to DSL, and I've picked up reliability and improved latency.. at the expense of bandwidth.

The cable (Charter) was also very unreliable. I recall my wife nearly breaking the phone once. She was trying to place a web order for some product and it was timing out. So she picked up the phone (also Charter) to call the store's 800# and couldn't get dial tone. Oops..
 
I had DSL through our local phone company and it was very very slow, most of the time I was around 1.5 up. We are currently using the lowest tier cable service (10mbps) and it works well for us.
I am basically just biding my time waiting for Fiber Optic service from the phone company to reach us, when this happens it will be a game changer.
 
From A Buick 8 said:
I had DSL through our local phone company and it was very very slow, most of the time I was around 1.5 up. We are currently using the lowest tier cable service (10mbps) and it works well for us.
I am basically just biding my time waiting for Fiber Optic service from the phone company to reach us, when this happens it will be a game changer.
Click to expand...

Don't know why, but your phrase "game changer" and "Fiber Optic service" somehow reminded me of the whole internet explosion itself of the 90's and the $$Billions people invested into new technologies, and how some paid off while others did not.
That was world game change forever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Flat
 
EvilC5 said:
I guess some take net speed for granted, I presently have Fios 35mbps up and 35 down, and I cant imagine life without it at this point. 11 or so years ago, dial up was the only affordable option, and now look at it. back then the thought of downloading an mp3 in 2 or 3 seconds, I would have laughed. now you can stream high def tv over it and still have bandwidth left over to do most anything else you need.
Click to expand...

I also switched to FIOS from cable and the difference is staggering. No latency issues and blazing speed. Hihghly recommended if it's available for you.
 
I love FIOS.

Cable is bleh. Comcast in particular is about as closed as they get, even though they state otherwise. They don't truly support net neutrality; they're pretty much the number one traffic shaper in the US.
 
I really enjoyed cable service from Cox and never had a complaint with them in the 6 plus years of service. I switched to FIOS though last year and won't look back now.

I have the 30/30 service with FIOS but have actually been tested as having 43 megabit download speed and 29.5 megabit upload with very low ping. Outstanding. Love it.
 
Light speed!

We are in Uk,
I switched to Virgin fibre optic Cable 4 weeks ago, (from AOL through copper cable).
I had paid AOL FOR UP TO 10Meg and at best received 4 but mostly 1.5-2.5.

We are now running at between 30 and 37 on wifi, and up to 89 on ethernet......what a difference, everything flies.

I had been ripped off for years, bad AOL, naughty AOL, go to bed!
 
You guys are spoiled. Yesterday I finally got the option to upgrade my DSL (no cable here) from 1.5mbps to a crazy fast 3mpbs! I'm seriously so excited. It does make videos like Netflix and iTunes so much better! Seriously, they are way better, especially itunes. And the fact that they're finally willing to upgrade to that speed means maybe...just maybe I can get 5mbps inthe future!
 
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