Is 2mb Broadband good to stream FreeView?

belinea2010

Hi

I am a little confused and could use some advice.

I live in a fairly rural area and the Freeview signal here is terrible. I can only receive about half of the channels and someways this can be even less. I have checked and there is little to no chance of the transmitter tower being upgraded.

BT recently upgraded my local exchange and is now offering fast Broadband. When I use the broadband speed checkers to see what is available all of them say up to 17mb but the actual estimated speed is a pathetic 2mb.

I think I know the answer but is that fast enough to stream Freeview?
Not that bothered about Freeview HD just as long as I can watch the full range of channels with out the dreaded buffering...

Thanks in advance.

Neil_Jones

Freeview doesn't come down the internet, it comes over the aerial/TV system.

What you can do is stream the live feeds of various channels (in particularly the BBC channels through the iPlayer, Channel 4 and its channels through All4, ITV's suite through the Hub and possibly Channel 5 and friends) instead. That'll give you a dozen or so channels right there.

Not all Freeview channels have online streams.

You can stream the core channels above on 2Mbps easily, just not in HD as you won't have enough internet speed, and it would only be one at a time. Remember that streaming these will affect the internet speed on other devices.

grumpycrab

3mb is the usual minimum.
"all of them say up to 17mb but the actual estimated speed is a pathetic 2mb."
What do you get at the moment? https://www.dslchecker.bt.com. may give the same info as above but worth checking.

forgotmyname

In addition to the above it depends on the bitrate also.

Get a better antenna? Get Freesat?

Dreamnine

I'm lucky in that my speed is advertised at 17MB and that is what I get. I do live near the centre of a big city, though.

Gers

We are rural too, with rubbish Freeview, but it's digital TV.

For watching 'normal' TV we have Freesat via the usual dish and a Humax PVR. We also have a different Humax box for Freeview on the same TV.

As for 'on demand' / catch up and streamed programmes (Amazon Firestick) the pathetic 1.9 / 2.00Mbps we get is more than enough, its surprising.

Our line is EO and not destined for fibre upgrade until 2020 even though the exchange is already enabled. I've been in email discussions with Digital Scotland who have been very helpful in giving me information, even if it's not what I wanted to hear.

forgotmyname

I lived closed to a major City yet when Broadband first rolled out i was too far from the exchange to get it. Then it was 0.5mb max. Then it slowly crept up to almost 4MB.
That was its limit though.

A bit of a difference to my almost 70MB connection now. But the internet still worked, and general browsing is no different.

Just install Freesat. You can pick the stuff up cheap...

Inner_Zone

You can view most terrestrial channels via these services, SD is usually free:

http://tvcatchup.com/

http://tvplayer.com/

https://www.filmon.com/

MPD

Freesat sounds perfect for your situation. A bit under £100 for installation of a dish or less if you don't want a recorder then about £200 for a recorder or about £50 for a basic receiver and you should be able to get most of the channels available on Freeview. Notable exceptions are Dave and C4HD+1. You would also get a handful of niche channels.

henm2

Freeview is also available as one of the video addons available using the media system called Kodi which can be installed on a variety of TV connected android devices. I mainly use a Amazon Fire stick for this. Kodi is free to download and Amazon Fire Sticks are currently £24.99 but likely to go back up their normal price £32.99 soon.

However you do need good broadband and Wifi for this. I would recommend a minimum 10 Mbps broadband download speed or else the TV images will buffer.

https://www.cable.co.uk/guides/what-broadband-speed-do-i-need/

AndyPix

Yes you will be able to steam SD with a 2Mb connection