Does watching a program live use more data than watching a recording?

Channels DVR Server
#1

I am doing some experiments trying to watch my Channels content while VPNing into my home network. I only have 20Mbs upload at the house (I am going to switch to Metronet to improve that) and if I try to watch live TV it just can't handle it and it plays for a second and then buffers for 3 seconds and repetes. But if I watch a recording from my channels DVR, it buffers a little in the beginning and then runs ok. Also, if I chose to watch a TVE stream, it works ok.

So, does watching a program live use more data than watching a recording?

#2

No. But live tv has no choice but to wait when it needs to buffer, because it's live. With a recording it can send data faster than realtime and reduce buffering.

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#3

I have often noticed if I watch TVE live. I often get buffering. But when i watch DVR recordings from TVE source. They record fine without interuptions.

I always chalked it up to my crappy 10mbps speed for isp.

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#4

Thank you for the explanation.

#5

My understanding (and I'm no expert on this stuff) is that TVE is far more compressed than OTA, so from that perspective it using less data, hence the ease of keeping up with live. You can even see this if you record the same program from OTA and TVE, the TVE one will be a fraction of the size.

#6

Maybe I am missing something but even with live transmission Channels must do re-stream internally because it captures source m3u8 stream and present it under API endpoint similar what icecast does, so it does need to have a buffer, maybe adding more delay to watching live would solve that problem?

#7

Maybe try not to use VPN to home network but instead open port on router to get access to DVR server. VPN itself may add some overhead in network traffic.

#8

Yes, thank you. I prefer the security of using a VPN rather than port forwarding. I will need to up my increase my home internet plan, but it is worth it to me.