Low bandwidth streaming service - alternative to Amazon Prime

[Cali-Glock]

I am looking for a low bandwidth streaming service as an alternative to Amazon Prime.

I have satellite internet, (which sucks). For many years watching a YouTube video was quite challenging. Today I can get YouTube to play if I let the video load up first.

Amazingly on most days Amazon Prime video plays pretty well. Sometimes it buffers pretty badly and some days it won't play at all, but generally it works well.

With few exceptions other streaming services I have tried will not stream at all. The hassle of dealing with these services when they don't work is pretty intolerable. Rather than let me cancel, they insist upon playing the never-ending help-desk deal to no avail. I really don't want to deal with that again.

One example of an exception is IMDB streaming - but then again IMDB is owned by Amazon and I am accessing IMDB streaming through Amazon Prime and my Amazon Fire Television.

What is interesting is that those same services (for example CBS streaming) when purchased and accessed through Amazon Prime video will work.

Amazon does something that enables them to send the same content with less bandwidth, or something so that it works for me.

I plan on non-renewing my Amazon Prime membership when it comes due later this year, but would like to have worked out an alternative. If I don't have a solution, I do have a $100 Amazon gift card credit sitting with Amazon and I may renew Amazon Prime for another year.

My hope is one day sooner rather than later Elon Musk's Starlink will be made available solving my slow internet dilemma. I signed up a long time ago to participate in the beta testing, but apparently did not make the cut.

Anyone know enough about this to suggest any streaming services that might be as "thin" as Amazon Prime Video?

Thanks

[the86d]

You can't select lower bandwidth streams on Amazon, like Netflix/Hulu (not sure if they still do, as I haven't checked)?

If you have cell service at your residence, there are generally at least 2 providers that will allow for unlimited Internet @ current Cell speeds w/all major providers.

Some routers will allow throttling content from certain servers... maybe like *.amazon.com, but I haven't dug too deep.

[1911RONIN]

Low bandwidth streaming service - alternative to Amazon Prime

Why do you have such trash service? Do you live in the boonies?

Ditch the satellite internet or upgrade it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cali-Glock]

Why do you have such trash service? Do you live in the boonies?

Ditch the satellite internet or upgrade it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Boonies. Basically I live in the National Forest.

Yes this is painful - I was online using the pre WWW internet protocols to access files and databases at universities and other places online before there was WWW. Yes this is very painful.

Fiber actual crosses part of my property, but it is just passing through to a tiny community where they provide DSL. The only reason they did that was because of the federal mandate that every school have high speed internet, and we have a two room school in that community. I met with the regional manger from AT&T twice to see what I had to do to tap into the fiber. The first time he made it sound like we could make it happen for a few thousand dollars, (he never gave a figure but I got the impression it would be about $5K+/-) but when I followed up a few months later his response was that I would never have access to it. I asked "How long is never?... Ten years?" He snapped "Never means never!" That was more than ten years ago now.

I have had a number of friends and acquaintances up here try a variety of cell service and hot spot programs, but none were satisfied and went back to satellite internet.

I am hopeful for Starlink.

[CaliforniaCowboy]

Another option, join a private torrent site. Slow download your movies/shows from there then you can watch them on your pc, device or if you have a smart tv you can put video files on a thumb drive or portable hard drive, plug it into the port on your tv and watch it in whatever definition you like.

I was in an area for a few years where the only internet we could get was sat. It sucked so bad, slow, low bandwidth, expensive, having to pause a youtube video for quite a while so it could buffer enough to watch. Forget any online gaming as there was up to a full second of latency, you pull a trigger and your character fires a second later.

I have xfinity right now, It is pretty damed expensive though, but I get very fast internet with unlimited data, With the sat net, I had a data cap of like 50 gigs a month, my sister brings her boyfriend over to my place for the weekend, and the guy brings his gaming laptop and downloads a couple of games on my wifi and maxed out my data cap in one night. which caused my provider to kick me down to the super slow internet for the next 3 weeks.

But hell, I remember having good internet back in the late '90s, before cable internet, using the phone line, and taking 20 minutes to download a 3-minute song audio file off Napster. And porn, hell, you would be done by the time the internet rendered a picture down to the belly button. So I guess even those with today's sat net have it pretty good considering.



No matter where you live there is a give and take

[SkyHawk]

You can't select lower bandwidth streams on Amazon, like Netflix/Hulu (not sure if they still do, as I haven't checked)?

If you have cell service at your residence, there are generally at least 2 providers that will allow for unlimited Internet @ current Cell speeds w/all major providers.

Some routers will allow throttling content from certain servers... maybe like *.amazon.com, but I haven't dug too deep.

You can't select the stream speed, but these providers and devices usually profile your connection constantly, and will moderate the stream bandwidth accordingly.

For the OP, I would get a device with the most amount of memory possible for buffering. Right now from Amazon, that means the FireTv Cube. And just accept that you may have to start a stream, pause to let it buffer for awhile, then watch. And maybe you will have to take 'buffer breaks' at semi-regular intervals, good time to re-fill the popcorn bucket.

[Robotron2k84]

If fiber crosses your property, there will be some company willing to backhaul to your premises for a fee. That may range into the tens of thousands, unfortunately. If there are others in the area, they may be able to share in the cost to build out a termination node.

[Misterclick]

Same boat here. In a canyon on a river, half a mile off any semblance of a main road. Come on musk keep launching those satellites. Star Link is the only option with potential

[Rvg2151]

For the torrent idea you can get a seedbox which will handle all the downloading and seeing of torrents. This is especially useful if you use a private tracker site, the just download the completed files to your computer.

[Cali-Glock]

If fiber crosses your property, there will be some company willing to backhaul to your premises for a fee. That may range into the tens of thousands, unfortunately. If there are others in the area, they may be able to share in the cost to build out a termination node.

Where would I find such a company?

[Cali-Glock]

Another option, join a private torrent site. Slow download your movies/shows from there then you can watch them on your pc, device or if you have a smart tv you can put video files on a thumb drive or portable hard drive, plug it into the port on your tv and watch it in whatever definition you like.

I was in an area for a few years where the only internet we could get was sat. It sucked so bad, slow, low bandwidth, expensive, having to pause a youtube video for quite a while so it could buffer enough to watch. Forget any online gaming as there was up to a full second of latency, you pull a trigger and your character fires a second later.

I have xfinity right now, It is pretty damed expensive though, but I get very fast internet with unlimited data, With the sat net, I had a data cap of like 50 gigs a month, my sister brings her boyfriend over to my place for the weekend, and the guy brings his gaming laptop and downloads a couple of games on my wifi and maxed out my data cap in one night. which caused my provider to kick me down to the super slow internet for the next 3 weeks.

But hell, I remember having good internet back in the late '90s, before cable internet, using the phone line, and taking 20 minutes to download a 3-minute song audio file off Napster. And porn, hell, you would be done by the time the internet rendered a picture down to the belly button. So I guess even those with today's sat net have it pretty good considering.



No matter where you live there is a give and take

For the torrent idea you can get a seedbox which will handle all the downloading and seeing of torrents. This is especially useful if you use a private tracker site, the just download the completed files to your computer.

So basically download the files from Torrent and then watch them later so no buffering?

[Cali-Glock]

Two updates:

1. Received my email from Elon and I was accepted into the Starlink beta program. I gave them my credit card as quickly as I could! Yippie! Last time I checked my hardware order was still pending.
2. I figured I would try Netflix - I am politically biased against them as well, but wow - it is streaming better than Amazon Prime; it is month-to-month and it is cheap.

[DAZE752]

Where would I find such a company?

What if the fiber breaks then they would have to add a junction box?
Maybe they would let you jump on that one?

[C.G.]

Two updates:

1. Received my email from Elon and I was accepted into the Starlink beta program. I gave them my credit card as quickly as I could! Yippie! Last time I checked my hardware order was still pending.
2. I figured I would try Netflix - I am politically biased against them as well, but wow - it is streaming better than Amazon Prime; it is month-to-month and it is cheap.

Many good reviews from people in the boondocks about the Starling beta, although some do get blackouts (which should get better with more sattelites). In a nutshell, they are reporting better speeds than DSL or the original high satellites).