Cutting The Cord - Part 4

If you have an Apple TV, disabling the “test your bandwidth” function has its ups and downs. True, when the show you wish to watch appears on the screen, you will be watching the clearest (highest resolution) picture available. The downside is that you may have to wait many seconds, sometimes minutes, for your show to appear.  Instead of the latest episode of Scandal you may be looking at the word “Loading…” while all the data required for the first frame of your TV show downloads over your Internet connection. The slower your connection, the longer you have to wait for the first frame of your show.

But what about the second frame and every other frame that comprises a full-length movie or TV show? Because data doesn’t flow from the Internet to your home at a constant rate, your program material is often delivered in fits and starts. If the delivery falls behind, as it often did in my experience, the “Loading…” message reappears, and you wait. Needless to say, if the delivery falls behind, as it often did in my experience, the “Loading…” message reappears, and you wait. Needless to say, having your program constantly interrupted with “Loading…” messages doesn’t lead to a satisfying viewing experience.

In an effort to better understand what was going on with what I thought was reasonably fast (7Mbps DSL Internet service I contacted FairPoint for advice. The customer service rep was well prepared with this advice: 1) Try watching Apple TV on weekdays, rather than on weekends when many other subscribers are doing the same thing. 2) If you prefer to watch on weekends, do your watching after midnight when the “load on the system” is less. Right.

This conversation confirmed my suspicion that the product I am purchasing from FairPoint (bandwidth) is a limited resource that needs to be consumed judiciously if you don’t plan to abandon good picture quality in your quest to cut the cable TV cord.

I would advise not hacking the Apple TV as I did, and having patience while the device determines the optimum picture quality for the available bandwidth at your home. If you aren’t accustomed to watching good high-definition TV programs, you probably won’t know what you’re missing.

(To be continued…)

If you missed previous posts in this series, you can catch up at http://aroundwoodstockvermont.blogspot.com/