Downloading

Yes, streaming counts as downloading. Anything that uses an internet connection is downloading. You can download a standalone application for monitoring you internet usage, or you can add an extension to your browser that will do it for you. If you go with the browser-based extension, it won't count usage when it's closed.

I'm not sure about the sizes of whatever your girlfriend is watching, but if she's watching things frequently, especially long episodes of shows and movies, the usage will add up quickly.

yes its also counted as downloading. Even if u open Google, that will be downloading.
Well watching videos over internet consume alot of bandwidth. Spend a day on YouTube and u'll download more than 2gb i think. Better install some bandwidth measuring software. I use Bandwidth meter.

It counts unfortunately.

If she is on YouTube, you may want to ask her (if you don't mind) asking her to not watch it on Hd quality. That will save a ton of bandwidth consumption.

~Joshua~

As Saeen mentioned here above, everything you get from the net is counted. When you read a blog, check CNN for news, receive emails, chat with mates over MSN or Skype, when your AV application gets new definition updates etc. Every incoming signal, every bit counts.

I get TV from my native Finland here to Germany over the internet, streaming to the computers and directly over an IPTV digital receiver. I can also download everything from every channel from the past four weeks. I use this opportunity quite a lot.

When downloading or streaming, I can choose from three different formats. I'm using an episode of C.S.I (55 minutes) as an example (one of my favorites, I'm happy that the network shows couple of old seasons this summer!).

• 1 Mbps Flash quality = 405 MB (file format: .flv)
• 2 Mbps MPEG4 quality = 600 MB (file format: .mp4)
• 8 Mbps HD quality = 1.6 GB (file format: .ts)

Your 70 GB monthly limit, converted to streaming TV in above mentioned file formats and quality would mean:

• about 150 to 160 hours in 1Mbps Flash
• about 100 hours in 2 Mbps MPEG4
• about 40 hours HD

In other words, if your girlfriend streams on average one hour a day, she uses monthly:

• about one fifth of your DL limit in Flash
• about one third of your DL limit in MPEG4
• about three quarters of your DL limit in HD

Hope this helps you to argue with her At least ask her to choose a low bandwith stream; although difference is clear the networks usually offer a good compromise between file size and quality.

Here's example of the difference between Flash and MPEG4 quality from my IPTV service provider:

Flash:


MPEG4:


Here's something for you to think:



As you can see, this rig has now been connected about 3 hours 20 minutes. Normal surfing, reading my mails, other eye on a film and news in HD quality on secondary display. Completely normal usage to me. The system has received (= downloaded) 3,805,103,983 bytes, which is 3.54378 GB or almost 1.2 GB per hour.

Kari

She'd be better off bandwidth wise to download torrents of the shows, instead of streaming it.

Most 22-ish min shows are around 175mb-220mb

44-ish min shows are 350mb-700mb

720p HD caps are 1.2GB

It will still chew up your quota, but less than streaming.

*Disclaimer*

If you are unaware, it's 'illegal' to d/l TV shows. So officially I can't 'condone' it.

smarteyeball said:

*Disclaimer*

If you are unaware, it's 'illegal' to d/l TV shows. So officially I can't 'condone' it.

Not always. For instance I'm paying for my IPTV service, which allows me to stream or download every show and program from every network I'm subscribing from the past four weeks.

For this service I also need to pay Finnish TV license fee, even I've not lived in Finland in ages. At the moment the fee is €231.05 a year. This fee is used to pay for the PBS networks, which in Finland are not allowed to show commercials, making license fees their only income. From 12 networks I'm subscribing, 5 are PBS. I would have to pay the fee even if I subscribed no PBS networks.

Kari, how do you have a 1GBs internet connection? Mine annoys me sitting at like 200MBs, with downloads speeds (depending) anywhere from 10KBs to 1MBs.

~Lordbob

Lordbob75 said:

Kari, how do you have a 1GBs internet connection? Mine annoys me sitting at like 200MBs, with downloads speeds (depending) anywhere from 10KBs to 1MBs.

~Lordbob

Realtech's Gigabit NIC, Belkin N1 Vision router, connected with only 3 meters (10 feet) cat 6 cable, that's it.

Kari said:

Lordbob75 said:

Kari, how do you have a 1GBs internet connection? Mine annoys me sitting at like 200MBs, with downloads speeds (depending) anywhere from 10KBs to 1MBs.

~Lordbob

Realtech's Gigabit NIC, Belkin N1 Vision router, connected with only 3 meters (10 feet) cat 6 cable, that's it.

Nice! I am wireless, that is probably why.

~Lordbob