Explain to me how 4g lte and 5g work please if possible

[River]

As a data connection.

I feel like it is never as good as a home wired ISP like cable or Fiber. :( With Fiber being the better of the two.

Reason being is because streaming is never 100% not buffering on 4g lte or 5g it seems.

Maybe I am doing streaming wrong ? lol

It is not only when moving in a car when out and about (No I am not the one driving sorry) but sometimes just in one spot sitting in a coffee shop or whatever.

[River]

I wish there was a way that 4g lte or 5g would not buffer video streaming. At least with the apps I use. nPlayer Plus and Infuse Pro on iOS Apple iPhone 14 pro max and iPad Pro 4 th generation 11 inch

I stream from my home NAS.

My ISP is from Fiber. So it can't be my connection.

The NAS works great for friends and family at their houses when streaming from it on their home ISPs. One has cable the others Fiber!

[Omega]

Explained in the most simple way possible;

Just like how Wi-Fi works. It uses wireless radio transmissions to transfer data. The speed of the connection is dependant on congestion, range, frequency and hardware capabilities.

A 5G network is typically capable of sending upwards of 10Gbit/s. But if lots of people are using the network, or your connection is just poor you will probably not reach these speeds or may only get a very small fraction of it.

[River]

Omega님이 먼저 게시:

Explained in the most simple way possible;

Just like how Wi-Fi works. It uses wireless radio transmissions to transfer data. The speed of the connection is dependant on congestion, range, frequency and hardware capabilities.

A 5G network is typically capable of sending upwards of 10Gbit/s. But if lots of people are using the network, or your connection is just poor you will probably not reach these speeds or may only get a very small fraction of it.

Thank you.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Well it never is "good"
It's unstable at best. As it's just a very high Db WiFi so to speak.

It does not make for a good service to game on.
It can be fine to stream on, like watching YouTube and Twitch, but that also depends on the signal strength and speed. Just because you are getting 5G doesn't dictate your connection strength and/or speed. You could be getting somewhat low ping 5G at excellent signal strength and still have terrible 1080p streaming video experience because of your speeds.

Most Cell Service Plans (even Unlimited ones) include a data cap. Once you reach near or above this monthly cap, you speeds will get as slow as 2G, which makes even buffering a YT video @ 480p unbearable.

[River]

Bad 💀 Motha님이 먼저 게시:

Well it never is "good"
It's unstable at best. As it's just a very high Db WiFi so to speak.

It does not make for a good service to game on.
It can be fine to stream on, like watching YouTube and Twitch, but that also depends on the signal strength and speed. Just because you are getting 5G doesn't dictate your connection strength and/or speed. You could be getting somewhat low ping 5G at excellent signal strength and still have terrible 1080p streaming video experience because of your speeds.

Most Cell Service Plans (even Unlimited ones) include a data cap. Once you reach near or above this monthly cap, you speeds will get as slow as 2G, which makes even buffering a YT video @ 480p unbearable.

Thanks.

[_I_]

5g allows your device to connect to multiple towers at the same time to get faster data
but its never organized enough to get the correct timings for every packet due to taking different paths on the mobile and land networks

buffering is always needed, some data needs to be stored to get all the info it needs for each video frame and audio segment to be played

just because it can hit high enough speeds to not need much buffering does not mean it will hold it, buffering helps prevent stuttering when the data rates are lowered

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Luckily I live in area of Maryland that gets very good 5G wherever I go around here. Been through PA, VA and also NJ and NY with it and didn't experience much if any issues to speak of. Speeds can vary though but I typically get anywhere from 100Mbps up to around 350.

Streaming 4K videos on my phone is a non issue. 1080p movies off Popcorn Time download in minutes.

This is with Samsung Galaxy A32 5G and A71 5G

[River]

How big in size are the 4k videos you’re streaming? That or how many minutes are they normally?

[River]

_I_님이 먼저 게시:

5g allows your device to connect to multiple towers at the same time to get faster data
but its never organized enough to get the correct timings for every packet due to taking different paths on the mobile and land networks

buffering is always needed, some data needs to be stored to get all the info it needs for each video frame and audio segment to be played

just because it can hit high enough speeds to not need much buffering does not mean it will hold it, buffering helps prevent stuttering when the data rates are lowered

There should be a video player on phones and tablets that compensate for buffering somehow. That way if your speed drops a lot or get no signal video/movie still plays without interruption.

Never found a app video player like this yet but still looking!

Maybe it is not possible ? :(

[_I_]

it sort of is with compression
key (complete) frame and data on what parts move and pieces that change
missing one part causes it to look blocky or jittery
audio has another tricks too, recycling data from previously used parts and modify

[River]

_I_님이 먼저 게시:

it sort of is with compression
key (complete) frame and data on what parts move and pieces that change
missing one part causes it to look blocky or jittery
audio has another tricks too, recycling data from previously used parts and modify

So how do I get this to work in a media player app ?

[_I_]

the problem is that the app is requesting the entire file, not just the parts that are needed
part of http protocol is grabbing entire files, streaming protocols can grab parts

[Bad 💀 Motha]

gamer님이 먼저 게시:

How big in size are the 4k videos you’re streaming? That or how many minutes are they normally?

Anywhere from 20-30 MB/s

[Wolfgang421]

Another thing to consider, which was touched on earlier in this thread, is that cellular connections, like cable internet, have provisioned bandwidth per node/tower. This means that the provider plans for an average connection speed under average load - during high load periods some or many may suffer lower speeds and higher latency. With cable internet this is only noticeable under extreme changes as nodes are fairly static and it takes a while for someone to convince a cable company to run a new connection. Cell towers, however, just have everyone within connectable range. 5G, while enabling greater throughput, also means more people can connect to more towers simultaneously - meaning instead of one densely overprovisioned tower and a few surrounding ones being just somewhat worse off, they all become more overprovisioned. This is further limited by what kind of infrastructure the tower itself uses.

Overall, cellular is going to beat satellite 99/100 times, and insofar as latency is concerned at least, hard wired internet access will beat wireless just as often (provided the wiring is good).

[River]

Wolfgang421님이 먼저 게시:

Another thing to consider, which was touched on earlier in this thread, is that cellular connections, like cable internet, have provisioned bandwidth per node/tower. This means that the provider plans for an average connection speed under average load - during high load periods some or many may suffer lower speeds and higher latency. With cable internet this is only noticeable under extreme changes as nodes are fairly static and it takes a while for someone to convince a cable company to run a new connection. Cell towers, however, just have everyone within connectable range. 5G, while enabling greater throughput, also means more people can connect to more towers simultaneously - meaning instead of one densely overprovisioned tower and a few surrounding ones being just somewhat worse off, they all become more overprovisioned. This is further limited by what kind of infrastructure the tower itself uses.

Overall, cellular is going to beat satellite 99/100 times, and insofar as latency is concerned at least, hard wired internet access will beat wireless just as often (provided the wiring is good).

Interesting. Thanks.