Gone are the days when videos were produced on disc for the target audience and the general public to watch. At this time, movies were posted by mail to address people that paid for rent or purchased it. Nowadays, technology has simplified and made things much more comfortable. Movie companies can now reach a lot of people from various parts of the world.
All the target audience need is to get themselves connected to a movie streaming company or website. This website has a lot of movies in its database. They allow users to either subscribe by paying a certain amount of money or stream movie free. Whichever one you are lucky to get, the most critical factor that decides maybe you will access the movie or not is your data.
Data is vital to people that watch movies online. While people that subscribe to an unlimited data plan does not care about the amount of data they consume to stream movies, others feel reluctant to stream a movie with their data.
That said, there are various ways through which you can control and manage your data usage when you stream movies. Today, I will be telling you how you can know how much data you use to stream your favorite movie.
Video Streaming Websites
Videos have become easier for the public to access. No matter the location you may be, you can access various types of videos. These video streaming sites have become more famous such that most individuals have deserted major television programs to enjoy media content on the streaming website.
They contain video contents like horror, documentary, comedy, and many more. These streaming sites include Hulu, Netflix, Sling TV, YouTube, HBO, and many more.
Data Usage on for Streaming Video
Today, there are various video streaming sites that offer free video streaming services to their users. Also, we have a streaming site that users need to pay some money before they access the content on the website. The movies on the site are accessed with the data subscription. Most video streaming sites requires a massive amount of data to stream video.
The data consumption rate of the website mostly depends on the quality of video you are streaming. The vast majority of streaming sites have provided various options in which you can stream video. For instance, YouTube offers a free streaming service on videos. However, it presents you with different options for video quality to stream your movie. This helps you to manage or limit the amount of data you use to stream videos.
How Much Data Does Your Favorite Video Consume While Streaming
Various video streaming websites are making efforts to ensure that data used by their users are managed effectively. However, the video qualities seem to be one of the primary solutions to know the amount of data you can use to stream video. In this section, I will be discussing how you can estimate the average data usage when you stream videos on your devices.
Ultra-HD Quality
All movie lovers desire to stream their favorite video on the streaming site with Ultra-HD quality. The Ultra-HD quality is also a 4K resolution. Ultra-HD quality is the highest video quality you can access on the streaming sites. The appearance of the video will always thrill and motivate you to stream more video on the site.
When you desire to watch videos with this resolution, you must be prepared to consume a lot of data. Videos streamed in 4K resolution consumes between 6-7GB within one hour of streaming video. Streaming video with this resolution is recommended when you can enjoy it when you have subscribed to an unlimited data plan.
HD Quality
Before the introduction of Ultra-HD quality, movie lovers were streaming their favorite videos in HD quality. Streaming your favorite video in HD quality makes you enjoy the video but with some amount of data expended for the pleasure. A video in HD quality is streamed at 720p or 1080p. Streaming video in 720p format consumes up to 0.8GB (800MB) per hour of streaming.
Also, videos streamed at 1080p resolution consumes about 1.4GB worth of data per hour. This is affordable when compared with the Ultra-HD quality. However, if you stream video on smartphones or tablets in 720p resolution, you will use a lesser amount of data. With your mobile device, you can consume about 600MB worth of data for one hour. This is cheaper than streaming on the PC.
Regular Quality
Regular quality is a resolution format for people that desire to watch their favorite video in good video quality while noting they have to limit the amount of data they consume. When you choose to stream your favorite video in regular quality, you are streaming in SD resolution.
Regular quality is also known as SD resolution. With the SD resolution, you can stream your favorite video at 480p. Streaming video at 480p consumes about 650MB worth of data. This is affordable when you desire to enjoy streaming video at an average data rate.
Very Low Quality
If you desire to stream your favorite video at a reduced quality to minimize the amount of data that will be consumed, Very Low Quality is the right option to choose. With the Very Low Quality option, you can stream your video at 144p, 240p, and 320p resolution. Among these formats, 144p is the lowest you can have on some streaming sites. An example is YouTube. Streaming your favorite video in any of the three formats will consume about 250MB per hour.
Summary
The table below summarizes the amount of data used when you stream video on your PC
| Resolution | Formats | Data Used | Duration |
| Ultra-HD Quality | 4K | 6-7GB | 1 hour |
| HD Quality | 720p, 1080p | 800MB | 1 hour |
| Regular Quality | 480p | 650MB | 1 hour |
| Very Low Quality | 144p, 240p, and 320p | 250MB | 1 hour |
Final Thoughts
Today, the act of streaming video has gained widespread acceptance among movie lovers in the world. However, most individuals are not motivated because of the amount of data used when poor data plans in the IT market is considered. Discussed here are the estimates of data you use when you stream a video. Do go through them and use it as a guide before streaming a movie in the video streaming sites.