Asking viewers to opt for SD video is not out of line, says Cam Cullen, vice president of marketing for networking company Sandvine. His research has found YouTube, which always generates the most mobile traffic, has surpassed Netflix as the top traffic generator overall during the recent global health crisis.
"We are definitely seeing big jumps in usage around the world as people are staying in their homes," Cullen told USA TODAY. "This is not only streaming, but other traffic types that cause streaming issues – gaming, file sharing, software updates, telework, and VPNs."
Verizon on Tuesday said it saw an increase of 75% over its networks in the past week due to online gaming, with video streaming up more than 12% and overall web traffic up by about 20%. Last week, several major broadband providers loosened restrictions and boosted internet speeds for customers.
"Traffic is up no doubt," said Sajid Malhotra, chief financial officer of online video delivery company Limelight Networks.
But internet congestion "happens by region and then within a region by carrier," he said. "I don’t know what exactly drove the EU to issue the statement that they did. Maybe they were just seeing the trends and extrapolating if those trends continue out further and further then they could have problems."
But internet congestion is "a manageable issue and it is not universal," Malhotra said.
Having broadband congestion in your own home with more people online more often? You can try streaming video in the lowest definition you can, depending on what you are watching. "A nature documentary or the like might lose some of its charm in SD; most cartoons will look fine in lower resolution," said Lee Neikirk, editor for home theater for tech and products site Reviewed.com, which is part of the USA TODAY Network.
You can also watch most newer content in standard definition but it "might just be slightly less detailed," he said. (For Netflix, you find quality options in your account profile under Playback Settings.)
Color and contrast should be about the same.
"The only difference is the amount of pixels for a lot of content," Neikirk said. "This doesn't diminish or add to your TV's pixels, it just means more or less of them have to guess what to reproduce while 'upscaling,' and most TVs are really good at that these days."
Most viewers can also choose to skip the 4K UHD video and opt for high-definition, he says.
"The folk wisdom is that a 50-inch TV is the smallest TV where you can even see a difference between 1080p and 4K at normal viewing distances, so I think for most people, not streaming in 4K isn't a huge sacrifice," Neikirk said.
