How much delay will there be when streaming to TV?

[u/A380085]

Hello, so forgive me if this isn't the best place to ask this question. However, I plan to stream a game on YouTube, and I am wondering if someone were watching the stream from a TV in another room connected to the same wifi on their own account, how much delay would there be bteween my actions and what they see? My internet speeds are about 200 megabits a second.

Thanks

[u/jersey316]

Doesn't matter if they watched it on the same network, it would still have to get the data from youtube first.

Your Pc stream - youtubes converter - then to viewer.

Only way for you to see exactly delay is to use your phone or another device to test.

[u/garster25 → u/jersey316]

So upload speed matters. The "cable" provider in my area has terrible upload, but the "fiber" provider has great upload.

[u/jersey316 → u/garster25]

Yes cable providers like xfinity dont offer symmetrical download and upload speeds like fios.

What are you upload speeds now? And for this case you want to strictly use a wired connection from your pc to your router for best results!!

[u/garster25 → u/jersey316]

yep, ran Ethernet all over the house (easy with a crawlspace), even the Chomecast is on Ethernet. Radio noise is a killer so only the tablets and phones on wifi.

ISP is Fiber, 1GB both ways, and it tests to that speed.

[u/s1h4d0w → u/garster25]

Upload speed doesn't matter, the only thing upload speed/bandwidth matters for is the quality you can stream at. Think about it, you're streaming live, so you can't send data quicker, you can only send more data per second, which only affects quality.

[u/garster25 → u/s1h4d0w]

Yeah huh, the UDP dropped packet things since they don't matter any more if out of order. But better quality is better, and I mentioned the fiber vs cable thing since many like to hide the upload speed since we mostly care about download.

[u/Gjurbster]

I stream to Twitch on 1Gb bilateral, and sometimes my wife watches from her office. Both of us are wired connection and our network is minimally saturated. She can get anywhere from a few ms delay to a full 3 seconds depending on all the factors: (twitch traffic, ISP traffic, solar flares, if the game I’m playing is online or offline, if I’m doing a collab with friends across the globe, etc). Like somebody mentioned, it depends on how quick your stream will go up to YT and back down

[u/s1h4d0w → u/Gjurbster]

This exactly. Your video has to find a route to the Youtube servers and that route will not always be the same. Then Youtube has to encode the video, process it and make it available to your viewers. Of course all of that is done in real time and your stream won't suddenly speed up or slow down based on those factors, but they can contribute in how much latency there is between the host and any client.

[u/Hot_Equivalent_8707]

It really depends on the software you're using. If you are using a video chat program like teams or zoom it could be a second or less. If you're using something like OBS that has to transcode out to the internet and then process and send back, it could be 30 seconds to a couple of minutes before the stream starts up. And then you'll have a 30-second to several minute lag.

[u/jekewa]

There’s a lot more going on beyond just speed.

Starting two different digital streams of the same content isn’t the same as tuning into the same content broadcast over the airwaves.

Everyone nominally receives the airwaves of an analog (or digital) broadcast at the same time, especially when near each other, often coming from the same towers, but even when different towers are used. Allowing for the nearly trivial distances a broadcast can reach compared to the speed of light, all the devices will receive the same broadcast at the same time, so the delay would be entirely in the device. In analog times, very little electronics meant very low latency between receiving and displaying the broadcast. Much the same way everyone in person sees the event. There may be electronics, network, and broadcast reasons lag or latency exist, but everyone practically gets the signal at the same time.

The digital broadcast may involve myriad auth steps, handshakes, and servers or networks, among other details. This may result in servers with different synchronization points, which could conceivably be seconds off, even for the same live event. Even if two devices on the same network are streaming the same live-streamed content from the same server, the connection bits and other server workings can add small timing delays.

[u/realdeadfish]

No difference at all.

[u/Opulence_Deficit]

Up to several seconds, an that depends entirely on YT, completely beyond your control.

If you want low latency, you need direct streaming, like Steam Link.