Streaming, what speed do i need??

[brookey12]

Hi guys
Heres my question:
Im thinking about streaming and starting my own channel on justin.tv ok, but before i even start what broadband speed should i need??
I am paying for 20mb broadband but actually getting about 8mb is that fast enough to stream or to slow, so slow that it will lag alot??
thanks in advance

[lowellriggsiam]

It'd be best to have an upload speed in excess of 2mbit. Although you state that you have 20MB internet service, you may not have much of an upload speed. Do you know what it is?

[poisondeathray]

Are you measuring upload or download speed? Most cable carriers are asymmetric (download is >> than upload)

If you're doing your own hosting from a home line, you need min upload speed greater than the requested bandwidth load

e.g. if your videos are 1Mb/s, and you have 5 simultaneous users, that would be about 5Mb/s

There is network latency and overhead as well on top of that, and most 720p HD videos require >2-3Mb/s for mediocre quality (that's what vimeo or youtube use and they often look like garbage), higher for better quality

Beware most residential internet services have EULA prohibiting server type usage

[jagabo]

Try http://www.speedtest.net/ to see what your upload speed is. Try at different times of the day. And different servers within ~500 miles of you.

[brookey12]

Ok first of all, id like to say a big thank you to all of you who have replied, your replies are very kind.
Now i did the speed test and here are my results:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1277147728.png

Looks a bit low for me to stream dont you think??

[jagabo]

That's pretty low. You can stream one low res stream to somebody. You also need a fixed IP address.