Less than most people assume, and in a different shape. A single 1080p channel needs 5-8 Mbps sustained, and 4K needs 15-25 Mbps. Sustained is the operative word: streaming cares about a steady floor rather than a high peak, so a connection that bursts to 500 Mbps and dips under load will perform worse than a steady 100 Mbps line. Measure at the device that will play video, because the number at the router is not the number at the TV. Latency barely matters for playback once a channel is running, though it does affect how quickly channels open when you flip through the guide.

1. 1A steady floor beats a high peak
2. 2Speed-test on the streaming device, not on a laptop beside the router

Ethernet on the main TV, Wi-Fi everywhere else. Wi-Fi is where most complaints about buffering actually originate, because a headline speed at the router can lose most of its value two walls away, and interference varies through the evening as neighboring networks get busy. If the main screen is near the router, a cable is a five-minute job that removes a whole category of problems. If it is not, the 5 GHz band, a mesh node in the same room, or a powerline adapter are the next options in order of preference. Diagnose the difference by running the same channel on a wired device and a wireless one at the same moment.

1. 1Same channel, wired versus wireless, at the same moment — that comparison isolates Wi-Fi
2. 25 GHz for shorter distances, mesh or powerline for longer ones

More than the speed figures suggest, and this is where monthly caps bite. At roughly 3 GB per hour for 1080p, four hours a day is about 360 GB a month for one viewer. In 4K, at roughly 7 GB per hour, the same habit is around 840 GB. Two people watching separately doubles it. If your broadband has a cap of 1 TB, a 4K-heavy household will reach it, so check the cap before adding a second concurrent stream. HEVC helps materially here, using around half the bitrate of H.264 for comparable picture, which means roughly half the data for the same viewing.

1. 11080p: ~3 GB/hour. 4K: ~7 GB/hour.
2. 2HEVC uses about half the bitrate of H.264, so about half the monthly data

Count the moments people watch different things at the same time, not the number of televisions. IP4KTV allows unlimited installs, so every TV, tablet and phone can be set up regardless of plan; the plan sets how many of them can play at once, from one to five. One person living alone rarely needs more than one. A family where two live events overlap on a weekend needs at least two, and probably three once bedrooms are counted. Choosing on device count rather than concurrency is the mistake that produces a plan mismatch, since installs and simultaneous connections are separate limits.

1. 1Unlimited installs; 1-5 simultaneous connections depending on plan
2. 2Size the plan on overlapping viewing, not on the number of screens

Use the short trial first. IP4KTV offers $5 for 24 hours, activation takes about five minutes, and nothing auto-renews — no card is kept on file after the fact. Run the trial through a busy evening rather than a quiet afternoon, because capacity problems only appear under load. If you move to the 12-month plan at $10 a month, or $120 for the year, plans carry a 7-day money-back window; the $5 trial is excluded from it. Compared with typical US cable or satellite at $70-130 a month, the yearly figure is the whole figure, with no rented box and no per-room charge.

1. 1$5 for 24 hours, then $10 a month on the 12-month plan
2. 2Nothing auto-renews and no card is stored