You have too much network bandwidth!!

@tomrk 

Thanks, that is the clearest explanation I have seen to date of how Netflix dynamically adjusts video compression to adapt to internet congestion.

We are currently watching the Netflix series called, I think, House of Guinness. This appears as almost monochrome, mostly near black, like the eponymous drink, and the sound quality is so bad, we have to have the English subtitles turned on.

A problem I have with most streaming services is that they each need their own "app" and their entire ecosystems are pretty much black boxes.  The black box may, or may not, implement compression when network conditions dictate.  Usually, we just don't get told.

I'd just add that TCP requires every client to send a message back to the server for every packet they have successfully received.  Not an efficient use of the Internet nor server resources and the planet is suffering as a result

@elliottbnewcombjr 

 recordings on the cloud, anybody have a strong opinion about that? 

Historically, the cloud is a graphic we used to depict a network of unknown internal structure.  The Internet fits that description.

The reality is that the Internet is implemented by relatively few big players who have massive data centres right here on earth.  These data centres connect through relatively few communications cables and sometimes satellites to reach Internet Service Providers.  Internet Service Providers are depicted as sitting on the edge of the cloud and are the providers of your individual connections.

Let's rephrase your question.  Would you be happy to place all your personal records (not the vinyl ones) in Microsoft's care?  Would you trust them to respect your privacy?  Would you trust them to back up your information, and be able to restore it after a failure?  It is a lot easier than maintaining your own back-up regime, after all.

Big organisations are just as prone to human error as small one, in my opinion. I use Microsoft's 365 cloud services and have lost virtually all of my emails going back decades.

Same goes for cash these days.  You don't need it until the networks go down.

So your question presents a real dilemma, and I do not think there is any one right answer.

Richard,

I do not use any online for primary or backup data, I don't trust the cloud.

I keep an external 2 TB SSD in the trunk of my car, I back up weekly, from the matching external 2tb SSD in my office with my primary data. I only use the hard drive inside my computer for operating system and programs, and recovery. usb 3.0 is so fast there is no sense it is an external drive when actively working.

Xfinity would store our temporary video recordings on their servers, up to 150 hrs, for $10/mo.

I haven't watched commercials since my 1st VCR was acquired. I purposely tape and watch later or eventually, then DELETE. Donna watches her crap upstairs, I watch my crap downstairs, we get together occasionally

Donna and her twin sister have a Pet/House sitting business, so they are often on someone else's TV. IF she can get the Xfinity APP on their TV, she can sign in and watch her crap there, otherwise she waits until she comes here.

I just tried, Verizon/Google Apps will not let me download Xfinity App. Presumably when using Xfinity TV Box, it will have their streamer built-in, thus no need to download it. 

Generally speaking, buffered audio/video uses TCP.  This means video streaming and audio streaming from a service like Netflix or Qobuz, Disney+, what have you. 

Real-time audio/video for things like live online meetings may use UDP instead.  

The difference is really in the buffering.  When you stream audio or video you can get several seconds of media in advance. This gives you the leisure of reconstructing a stream and requesting retransmissions if a packet is bad.  However with Zoom for instance, the service will just ignore the missing packets and keep going. 

Buffering is what really makes most of audiophile concerns about cables and switches irrelevant. 

Bandwidthis only part of the network. There are many more areas to look at. I used to install and maintain enterprise networks over 35 years ago.

A couple main things about networks: always use a wired connection, i always test/signature any ethernet cable whether i make it myself or buy a $1000 cable, and always use fiber over copper.

Audio has such low demands on network and computer resources that hardware manufacturers make it sound you need a 10G network or a 24 core mega server for hi res audio, which is simply not true.

If you are running a linux roon/audirvana/anything else server, do some system monitoring to really see how much memory/cpu/disk/network resources are used to play hi res music. Its lower than you think.