[plymouthbloke1974]

Hi,

If you streamed a 240p video for 40 minutes, how much data would that use? I worked it out at around 100MB... However checking my data allowance this morning and 650MB has vanished. Was definitely on 240p. I can't believe it would use that much?

The data allowance checker (http://add-on.ee.co.uk/status) has reported the odd anomaly while away so I'm hoping it's reporting wrong at the mo lol.

[corf]

It depends on the content of the video, a simple video with a lot of the same colours (like a cartoon) will be smaller.

I'm afriad I don't think this question cannot be answered due to the variable bitrate and detail of the video codecs. Some videos are 1MB/1min @240p and some are 10MB/1min@240p. Even if you manage to calculate it, its unreliable for quota consumption assumption.

This sort of thing is the reason why I cringe when I read people say that 500mb is plenty if you are a low data user - all it takes is one video and boom extra charges.

[plymouthbloke1974]

Hmmm it was the little one watching a cartoon. I can't go over the allowance as I'm on EE, however she watched the same cartoons for 2-3 hours on my wife's phone (on Voda) and used 400MB for the same videos. Odd.

[corf]

Does your phone data counter show which apps have used the data - it might not all have been the video.

[Thine Wonk]

240p refers to the number of vertical lines, so the size / resolution. Video can be more highly compressed or less, so although Youtube might say a video is 1080p in resolution it is compressed a lot. The format of the video makes a difference, so H.264/MPEG-4 will be very different to another format.

I would say to stream it again and use a data counter, maybe on a different network or at home. That amount of data sounds about right though, it's on the high side. From memory 1 hour of BBC iPlayer in SD is 650MB.

[plymouthbloke1974]

Ahhhh fair play. If it's right it's right. If it runs out I'll just buy another 1GB add-on

Thanks