Apple TV Airplay data use

[dandgage]

Hello, I have a stupid question that I hope someone could help me with. If I have movies/TV shows downloaded on my iPhone, will I use less data casting/airplaying from my phone (which I know will use some data) or streaming straight to Apple TV? And if it does use less would it be a significant amount? I'm trying to staying under my ISP's data cap, I'm wondering if I should bother downloading some of my library while at work to help lessen the blow. Thanks in advance.

 

[Casey Royals]

If you are on the same WiFi network, which you should be for the phone to connect to the Apple TV, you won’t use any cellular data.

 

[techwarrior]

If the source of the stream adjusts for the type of device accessing the content, you could see less ISP data use.

For example, if Netflix streams 1080p max to an iPhone, but 4K to ATV, you might see less ISP data use watching 1080p content on the iPhone, whether or not you Airplay it to the ATV. The Airplay link is WiFi between ATV and iPhone, not subject to ISP data caps. I don't know if Netflix does this, just using it as an example.

But, if you have already downloaded content to iPhone (or PC or Mac), the airplay will be on your network only, not subject to ISP data limits.

That said, I have Comcast 1TB\Month service. I use ATV exclusively for TV viewing, including DirecTVNow, Netflix, Hulu, and a variety of streaming apps. The only TV viewing we do that is not streaming is Over The Air local signals for news etc, streamed locally on my network from a Tablo DVR connected to an antenna.

My data use is typically under 600Mbps, so no fear of going over. We work from home several days per month on top of the TV streaming.

 

[dandgage]

If the source of the stream adjusts for the type of device accessing the content, you could see less ISP data use.

For example, if Netflix streams 1080p max to an iPhone, but 4K to ATV, you might see less ISP data use watching 1080p content on the iPhone, whether or not you Airplay it to the ATV. The Airplay link is WiFi between ATV and iPhone, not subject to ISP data caps. I don't know if Netflix does this, just using it as an example.

But, if you have already downloaded content to iPhone (or PC or Mac), the airplay will be on your network only, not subject to ISP data limits.

That said, I have Comcast 1TB\Month service. I use ATV exclusively for TV viewing, including DirecTVNow, Netflix, Hulu, and a variety of streaming apps. The only TV viewing we do that is not streaming is Over The Air local signals for news etc, streamed locally on my network from a Tablo DVR connected to an antenna.

My data use is typically under 600Mbps, so no fear of going over. We work from home several days per month on top of the TV streaming.

Thank you for the reply, I too have Comcast 1TB but I always seem to come against the cap almost every month. Granted we too cord cut (with the exception of Comcast basic which rarely gets watched unless the NFL is on) and I have 3 kids that always seem to want to watch different stuff at the same time, but I don't understand how that much data is being used. I have the 4th gen ATV (not the newest 4K), I've throttled down the quality on everything that I could (Netflix, Sling), and turned auto-play off on everything. Are there other settings you used to restrict data slightly? Also I didn't realize inner-network data didn't count against your cap, so Airplaying DL's, Plex, FTP transfers, etc. don't count?

 

[waw74]

only data coming in from comcast counts against your cap.
if you can unplug the cable from your modem, and still access something, it doesn't count.
and also in the same line of thought, buying a faster speed from comcast, won't increase your speed from device to device on your network.

with airplay, depending on the app, it can just send a web location to the aTV, and the aTV will play it directly and bypass your phone.
sometimes, it will relay though the phone, normally it's doing this if the video is showing on the phone's screen.

but in either case, if the phone is getting the stream from outside your house, its still counting against your cap.
but if you download at work, you can airplay for "free"

 

[dandgage]

Sweet, thank you for the clarification, now I now a few tricks to get by if I close to going over. Maybe I need to reduce my speed. I get the Blast Pro (I think up to 200MB speed), and at any given time I'll have a kid on a tablet, my wife streaming to ATV, a kid on line gaming, and a kid streaming through his phone. It's not constant but when there no school that could easily be happening a few hours or more a day, or maybe if that much is going on it's almost impossible to stay under. If anyone else has any tips I'd appreciate it, and thank you for all the words of wisdom

 

[techwarrior]

Also I didn't realize inner-network data didn't count against your cap, so Airplaying DL's, Plex, FTP transfers, etc. don't count?

Right.

A few years ago, I tinkered with OpenDNS (right before Cisco bought them). At the time, everything was free, including usage stats by sites. The idea is, on your router, you statically define the openDNS servers instead of the dns servers Comcast gives your router. They had\have usage stats by domain, etc. So, it might help identify where the heavy use is and then you could figure out if you want to block, or limit times to these sites. opendns.com is the site.

 

[waw74]

Right.

A few years ago, I tinkered with OpenDNS (right before Cisco bought them). At the time, everything was free, including usage stats by sites. The idea is, on your router, you statically define the openDNS servers instead of the dns servers Comcast gives your router. They had\have usage stats by domain, etc. So, it might help identify where the heavy use is and then you could figure out if you want to block, or limit times to these sites. opendns.com is the site.

that doesn't make sense, DNS is like a phonebook lookup,
so they can only tell you how many times you asked for grandma's number, not how long you stayed on the phone with her.

and it only deals with top level domains, so they could see you went to macrumors.com, but not the pages you visited on it.

if you wanted a remote service to do that, you'd need VPN, and on most VPN services one of the main features is that they don't log anything.
or something in your router.

 

[techwarrior]

that doesn't make sense, DNS is like a phonebook lookup,
so they can only tell you how many times you asked for grandma's number, not how long you stayed on the phone with her.

and it only deals with top level domains, so they could see you went to macrumors.com, but not the pages you visited on it.

if you wanted a remote service to do that, you'd need VPN, and on most VPN services one of the main features is that they don't log anything.
or something in your router.

You may be right, it was a while ago, but I thought it captured data use. maybe it was just a list of sites.

I understand some of the newer home routers do have a way of monitoring use, but not sure if it would be by site.

You would think with the intro of data caps, someone would have a solution to help us home users understand where our use goes.