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We've all been there. You're watching Techquickie, checking out your favorite Twitch stream or on a Skype date with that rando that you met on
Tinder when suddenly, and it's just so
frustrating,
this is commonly caused by a slow connection.
Whenever you stream something from the internet, that stream attempts to read ahead
filling up a local buffer on your device, which serves to ensure smooth playback.
If your connection is too slow, this buffer won't fill quickly enough, causing those dreaded freezes,
which your stream may or may not be smart enough to recover from on its own.
So you give up on streaming video for a bit and plop down in front of your good old TV
that's connected to a cable box that you're paying an outrageous sum of money each month to use.
As you flip through an array of HD channels, you have a sudden thought.
Cable TV these days is digital, just like video over the internet.
It's a stream of ones and zeros that hit a cable box that does some decoding and then
spits out the popular reality show du jour for you to
enjoy.
But for some reason, cable TV never seems to buffer like internet streams do, even though
many of the channels are in bandwidth-hungry high definition.
So what gives?
Well, it turns out that although that compressed digital video that reaches both your TV and your computer screen is indeed similar in terms of the
speed in megabits per second that it requires, the way it's delivered to either your cable TV box
versus your cable modem is quite different, even though they're both entering your house on
literally the exact same code.
Coaxial cable. You see, the signals that pass through your cable connection are divided up into different frequencies,
with clear separation between frequencies that carry cable TV and ones that carry internet data,
which you can learn more about up here. And it turns out that each channel on your cable TV guide
actually corresponds to its own
completely separate frequency
inside your coaxial cable, and each frequency is dedicated to one and only one channel.
Additionally, whatever channel that you're tuned into is showing the same thing at all times to
everyone receiving the signal, meaning that unlike streaming, there's no server
sitting out there somewhere waiting for a user to request something.
Instead, your TV provider just
blasts the same signals down the pipes, meaning that live
content is waiting for you as soon as you tune in to a specific channel.
This also means that the
route that your TV signal takes to your home is much simpler.
It goes from a distribution center, through a few nodes, and into your house on a dedicated frequency
without having to compete with a bunch of other traffic, or
respond to anything that the user does.
But when you try to stream something, your video has to fight with tons of other internet traffic.
It might be coming from a faraway server that isn't well maintained. It might be routed through a bunch of hops that add additional
lag time, and there might just be tons of people hogging bandwidth in your neighborhood because EA just dropped another AAA title that everyone wants to try out and
subsequently complain about on the internet, using up even more of your bandwidth.
Standard digital cable TV can still definitely run into signal issues, though,
if there's a problem at your cable provider's facilities or with a satellite hanging out up in orbit.
But all of this does still add up
to a more direct pathway to your screen with minimal congestion or latency.
It's almost enough for you to keep spending a hundred bucks a month so you can watch Happy Days reruns at 3 a.m.
Almost.
Check out Private Internet Access VPN. Not only does PIA work on up to five devices at once,
hiding your true IP address, it allows you to bypass geo-restrictions and censorship by making you appear as though you are connecting from
somewhere else.
And it's got all kinds of
other great functionality, too. It blocks unwanted connections to help prevent attacks, it auto-blocks all traffic if the VPN
disconnects, it keeps your data out of the hands of advertisers and other snoops who are tracking your activity,
it prevents DNS leaks, and even includes MACE, PIA's built-in malware blocker.
It supports multiple VPN protocols, and they've got apps for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, and
even a Chrome extension with support for more platforms coming soon.
PIA has over three
thousand servers in 28 countries and doesn't log user activity. So what are you waiting for? Check them out today at the link below.
Speaking of almost, I almost had an integration to give to you guys right now, but it wasn't there, so you're off the hook.
So thanks for watching, guys. You can like, dislike, check out other channels, leave a comment with video suggestions, and subscribe!
You can, and you will.