The bigger the better?

The bigger the better? think twice.... yeah!

http://www.whistleout.com.au/Broadband/Broadband-Usage-Guide#section-youtube

YouTube and Video Streaming

A common misconception about video streaming seems to be that it doesn’t use up as much bandwidth as downloading a movie and storing it on your hard drive. This couldn’t be more incorrect. It’s important to remember when using streaming services like YouTube that every time you watch a video you’re using the same amount of data as if you’d downloaded it in file format. Probably more seeing as many files come in Zipped form, allowing them to be transferred in a simple format before ‘expanding’ on your hard drive.

So watching a YouTube video, then coming back another time and watching it again is therefore equivalent to downloading the video twice. The only situation in which this wouldn’t apply is if you left the page open and simply pressed “play” again without refreshing it.

Even if you click “play” on a video and only watch half of it, chances are you’ve still downloaded the whole thing.

720p

• Bits Per Second (down): 20+ Mbps
• Bits Per Second (up): 320Kbps
• Data used per 5 minute video: 37.5MB

1080p

• Bits Per Second (down): 20+ Mbps
• Bits Per Second (up): 320 Kbps
• Data used per 5 minute video: 62MB

 so watch out!