Content caching is where video content is downloaded to the device to avoid consistently using data.
As soon as a channel starts playing, it will download the videos in the background while it is streaming. Whenever a segment is about to play, the app checks to see if that video is cached locally. If it is, it uses that video instead of streaming.
One channel takes up about 5GB of storage* which is about 1 GB per hour of content. How quickly content is cached depends completely on the internet speed.
Internet Speed | Estimated Download Time** |
1 Gbps | ~ 1 minute |
100 Mbps | ~ 8 minutes |
50 Mbps | ~ 15 minutes |
20 Mbps | ~ 36 minutes |
10 Mbps | ~ 1 hr 12 mins |
5 Mbps | ~ 2 hours 24 mins |
**These download times are based on 5 GB of video content and a persistent network connection. Content caching is available on Atmosphere provided devices only. Advertisements are not cached.
Playback Quality
Atmosphere TV videos are encoded at 720p and 1080p resolutions to ensure the highest quality of content being delivered to the customer. In some cases, videos submitted to the company are not of the highest quality and there is some loss.
A video will begin playing at the 720p resolution before the app determines if 1080p can be played without issue on the device's network. If there is enough bandwidth, the device will begin playing the higher quality.
Buffering / Network Connectivity
Dealing with varying network connectivity issues is difficult at best. In order to provide the best playback experience, we have a number of conditions in place to try and mitigate poor playback performance. For more information about Network Requirements, please check out this article