Watching TV programes instead of downloading...

[spaced]

I have 5gb per month limit on my broadband. So I dont go over by downloading, are there any sites where I can watch, for example, episode sof lost series 3 or other tv programmes and films, without having to download it to my hardrive? Cheers

[rojash]

It makes no difference whether you save the downloaded file or watch it as it comes. The same amount of data comes down the wire and will contribute to your download score.

[vehelpfulguy]

spaced, as rojash says, EVERYTHING you look at on the internet comes down to your PC to be viewed.

Every bit of text, every image, every bit of video and so on.

You have a directory on your PC called Temporary Internet Files that stores all these files that you view.

[spaced]

so if I were to sit on this site for hours and hours, would it contribute to my 5gb DOWNLOAD limit.

Surely not

[spaced]

5GB Usage guideline

5 GB of usage will allow you to access content on the web at a moderate level, for example - up to 1000 music tracks or 6 movies a month, assuming 5MB per song and 750MB per movie.
If you regularly exceed this usage level we will contact you to discuss options". It says nothing about viewing webpages, just downloading files.

[fo3nix]

It means pages too.

The limit is for every single thing you do, as rojash says.

[Llamatron]

A web page is also a file - lots and lots of small text files, pictures, flash animations etc etc.

For your web browser to display anything it must be downloaded first.

For your PC to display streamed video it needs to know what to display. It wont know what to do if nothing gets downloaded.

[spaced]

would you say that 5gb is sufficient?

[alfgbt]

This one catches a lot of people out by them thinking " that should be enough, I dont download that much " The way to look at it is, that when looking at things on the internet , you are not looking at other peoples websites or computers, you are looking at things from other peoples websites that you have downloaded.

[Gromit]

A good quality download of a LOST episode is about 350mb, as you will only get 3 - 4 episodes in a month, your 5gb will be plenty.

[oligopoly]

well, it will only be plenty if the poster only plans on watching that amount of epsiodes. if you start watching more series episodes and films, you will be surprised at how quickly youll approach the limit.

if they contact you as youve gone over the 5gig, tell them you want more or you will leave and go with someone else