Fast streaming fixes
Ditch those buffering blues with these top tips
We’ve looked at a number of ways you can improve your network and Wi-Fi performance, from switching bands and channels to buying an entirely new router. However, most video and music streaming services also have their own apps that will allow you to adjust various settings in order to improve performance.
Services such as Netflix and Apple TV+ all offer different levels of video quality for watching films and TV. In fact, Netflix and others charge extra for 4K video, so you can save money and improve performance at the same time, simply by sticking with perfectly respectable 1080p HD video.
Unfortunately, the apps for all these streaming services tend to do things differently, so it can take a little while to locate the various quality settings and controls. Netflix is fairly straightforward as it puts its quality settings within one of its main on-screen menus. In Amazon Prime, you have to go to My Stuff, then click the gear icon in the top-right corner, and then tap on Streaming & Downloading before you can see these settings. And, of course, Apple does things its own way with the Apple TV+ service. On iOS devices, the video quality settings are inside Settings > TV, but on the Mac those settings are inside the TV app’s Preferences > Playback tab.
Download then stream
Another thing to remember is that most video services will enable you to download films and even complete TV series before watching them. This is really useful if your broadband struggles with streaming HD or 4K video, as the entire video file is physically stored on your devices, which means that you don’t have to worry about streaming glitches in the middle of a high-speed car chase. Another option is to download a film or TV show on to a device, such an iPad or a MacBook, and then stream them to a larger TV screen via an Apple TV box. The Apple TV can stream video on its own of course, and if you use its Ethernet port for your network connection then that will be more reliable than Wi-Fi too. If you don’t have an Apple TV, you can go offline and use a physical adaptor such as Apple’s Digital AV Adapter for your TV, which is available with either a USB-C (for £75) or Lightning connector (£49).
And while music and audio streaming aren’t as demanding as video, music services like Tidal and Spotify also offer different levels of streaming quality. Tidal offers a modern high-res audio format for streaming music (are you listening Apple?), but that requires around 5Mbps, like high-def video, so it’s worth checking the settings for any music streaming services that you use too.