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Full Version: strict bandwidth limits?
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Hey everybody, sorry if this is not the appropriate place to post this but having searched the forums I am getting the impression bandwidth usage seems to take a backseat to video quality. So I am wondering if i have missed something in setting to keep bandwidth usage for video playback to its absolute minimum.

Before Kodi, on average i watched 30-40gb per month in video streaming.. now with kodi watching give or take the same amount I have had to increase my download limit to 50/mth and I still exceed it... thats a lot of extra $$!

I have set 3rd party addons to 480p, and usually see the sd in media info or 2.0 but sometimes i do see 5.0 and checking my network activity it is clear that it is streaming video at much higher quality.

What settings if any are available for for strict bandwidth limits?

Thanks for any help!
You can limit your bandwidth in Kodi settings>system>internet access>Internet connection bandwidth limitation. Not sure what area you are coming from, but in most major centres there is some competition for services. Typical costs are telephone rates for broadband speed and some usage caps, but in general 100 gigs to 500 gigs is common and unlimited ~20% surcharge. As IPTV becomes more prevalent, it's likely that usage caps will eventually be absorbed by content providers.
Thanks PatK, no competition where i am living and though connection bandwidth limiting is an option it doesnt address the issue that Kodi doesn't seem to be geared to limit the video streaming bandwidth usage properly. There is no reason my bandwidth usage should have increased watching the same content(putlocker, gorillavid..)

There are a lot of people who are still paying huge rates in Canada and bandwidth consumption is important.
I personally pay $60/mth for 50gb and $1.95 per gb over that.. only very recently has my ISP offered unlimited for $99/mth
Kodi isn't designed for that kind of source.

Perhaps you should read the forum rules (wiki) on piracy and banned addons (wiki).
my apologies, I haven't spent an entire month on only Kodi addons alone so it is hard to tell but if you are saying this will make a difference I will give it a try. Thanks!
Setting a bandwidth limit will only affect variable bitrate sources. If you're streaming from a static file, ie .mp4 .mkv, etc, the file is always the same size and will always use the same amount of bandwidth, regardless of any limit you may attempt to impose.
Thank you MetalChris! This is where it is important to me (and i image others) to be given the choice to continue to watch or not as the media info does give a vague idea with sd, 2.0, 5.0.. but unless you are vigilant it's easy to miss... Since it has not been an issue on this forum I guess for most it isn't that big an issue.. thanks for clarifying!