Unfortunately, in South Africa, data can be pricey - meaning that when not on Wi-Fi, it's imperative that you take measures to reduce the amount of data that DStv Now uses.
Thankfully, DStv Now offers its users the opportunity to adjust the quality of the video they're watching.
Setting DStv Now to a lower quality is the smart way to watch more Catch Up and Live TV content while using less data.
How much data different video qualities use
Catch Up offers six quality settings – ranging from "lowest" to "highest" – including an "auto" option that dynamically chooses the highest quality that your connection can handle.
Live TV offers five quality settings – ranging from "low" to "highest", including the same "auto" functionality available in Catch Up.
The below tables show how much data is used by each setting per hour.
Which streaming quality should you use?
When choosing the quality to stream at, you need to consider a few things, such as whether you are on mobile data, or connected to an uncapped Wi-Fi connection.
If you're on an uncapped connection, streaming in a higher quality is worthwhile for a better experience.
However, if you're using mobile data, you need to balance quality with data usage.
The best way to make this decision is to try the different settings, and work out the lowest quality setting at which you find the viewing experience acceptable.
It's crucial to note that if you're looking to save data, you should not use the auto setting. Even if your data is limited, if your connection is good, you will stream on higher quality settings and burn through your data quickly.
This article was published in partnership with Showmax.
