Good question!
We're not knowingly saturating the upload channel. We don't upload much at all except for Dropbox file syncs, and that rarely involves large files/folders, so that's always completed before we walk away from a computer. More to the point, we usually watch videos together and then the only computer that's active is the one we use as a media player, and that doesn't use Dropbox.

Anyway, wouldn't the router (WGR614) do some traffic management to ensure one device didn't hog all the bandwidth?

I can watch videos online for hours on end no issues with the following ISPs. I use netflix, iplayer, itv player, 4od and occasionally putlocker

Sky Fibre connection: works fine with 3+ people all streaming at once
BT ADSL connection - around 8Mbps sync speed, can stream fine on netflix with 2 of us using it.
TalkTalk - my friend has 4Mbps connection (so quite slow) but always is streaming netflix in the living room on their HDTV. It usually loads in HD as well.

I would say virtually all providers will be fine as long as you're getting 5Mbps or above.

Streaming doesn't need a crazy headline speed just a reliable connection.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Streaming doesn't need a crazy headline speed just a reliable connection.

By reliable people usually mean doesn't disconnect. I think you mean _stable_ connection.

So VM might be great for downloads with top speeds of 150Mbps but the data rate wanders up and down during the download from 5Mbps to 150Mbps to 10Mbps to 80Mbps to 3Mbps etc.

what video needs is stability, even if slower, so a constant stream at 15Mbps that doesn't wander.

This is what the TBB speed tester is trying to show, unlike the others (e.g. speedtest.net).

EXACTLY what I was meaning. You hit the nail on the head.

Netflix has even streamed fine for me for multiple hours on a 1.5Mbps connection. Albeit not the worlds most amazing quality but still worked fine. Was quite blocky but no buffering beyond the original buffer.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

what video needs is stability, even if slower, so a constant stream at 15Mbps that doesn't wander.

Watching a TV station sure, however all my playback streaming media seems to keep filling and draining buffer; data flow is bursty, not constant.

My experience is that streaming media is bursty on a fast connection. E.g. when using a fibre connection it will buffer lots at once, then stop, then lots.

On a slower connection e.g. a 1.5Mbps connection it just constantly buffers and doesn't do the bursting.

So if a connections quick enough you observe the bursting. OTHERWISE it is just a continual buffering. It doesn't burst at all on slower connections in my experience.

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

Watching a TV station sure, however all my playback streaming media seems to keep filling and draining buffer; data flow is bursty, not constant.

That sounds as if you're watching the output of the codec, which will be bursty, given the way MPEG works, full frame then sets of changes then another full frame, then changes etc.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

Watching a TV station sure, however all my playback streaming media seems to keep filling and draining buffer; data flow is bursty, not constant.

That sounds as if you're watching the output of the codec, which will be bursty, given the way MPEG works, full frame then sets of changes then another full frame, then changes etc.

Am aware of I P and B frames. Was watching throughput on network adaptor.

Different streaming services behave differently is the answer.

Live streaming is more prone to buffering issues or frame skips

Netflix generally scales nicely between what bitrate is possible