Ethernet cable

[Super+Anthony]

What's the best one to buy for stream. CAT 6 or 8?

[GD1]

@Super+Anthony  Both are overkill as the pucks only have 100mbps ethernet ports.

Cat 5 will be sufficient.

[lettice]

You will be fine with a cat 5e cable and above for Sky Stream.

But, would recommend now going for at least a cat 6, Sky Stream cannot make full use of its full speed potential yet, but it does offer much improved crosstalk and noise interference in our busy households.

On Amazon and other places, I have bought cables from Ultra Clarity cables (like  connecting my ONT to router over a many feet run) and also if you prefer the flat type for runs behind your equipment and skirting runs, try those or the normal round cables form Kenable.

I have one Sky Stream box connected with a kenable cat 6 flat cable and had no issues.

My main Sky Stream box is connected via wifi, also with no issues.

[Super+Anthony]

Thank you. Brought  6 one

 

[Super+Anthony]

Update from last post. I was just told by a tech individual from a shop that a CAT 8 will still work and won't make it worse and is compatible. He also mentioned if anything, will make it run better

[rg99]

Cat 8 is designed to work with devices at both ends that have screened sockets. The Puck doesn't and most routers don't, so it's no better than Cat 6.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Super+Anthony wrote:

He also mentioned if anything, will make it run better

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Almost certainly not, but his profit would be improved by the cost difference...

Cat8 is server-room technology for switch-to-switch patching on 10GbE ports and entirely unnecessary for domestic cable runs.

[Super+Anthony]

Looking at Amazon, there is not much price difference between the two though, but thank you @TimmyBGood 

Going to try the CAT 6 one though as suggested 

[rscott]

Personally, I'd get a cat 5e cable for under £2, rather than spend £6 on cat 6.

Cat 6 makes sense if everything is gigabit, especially on longer runs or if it's an electrically noisy environment, but for domestic use, it's usually overkill.

I have several managed network switches within my home network and none report noticeable error levels with cat 5e. 

[Super+Anthony]

Thank you @rscott

i had already brought the 6 though, but never mind. Compared to the 8, i haven't noticed much difference. In fact the 8 had better picture it looked like

[Padam_Padam]

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@Super+Anthony wrote:

Thank you @rscott

i had already brought the 6 though, but never mind. Compared to the 8, i haven't noticed much difference. In fact the 8 had better picture it looked like

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The category of ethernet cable will have zero effect on picture quality. 

[rscott]

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@Padam_Padam wrote:

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@Super+Anthony wrote:

Thank you @rscott

i had already brought the 6 though, but never mind. Compared to the 8, i haven't noticed much difference. In fact the 8 had better picture it looked like

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The category of ethernet cable will have zero effect on picture quality. 

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Ssh. Don't tell the people paying £500 for an "audio grade" network switch 😀https://www.kjwestone.co.uk/product/chord-co-english-electric-8switch/

That's the entry level product - the really gullible can spend £2k on them. 

[Padam_Padam]

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@rscott wrote:

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@Padam_Padam wrote:

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@Super+Anthony wrote:

Thank you @rscott

i had already brought the 6 though, but never mind. Compared to the 8, i haven't noticed much difference. In fact the 8 had better picture it looked like

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The category of ethernet cable will have zero effect on picture quality. 

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Ssh. Don't tell the people paying £500 for an "audio grade" network switch 😀https://www.kjwestone.co.uk/product/chord-co-english-electric-8switch/

That's the entry level product - the really gullible can spend £2k on them. 

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Hilarious. Reminds me of those 'experts' in Currys who try and force incredible gold plated HDMI cables costing upwards of £80 on unsuspecting customers, claiming it'll improve their picture/sound quality. 

[Super+Anthony]

Maybe it's just being neurodivergent which makes me think that!!

 What exactly are the differences? @Padam_Padam 

[Padam_Padam]

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@Super+Anthony wrote:

Maybe it's just being neurodivergent which makes me think that!!

 What exactly are the differences? @Padam_Padam 

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It's easier for the mind to play tricks like that. When you buy something you're told is better, you want to believe it... 😁

This will explain the basics:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/different-types-of-ethernet-cables-explained/ 

All a Sky Stream puck cares about is receiving a stable broadband signal. As long as it gets 35Mbps or above consistently then it's happy.

I used a very cheap cat 5e cable on my Puck for a year and it was totally stable. Never had buffering or anything caused by a network issue. The issues I had were all hardware/software or server based. All the image processing is done on an entirely separate chip, completely unnaffected by the network.