Does it make a difference to use cable for streaming?

[azbytes]

Should I go wired or wireless for my Roku unit?

I guess my second question is; Will I get a better quality picture when I stream Netflix, if I use cat6 cable?

My TV says the input is 720(from Netflix) in the current "wireless" setup.

Will the picture be any better with a cable connection?

So far I get only an occasional message (in the middle of a program), saying "video is loading". Does wireless compress or degrade the video from the internet? Thanks for any info!

 

[robertnewton]

As far as I know, your primary problem between wireless and Cat6 would be speed/reliability. Cat6 obviously being the much faster more reliable option. In some cases when a hiccup occurs or when the streaming is requiring too much bandwidth, applications such as Netflix will bump the video quality down to a much worse picture automatically. This of course is because a lower quality picture is easier to load. This can happen with wired or wireless, just much less often with wired. Overall, most wireless connections, depending on the router and your service provider, are very reliable and typically you won't run into any problems.

 

[azbytes]

Thanks robertnewton! Good info!

 

[Hawkeye22]

If the roku gets good signal from wifi, then it's fine, otherwise switch to wired. Also, cat5 is good for 10/100Mb connections, cat6 is best for gigabit ethernet.

As for your 720 resolution, the movie will only play at the resolution it was recorded at. Also, if your tv's native resolution is 720, then it won't be able to display movies at higher resolutions anyhow. It will show them at 720.

 

[azbytes]

Best answer selected by azbytes.