Let me start by saying that we, like many others have had to purchase extra data since Viasat elected to stop access to the “data extender.” Viasat’s reasons for doing so, and suggested solutions for reducing streaming resolution to 480p by trying to set this up for each streaming application is unreasonable. Some of those applications require you to set this up each time you stream a movie or watch a Youtube video. It is ridiculous to think that most seniors (we are in our 70’s) and households with children will be able to apply your so called solutions. I believe this is discriminatory in it’s assumptions that all customers have the ability to do as was suggested.
I have spent the greater part of the last two weeks trying to find a way throttle resolution to my smart TV without any luck. Perhaps I should be looking to buy some old TV that isn’t HD or 4K capable?
I truly don’t know why you would discontinue the data extender unless this was a “more profit” move. The facts are that anyone who didn’t want to use it, had the option not to. A lot of customers probably didn’t even know that it was available in the first place, or that it’s been discontinued.
If you have one shred of empathy for everyone out there who is still struggling to pay their bills, put food on their tables and keep up with the rest of the world, you would reinstate the data extender permanently.
I truly understand how frustrating this might feel and we are paying attention to every opinion that our customers are posting here in the forum, and we’re compiling them and sharing them with the responsible personnel so they can consider how our customers feel going forward.
The reason that the VDE was turned off is due to some technical problems it had been causing which were impacting a lot of our customers. We are currently studying all our possibilities and our staff here at the forum is making sure that every opinion posted here is being delivered as feedback.
Sony Bravia -Android
Model #XBR-65X850E
Built-in Chromecast
I understand that some of the Sony Bravia’s do have an option to select 480P resolution. However, I have looked at all the settings and believe this model may not have that option.
I don’t have access to a control panel on this TV. I plan to contact Sony sometime tomorrow and see if they can access my TV remotely. Will update you on the results.
Just an update for Peter. I spoke with a tech at Sony and granted him remote access to my TV. After a short time, I realized that he only had the same suggestions that Viasat has offered about changing resolution per app. There is no “control panel” per se. My next thought was to use an old laptop to feed the Viasat wifi to and use it as a server to throttle the resolution to the TV. I’m old, so please excuse if the terminology is no longer relevant. It sure would be easier if Viasat would reinstate data extender…
Ok fair enough. I don’t think we have yet asked so can we have your consent to look at your usage? I would like to look at the data and see which of the streaming services are still consuming data at a higher rate than you would be with Data Saver. Also, we are looking into various options in response to those wishing for the return of data saver including yourself. I’ll post back here if anything materializes.
You have my approval to look at our usage. Just one night, April 23 (this month) we watched 1 movie (plus the normal amount of Youtube, etc) and our usage was 8.75G.
I looked into your usage and noticed that your biggest source of consumption on April 23 was Amazon Video. Can you please adjust your streaming settings for Prime and see if this helps to decrease your data usage?
You will find a gear icon while watching a movie in your web browser that will allow you to change your video quality:
I really appreciate the help, but I have a Sony Bravia “Android” TV. I have no way to access the built-in Chromecast settings. I even had the Sony tech remotely access my TV trying to find a way to change the resolution and he ended up telling me I evidently have a model that does not allow you access to change the incoming resolution.
I did try and follow the instructions you sent, but do not work for this model TV.
Although I don’t truly understand all of this myself, I believe I am using the video apps within the TV. We do not “cast” from any other device to our TV. The built-in Chromecast communicates directly with our satellite router via wi-fi. We don’t have access to change anything within Chromecast.
Cat, I really appreciate the fact that those of you who are support for the forum are actively working towards a solution.
I had only one issue with the data extender when it was available. I would find that it had been turned off on several occasions.
After the second or third time, I started checking our Viasat account daily or every several days to make sure it was still on.
I estimate that our data usage increased by about 30gb per month.
Several months I had to buy extra data and last month (May) I bought the additional 30gb and still ran out of high speed data about four days before a renewal cycle.
We noticed that your antenna is mispointed. We will request a technician visit, you should receive a call to schedule the visit either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.
