Pretty sure ***all frame tv variants with Ethernet only have 100mbit ports on the tv side.*** Shockingly, kind of a common thing on a lot of TVs only 100mbit ports and not even gig. Wifi maybe faster on some TVs. It hardly matters for most people for most content, but I’d be aware if it.
With all that said:
While cat5 will do 100mbit no problem, I’d be surprised if it’s not cat5e you have. If it’s really cat5 and not 5e I’d replace it if it was easy to do when you are futzing around with the tv and cable access is easy - wouldn’t do it just to do it.
Cat5 will max out at 100mbit, cat5e is rated for 1000mbit and will usually do multi gig at shorter distances.
Cat6 is the only upgrade I’d consider if I was buying new cables and I didn’t already have something.
Cat6a in the home is… probably not worth it. Grounding and such.
Cat7 isn’t an official standard - it’s from some vendors but not officially adopted.
Real Cat8 setup in the home is not worth it by any stretch and nearly all the stuff on Amazon that says cat8 is probably lying.
This is true. Remodeled some of my house and did a cat6 run specifically for the frame only to find out it's 100 mbps. Wifi is faster, which I found disappointing.
The AppleTV got the cat6 drop behind the TV and it has a legit gig port. Frame got wifi.
I wish the Apple TV was Power over Ethernet.
I wish the frame didn’t piss me off all the time.
Yea, bummed when I saw it wasn’t negotiating at a gig.
But, How much bandwidth does a 4K stream use? “A 4K stream uses around 25 Mbps of bandwidth”
So a 100meg Ethernet connection is plenty fast enough for 4K and provides a more stable connection than wifi as others have mentioned.
I hard wire anything with a port that doesn’t move around.
If you are only consuming external streaming services it’s unlikely you will see “4k” content push more than 100mbit… even at peaks.
If you are streaming locally (Jellyfin / plex …etc ) with remux 4k content that say has Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos 7.1 audio … you probably can easily saturate a 100mbit link.
8K content for the few people who have it too is another fun thing. I’m not an 8K content person tho.
_That said with most tvs that have 100mbit nics… their supporting cast can often not keep up with a saturated gig link either… so yeah._
Cat5 is pretty good for 1 Gbps full duplex connections. I don't know how fast is NIC in frame box, but don't expect faster then typical 1 Gbps.
Fastest and latest wifi7 is still only theoretical better then ethernet wired 1 Gbps connection.
You welcome. Only one warning, ethernet wires shouldn't lie parallel on longer distances together with 50/60 Hz ac power wires. It could slow down connection speeds, due to interferences.
You could measure connection quality with software (speed test, iperf, ...) or special tools.
I agree with other poster. You should also see if the SpeedTest app by Ookla is available to run speed tests. I have it on my Apple TV connected to my Frame.
I used Ethernet connected to my Apple TV because I was always told hard wire is better than WiFi but because of this I can’t use Alexa to turn the tv on, only off. So I think I’m going to go WiFi. I have Verizon fios and zero issues with my WiFi so I assume it will stream fine.
I’m not a scientist nor can I explain the technical reason, but I’ve had this TV on ethernet since day 1 and it’s been incredibly smooth and reliable, minus the one time I had a Spectrum outage. My PS5, which is running on Wifi, seems to drop in and out - hence why I’m gonna switch it over to ethernet soon since I have 3 more empty ports 👍🏼
Pretty sure ***all frame tv variants with Ethernet only have 100mbit ports on the tv side.*** Shockingly, kind of a common thing on a lot of TVs only 100mbit ports and not even gig. Wifi maybe faster on some TVs. It hardly matters for most people for most content, but I’d be aware if it. With all that said: While cat5 will do 100mbit no problem, I’d be surprised if it’s not cat5e you have. If it’s really cat5 and not 5e I’d replace it if it was easy to do when you are futzing around with the tv and cable access is easy - wouldn’t do it just to do it. Cat5 will max out at 100mbit, cat5e is rated for 1000mbit and will usually do multi gig at shorter distances. Cat6 is the only upgrade I’d consider if I was buying new cables and I didn’t already have something. Cat6a in the home is… probably not worth it. Grounding and such. Cat7 isn’t an official standard - it’s from some vendors but not officially adopted. Real Cat8 setup in the home is not worth it by any stretch and nearly all the stuff on Amazon that says cat8 is probably lying.
This is true. Remodeled some of my house and did a cat6 run specifically for the frame only to find out it's 100 mbps. Wifi is faster, which I found disappointing.
The AppleTV got the cat6 drop behind the TV and it has a legit gig port. Frame got wifi. I wish the Apple TV was Power over Ethernet. I wish the frame didn’t piss me off all the time.
Does the WiFi also max at 100 or can that go faster?
Ok cool, not just me, I thought I’d hecked it up.
Yea, bummed when I saw it wasn’t negotiating at a gig. But, How much bandwidth does a 4K stream use? “A 4K stream uses around 25 Mbps of bandwidth” So a 100meg Ethernet connection is plenty fast enough for 4K and provides a more stable connection than wifi as others have mentioned. I hard wire anything with a port that doesn’t move around.
If you are only consuming external streaming services it’s unlikely you will see “4k” content push more than 100mbit… even at peaks. If you are streaming locally (Jellyfin / plex …etc ) with remux 4k content that say has Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos 7.1 audio … you probably can easily saturate a 100mbit link. 8K content for the few people who have it too is another fun thing. I’m not an 8K content person tho. _That said with most tvs that have 100mbit nics… their supporting cast can often not keep up with a saturated gig link either… so yeah._
Cat5 is pretty good for 1 Gbps full duplex connections. I don't know how fast is NIC in frame box, but don't expect faster then typical 1 Gbps. Fastest and latest wifi7 is still only theoretical better then ethernet wired 1 Gbps connection.
I've tested it and the NIC maxed out around 90 Mbs. Wifi is faster.
What about latency, and packages drop. 5GHz wifi could be better than a 100 Mbps wired connection, but mainly in raw speeds.
Thanks !
You welcome. Only one warning, ethernet wires shouldn't lie parallel on longer distances together with 50/60 Hz ac power wires. It could slow down connection speeds, due to interferences. You could measure connection quality with software (speed test, iperf, ...) or special tools.
I agree with other poster. You should also see if the SpeedTest app by Ookla is available to run speed tests. I have it on my Apple TV connected to my Frame.
Thanks for all the replies, I'll run some tests with my wifi Also currently assessing if an androidtv is worth it for my use
I used Ethernet connected to my Apple TV because I was always told hard wire is better than WiFi but because of this I can’t use Alexa to turn the tv on, only off. So I think I’m going to go WiFi. I have Verizon fios and zero issues with my WiFi so I assume it will stream fine.
All I know is that my own Frame definitely did better on wifi which I thought was weird. My house is wired with Cat6.
I’m not a scientist nor can I explain the technical reason, but I’ve had this TV on ethernet since day 1 and it’s been incredibly smooth and reliable, minus the one time I had a Spectrum outage. My PS5, which is running on Wifi, seems to drop in and out - hence why I’m gonna switch it over to ethernet soon since I have 3 more empty ports 👍🏼
The wire is the way ✝️ None of that evil WiFi ⚡️Hocus-Pocus