Not catalogs. Every serious operation now quotes a large number, so the figure stopped separating anyone. The live arguments are about whether a stream holds up during a peak-hour live event, how much data a household burns in a month, whether the billing renews behind your back, and whether support answers on the night something breaks. Those are answerable with arithmetic and a test, which is why they replaced the ranking debates. If a page in 2026 still opens with a numbered list of brands and no bitrates, no data math and no refund terms, it was written to place advertising rather than to help you choose.

1. 1Catalog size no longer separates providers
2. 2Peak-hour stability and billing terms do
3. 3Any page without bitrates or refund terms is selling placement

Plan for about 15-25 Mbps sustained per 4K stream and about 5-8 Mbps per 1080p stream, then remember HEVC roughly halves either figure at comparable quality. Sustained is the operative word: a speed test peak of 200 Mbps tells you little if the line dips during evening congestion. Multiply by concurrent streams and add headroom rather than sizing to the exact total, because two 4K streams plus a game console plus video calls is a different load than the calculator suggests. Wired ethernet removes most of the variance in one step and is the cheapest fix available on any device.

1. 1Size on sustained throughput, not peak speed-test numbers
2. 2HEVC needs roughly half the bitrate of H.264
3. 3Ethernet eliminates most variance for a few dollars of cable

Roughly 7 GB per hour at 4K and about 3 GB per hour at 1080p, before HEVC savings. Three hours a night at 4K is around 21 GB, which lands near 630 GB across a month for one viewer, and a household with two heavy watchers can approach or pass a 1 TB cap. That is a real cost in some US markets and it never appears on a ranked list. The practical lever is resolution: dropping the second screen to 1080p roughly halves its share, and HEVC halves it again. Check your cap before you blame a provider for throttled evenings.

1. 1~7 GB per hour at 4K, ~3 GB per hour at 1080p
2. 2Two heavy 4K viewers can approach a 1 TB monthly cap
3. 3Resolution and HEVC are the two levers that actually move data use

Five commitments, all stated before checkout. A payment method that allows a dispute, since crypto-only removes your recourse. A refund window with a stated length, paid back to the original method rather than as credit. Some form of trial, because refusing every trial is a refusal to be tested. Explicit billing terms: whether it renews on its own and whether a card is stored. And published operating figures rather than adjectives. IP4KTV answers those with a $5 24-hour trial, a 7-day money-back window on plans, no auto-renewal, no stored card, 99.99% uptime and activation in about 5 minutes.

1. 1Crypto-only checkout removes your chargeback rights
2. 2Store credit and gift cards are not refunds
3. 3No trial offered means no test allowed