system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How is it that cable lines transmit real-time video for 100s of TV channels without a problem, but it takes hours to download that same amount of video data?

I have a basic understanding of how a television receives a signal and displays its information. I understand how that it so fast. I just don't understand why downloading a video can't happen equally as fast. Is it just a limitation of how fast your computer can write the information to the hard disk?
gpt
Each channel is broadcast over a specific range of frequencies to each and every end point simultaneously. Non-overlapping frequencies can be summed together to produce the entire cable signal. Internet, on the other hand, is not multi-cast this way and requires careful routing and quality of service algorithms to queue up which packets get sent first at each router/switch. Data is sent in packets that are often acknowledged for receipt as well. Your internet "bandwidth" (as in frequency band width, not the misused common term of mbps) is much smaller than the bandwidth for all channels combined. Consider that each end point needs to both transmit and receive on the same wire.