[nanijoe]

The question may have been better phrased as "How unreliable is the internet" . TCP and UDP packets will be dropped at just about the same rate across any network, the only difference is that TCP keeps track, and re-sends any packets that did not arrive.

Each protocol has its own place (and uses)...

[JoeAltmaier]

Almost. The Internet does that. But home routers are notoriously buggy. UDP often gets bad treatment there. E.g. your UDP stream may have large gaps when one of the kids upstairs is uploading to facebook - their TCP traffic gets priority over UDP which is often just dropped. This is because you can generate traffic much faster than the router can dump it to your ISP, and the little buffers fill up.

Also there was an ATT home router that dropped every other UDP packet! Really! Its a matter of, if you don't test it, it doesn't work. And home appliances get tested on delivering web pages etc, not UDP streaming.