Over the years I’ve been asked by a wide variety of different computer users about video streaming and overall video quality on a computer system.
Websites like YouTube, Flickr, and MetaCafe have taken the online video revolution and turned it upside down the last few years with advances in audio/video technologies and the affordability and availability of high speed Internet connections.
So you are on the Internet watching one of your favorite videos on YouTube, but the video does not play smoothly, seems to skip frames, and sometimes even just sits there and does nothing; why you might ask.
I will go over a few tips and tricks that can either fix the problem, or move you in the right direction to resolving those frustrating video issues.
As you can imagine, there are a number of reasons why this could be happening, but let’s start with your system before exploring other possibilities.
A good quick test is to play a video from either a CD or DVD that you have in your possession or one you have already downloaded onto your system’s hard drive.
If the media plays from your local system with no issue, the problem probably exists outside of your system and other options should be explored, but what if it’s not?
Memory
Ensure your computer has enough memory. If you’re not sure how much you have or you should have, give us a call to have your machine checked over for upgrade options.
Virus/Malware
If your system is infected with a virus or some type of malicious software, it could be consuming valuable resources that your system needs to stream videos.
Try running a scan with your antivirus software and again if you’re not sure we’re here to help with the virus removal.
Internet Speed
If your Internet connection is on the slow side, this could also cause a problem.
Remember when you’re accessing videos from the Internet, the data is transferred across the Internet to your system where it is played, unlike putting a DVD/CD into your disc drive and playing it right from your system. The data is all there and does not need to transferred, compiled, and played.
Congestion
If the video that you are trying to play is out on the Net and there are several hundred thousand other people attempting to stream the same video as you, this can cause the video to be slow.
Although this one isn’t as typical as the others’ it still happens, and the only way to check against this would be to try the video at a later time in the day.
Buffering
Again this applies to the users who are accessing content via the Internet, try pausing the video, and letting the progress bar on the video build up before playing. This is called buffering, which can stop choppy videos from stopping and playing.
These are going to be the top five reasons I’ve come across when diagnosing video quality issues on a computer and via Internet websites.
Remember there are several factors that affect the performance and quality of your video, and many times a combination of factors. But if you keep an eye on these five, your video experience should be a lot less frustrating.