7 Tips for watching videos online

Our New Year resolution: to watch video clips online with better resolution. Watching an image that freezes and jerks can be infuriating. If you are also looking for a better screening experience, here's a list of tips we've put together - does not include "one rule for a flat tummy" or "a mother's tip to whiter teeth", promised!

Is this what watching videos online feels like to you?

1. Try using a different browser

Firefox might be a good browser for certain activities but it is not ideal for watching clips. It is programmed to save tabs every few minutes and that interferes with the streaming of clips. A good browser for playing clips is google chrome.

http://www.google.com/chrome/index.html?hl=en&brand=CHMA&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-bk&utm_medium=ha

2. Mobile phones a different case
With many mobile phones youtube video need to be accessed through m.youtube.com. The Android, iPhone and PalmPre come with a built in Youtube application. But watching youtube videos on a mobile phone is an experience which will need improving in the future. At this stage some mobile phones don't play youtube videos and some youtube videos don't play on mobile phones! Better stick to a computer if a decent resolution and flow is desired.

3. Let the clip buffer

If your connection to the Internet is fairly slow (dial up, dsl) and/or the clip is large, let the clip buffer before you play it. Particularly valid for fullscreen video clips.

4. Choose a lower resolution clip

Some clips are uploaded to the Internet in various resolutions. If your connection is slow, choose a lower resolution clip.

5. Make sure you have the latest version of Flash

It's important to have the latest version of Flash as most video clips use Flash encoding: Flash 10. (If you are using a PowerPC Mac, you might need to use version 9.) Check on your computer which version of the software you have. If it is not the latest, here's the link for downloading:

http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html#fp10

6. Youtube offers special features
If you have a slow connection or are using a computer which can not handle the latest Flash, go to youtube.com/feather_beta. You will be ask to choose this feature. Your screening experience will improve, while some of youtube's features will not be accessible such as leaving comments. You can go to youtube.com/XL to see the videos in full screen, if you have that capacity. 

7. Close all other windows/tabs and programs

Your email application will be checking for emails on a regular basis, using part of the bandwidth if it is downloading a large file. Other browser windows might be playing animated advertisements which will interfere. And shutting down your other applications will allow more memory to be available to player. Again, particularly valid if your connection is on the slow side.

If you are still having problems, shoot us an email!

arabella@tribepictures.com

Below is an exclusive interview with our wiz Michael Millspaugh which gives you some insight as to why we have issues watching videos and what the future holds for us:

"Michael, what's the word on improving Flash performance?"

"Well, there's hope on the horizon. Flash video (which is 90% of video on the web, inc youtube, hulu, et al) is right now dependant on the CPU to run. That is, every frame is written and decoded by the main processor in the computer, which is great for doing one long line of things quickly, but is terrible at doing multiple things at once (even multi-cores can really only efficiently do the # of cores they have). GPUs (Graphical Processing Units, as opposed to Central Processing Units) are processors as well, however instead of being optimized for doing one long task, they’re optimized for doing thousands upon thousands of small calculations simultaneously. This is great for working with video (both playback and compressing) because each frame/audio clip can be processed at the same time as another, preventing/drastically reducing stutter. GPUs are more commonly called “graphics cards” - they’re essential for video gaming on the computer, and they’re common in high-end computers. Lower-end computers tend to not have distinct GPUs, and instead block off some of the computer’s CPU and memory for “video processes”. This is a poor solution, and makes watching anything approaching HD video on them difficult."

"So what's the next tech improvement in store for us?"

"The upcoming release of Flash unlocks the GPU’s ability to play Flash video – essentially, a huge huge performance boost for online video (SD, HD) for anyone who has a distinct GPU.

The race in computing right now is to develop a processor/processor pair that can do both long-single-task-strings and short-multiple-tasks just as efficiently. Both nVidia and Intel (the two largest chipmakers) are working on solutions, and it should be the new thing by the end of 2010."

"Thanks, Michael!"