Web Video Creation and Optimization Forum

It may simply be stalling because you don't have enough CPU to render the video. Have you tried playing it locally?

As for computer C I'm assuming you meant 256kbps?

For the best results you should be encoding from whatever the source is if possible. If for example your original video is from a DV-AVI cam you should edit it and output as DV-AVI, then bring it into your encoder. Using MPEG as a middleman will degrade the final output. Restoration aside the less you do to video the better final product you'll have. Numerous reencodes will result in a poorer final product. If you're using a really good clean source you can use a lower bitrate.

Say for example we have a original video that is DV-AVI and you encode it too 500kbps WMV. If we also encode the original DV-AVI video to a 5000kbps MPEG to achieve the same results as the 500kbps video from this MPEG you may have to use 600kbps because the MPEG is a lower quality source.

That's just an example and those numbers are not to be taken at face value, the point is the better source you have the better result you'll get at lower bitrates. A DV-AVI FYI does not have a GOP, each frmae is individually encoded hence the larger file size of 14GB's an hour.

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As far as th stuttering goes on computer C if the connection is 256kbps and you're encoding at 400kbps(note that probably includes both audio and video) then it would have to buffer about 1/3 the video before it will play smoothly from end to end. The only real solution is a faster connection or lower bitrate if you want people on connections like that to be able view it quickly without stuttering.

How it's buffered is dictated by the player, I don't know exactly how it works for flash. I don't see anything under settings when I right click a youtube video so it must have a default setting. Players like Windows Media Player allow the user to set it to whatever they want, by default it calculates the size of the file and your connection speed to determine how much to buffer before it begins playing so it can play smooth until the end but I've seen similar problems such as you describe on really high bitrate video that is higher than my connection speed..