Have you tried 256K 2 pass encoding? I haven't really compared the two but I use 2-pass and the last video I did that way came out very clear -- I think clearer than yours.

Check out Holmes Family Connection

It may be because I downloaded Windows Media 9 and the encoder is better. I don't know but I was pleasantly surprised with the result at 2 pass. If you want the user to be able to play it full screen you definitely need 512K, but I doubt anyone with a 56K modem would bother viewing your videos if you did that.

paul:
your video is much sharper than mine
what is 2 pass encoding and how do i do it?
thnx in advance
sbsbsbsb

Two pass has nothing to do with the loading of the file. It's supposed to encode the file better by analyzing it first, then encoding it more intelligently. You set 2 pass encoding by going into Custom in the wmv template, then click on the video tab and enable two-pass under Quality.

Marquat, if you see this, were you using Netscape? I've noticed that I have problems loading the video under Netscape with a cable modem. No problems with IE. This may have something to do with my not using a WMX file to point to the WMV file. The little reading I've done at the Microsoft site seems to indicate this is necessary. I may have to change it because of that. Also, you've got a good point about providing 56K access in a smaller window. Some of my relatives only have 56K modems. I don't know about downloading yet because I'm being a control freak as far as not letting the user size it to whatever they want, but maybe I should provide the download option.

I think I'll give in and add a Download link below each video I put up. Also I'll have to study up on WMV, WMX, and take into account that some Media players are not the latest, and people's download speeds (in this case my extended family) are not all equal. Still in the learning process.

I don't think it was the server speed. It may have been a bottleneck at the time you tried to view it -- OR -- it may be the way I serve it works great in WM9 and the latest IE, but not in all browsers. As one post said here about ASF, it's a great format to be compatible with older OSs and earlier versions of WMP.

Are you using a slow dial-up?

I'm have broadband and get 1500 MBPS, so at that speed it steams fine with no pauses or stalling and the quality is decent.

I'm at about 800 MBPS and, as I said I have no trouble streaming my video or anyone elses, but I did change it so you can now download it also (oh, I hate giving up the control!! :>)

Also looked further into WMX and ASX as redirector files and I don't for now see any reason to use them, just serve up the WMV and ASF files for viewing or download, and it looks like that's all you need to do. I was dissecting Chienworks site HTML a little and I see he does both. Maybe he'll chime in at some point and explain why to use ASX or WMX.

Billyboy,

Please tell me you meant to say that your speed is 1500KbPS or 1.5MbPS! 1500MBPS would be like having a fiber optic link directly to your modem;)

My day job is in the technical field of the largest broadband provider currently in the nation and we can only dream of the day to offer such speeds;)

Both videos played fine with my DSL (530 down, 230 up). I think Paul's was a bit smoother. (But the women where better in sonicboom's).

As far as web pages, I liked Paul's video that played right in IE, rather than opening WMP in the other. But, that is trivial.

(sonicboom...I think the candles burned your dads hair off??)