There are lots of threads at the MovieMaker Forum regarding the setting you might choose to save a movie for surfers to watch on the www. Is there a "correct" setting, does that change if there is action in the movie or we change the size, etc etc??? Well it's probably more to do with what is best for the surfer and you don't KNOW of his/her equipment.

Basically as for the computer itself, a speed of less than say 200 Mhz will mean the computer itself will be a limiting factor, but we are talking here of 1996 type specs so let's assume it is the Internet connection which is the all important "weakest link".

Because the script calls for action please allow me to use some old footage of my favourite game for over 55 years, ie tennis - so read the GREEN only if you too are similarly inflicted

The story here is this was taken at Rochies Racquet Resort, near Sydney Australia in 1990 when I [Dr McEnroe] was 45, but still able to wing it with the younger players seen here. You will remember Ivan Lendal won everything but Wimbo in 1980s because he could not volley and grass requires a good volley. The two kings of volley were McEnroe and Cash at that time and Tony Roche was the king from two decades before, SO Ivan "asked" Tony to coach him. But my hero will always be McEnroe, as he [along with Rosewell] is the true king of genius in tennis.

So Tony built a Resort with the proceeds of the "ask" and the grass court we are playing on is one of three used by Ivan in that furtive bid to stop swinging at his volleys. I was there on a lost weekend of tennis and frollicks with my multi-cultural mates and gals.

I stopped competitive tennis after losing to Roche at 14 so was never in that class but in a real backhanded comment/expose after many beers that nite Tony said, in total frustration with Ivan, "even you Brian are a better volleyer than Ivan"

If Tony watched this clip he would say my first volley was "too uppish" ie 12 inches over the net and not at the feet like my Roche trademark imitation slice return of serve [even though I am right handed]. Hence we hear Bernie say "sorry" to his partner as he should have creamed my volley [as he did so many times when we played back in Singapore] but I recover [after good work from my partner] to put the next volly down the centre - YIPEE !!

P S - Now Tony coaches Federer who does his share of swing volleys as borrowed from the gals, so times change. Guess the answer is those people know when to swing and when not to, but Ivan ONLY swung.

First one is for "dial up speed" of 150 kbps. In fact the movie would probably stop-start [after very long buffering] on dial up [called secondary buffering] but I used 150 to show that this is about "as low as you would want to go" on the Limbo Scale to ensure "watchability". In short if you seriously wanted to allow dial-ups to watch you would forget streaming and simply allow the surfer to download and then watch at "computer speed".

This clip is at 512 kbps which is the quality of "memory stick" or .mpg [at least on my Sony TRV 340E], so it is about 4 times the "quality" of the one above. You might say it is NOT 4 times better "looking" hence I might say that 340 kbps is still my choice of the best tradeoff between quality and "download factors" at the 2006 stage of technology. The main issue is that now you CAN see the fast moving ball better.

Then you might want to simply "double" the size [from 320 x 240 to 640 x 480] which in fact is 2 times 2 = 4 times the pixel area. I tend to use 1,500kbps for this size but unless you have very fast broadband this setting is presently limited to "on my computer" [or CD] viewing. In essence if you divide 1,500 by 4 you will understand that the actual "definition" has not increased over the 512 version, but rather the images are twice as big.

I would finally point out that this capture footage [by firewire] IS still from an analog Sony camcorder circa 1986 so sharpness and color should be even better if the footage was digitally recorded. However the comparisons kbps wise would remain, AND no animals were hurt making the movie. In fact I didn't even ALLOW any animal to be involved in making the movie, so fat chance they might get hurt [politically incorrect comment in there!!]

And here is a VAlbum, saved at 1.5 mbps. Double click for full screen

Now I have added some trimmings - still at 1,500 kbps

And at 760 kbps

My eyes say even at 760 it is very hard to see any degradation at full screen from the 1,500 version, and at 640 x 480 you seem to be wasting your money going past 760 [maybe you might try even less].

Here is a movie saved for "pocket PC" it is saved at 143 kbps [of which 32 is audio], a standard MM save setting