MOST PEOPLE WILL NOT WAIT for online media to load for more than about 15 seconds (Upsdell, 2000). Online movies can take much longer than that to load. The average transfer rate for most of us is about seven Kbps (Stauffer, 1998). At this low bandwidth it can take 30 seconds to load a well-optimized, 20-second sound file. Tally up load times for the remaining movie elements and download time can go beyond what most will tolerate. This article offers three management strategies for presenting online movies that will help reduce "snooze time " during low bandwidth downloads.

Complete Download

Have all movie elements load before the movie starts playing. Give people a reason to wait and tell them what to expect. If you have created a product they want, they will wait.

A complete preload (without streaming) is an excellent way to insure smoother playback. Look for user information, maximum wait time at low bandwidths and smooth playback in the example.

This movie takes longer to play than to load.

If streaming technology is used on a movie that takes longer to load than to play, the result can be playback that is erratic or is missing elements altogether. The key to successful streaming is effective sequence management of media elements. Look for erratic playback and complete loss of visuals at low bandwidths in the example. 

Tactical content management

When downloading time gets too great, it is probably time to think about streaming. The object of streaming technology is to continually load the movie while it is playing. Controlling streaming movies can be accomplished in a variety of ways.

Present larger element files towards the end of the movie. This can give larger files a chance to load while users digest material in more idle screens. Presenting textual information before music or video helps do this.

Loading elements in the order they are to be played and deleting unused ones will also increase performance. Look for minimal wait time and smoother playback in the sample.

Front-end diversion

Use an amusing or informative, lo-bandwidth animation to hold the user's attention while your movie loads. The diversion might last the entire preload or provide a well-engineered movie just the right head start it needs to play smoothly to the end. As with all strategies involving the management of streaming media, the more you experiment, the more satisfied you will be with your solution.

More information on this topic, see the EET article on Streaming Video.

Mark Pope
Graduate Student
SDSU Educational Technology