Video Streaming Quality

We offer our video at two streaming rates:

• Standard: video is streamed at 400 kilobits per second
• Large screen: video is streamed at 800 kilobits per second.

How do I select my preferred streaming quality?

The default playback will always display the standard 400kbps (400X300 pixels) version. You can click the 'larger' link at the top right hand corner of the player window to start streaming the 800kbps (700X522 pixels) version.

More Information

For more information on streaming rates and broadband connections please consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_rate and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_Internet or talk to your technical department. To test your internet connection's bandwidth, please consult the CNET bandwidth test.

Listening/Viewing Online

The video player is embedded in the browser window, and loads when you click any Play icon on the service. It enables you to manage your video experience, and contains the following controls:

• Basic player controls i.e. play, pause, stop, skip forward and backward
• Time counter
• Volume control
• Clip creation controls i.e. slider bars
• Slider to show where you are in the video

There are also 2 display windows that appear next to the video player -- the first displays all relevant metadata about the production, including video details, production and cast credits, and links to static URLs and links to embed the video in a browser page. The second display window below the first shows all relevant scenes and clips associated with the production, along with icons to play or add to your playlist.

Technical Requirements

In order to stream video on this service, your computer must be compatible with our minimum specifications. Please read our compatibility help files for more information.

Streaming playlists, individual clips and whole videos This is the play icon:

• To play any video on our service, simply click on the play icon which you will find associated with all productions.
• To play a scene or clip, click the play icon that appears next to the associated scene within the production you want to view.
• To play any playlist on our service, whether it is one that we have programmed for you or one that you have created yourself, simply click on the play icon on the right hand side of the playlist title.
• Clicking on a play icon or link will open the player in a refreshed page, and your chosen video will automatically begin loading and playing. There may be slight buffering at the beginning of the video, depending on your bandwidth, but the video should play almost instantaneously.

Encoding and quality

Video playback requires your computer to 'stream' the video files. This is where a file is sent from our servers to your computer bit-by-bit.. The file is temporary, meaning that you are not downloading a copy to keep. In order to achieve this, we encode 2 versions of each video at separate bit-rates. The 'bit-rate' is the amount of data we send to your computer each second. The higher the bit-rate, the higher the quality, and the greater bandwidth is required.

The standard video display is 400X300 pixels, at 400kbps. Clicking on the 'larger' link at the top right hand corner of the video display will open the large screen view, which is 700X522 pixels, at 800kbps. These are our 2 video display formats. Please note your bandwidth limitations in deciding to view either the standard or large screen formats.