Have trouble playing movies and TV streamed from the web? Here’s the cure for choppy playback and frequent buffering
If you're a big video streamer, the buffering icon is probably about your most hated thing in the universe — especially when it happens frequently and breaks the immersion in whatever you’re watching.
Most commonly, choppy and disrupted video playback is a symptom of a non-optimal network setup. Usually it’s a Wi-Fi problem, a product of outdated or poorly configured networking gear, although sometimes it simply because your playback device doesn’t have the juice to play the video resolution you want it to play. When it comes to internet streaming, it can of course also be your ISP and internet service simply not providing you with enough bandwidth.
The best first step to fixing bad video playback is to find the source of the problem. If you have a PC wired to your router, or a laptop that you can plug into your router via a LAN port, we can first test the internet connection. Use that PC and go to speedtest.net, and run the test. is will give you an idea of the kind of internet bandwidth you have.
For reference, here are the recommended minimum speeds suggested by Netfix for video streaming:
3Mbps — Recommended for SD quality
5Mbps — Recommended for HD quality
25Mbps — Recommended for 4K quality
Does your internet connection clear those hurdles? If not, then your problem is with the ISP. If it does — or if your problem is not internet streaming but streaming from your own media servers — then you likely have a network issue, and it’s time to troubleshoot it.
One by one, you can try these five steps:
FIX YOUR WI FI
If your internet connection is up to snuff, then your streaming issues are almost certainly a WiFi issue. The optimum solution is to have a WiFi network that can deliver the speeds you need consistently — if you can get that, then the other steps below become irrelevant.
First, let’s test it out. Head to a device connected to your Wi-Fi network, preferably in the location that you’ll most likely be streaming to. Now on that device go to speedtest.net and run the test as above. Does it still provide enough bandwidth for streaming? How much lower is it than your internet connection?
Even if the Speedtest result makes it look like you have enough headroom, you may still have Wi-Fi issues. One of the biggest problems with Wi-Fi is that it’s heavily subject to interference and can su er sharp dips in performance, which is where you get buffering and stuttering. It’s inconsistent, and even if, on average, it provides enough speed, it may not do it all the time.
In articles this and this we have tutorials on how to set up your network properly and to fix black spots. We won’t repeat those here, but you should check them out if you want to get the best out of Wi-Fi. A little router repositioning may be all you need, or you might need to set up a second access point (not a range extender, which is a bad idea for streaming) nearer to the place where you’re streaming. You may even need new hardware — your eight year old 802.11g router isn’t going to cut it anymore.
LOWER THE PLAYBACK RESOLUTION
You may not want to live in a world where you can’t stream in 4K, but you might have to.
Most internet streaming services give you resolution options in your settings. YouTube tries to gure out what the best resolution is for your screen size, but it’s bad at it, and o en defaults to 1080p for a maximised video. You can fix that by clicking/tapping on the gear and changing the quality down a peg. Unfortunately, YouTube’s global video playback settings — found in your Google account settings — are awful, giving you only the option of “Auto” and “Low resolution” with nothing in between.
Netfix users can set resolutions on a per-profile basis, so di fferent users on the same account can have different settings.
You can also force bitrates in Net fix while you’re playing a given video. Press ‘Ctrl-Alt- Shi -S’ to bring up Net fix’s override settings, where you can force a video bitrate by clicking on a lower bitrate option.
Hulu, Presto, Stan and other streaming services have similar options. Check them out — for most people, even SD streaming (essentially DVD quality) is pretty good.
SWITCH TO WIRED WHERE POSSIBLE
For streaming video, wired beats wireless every time. Where a Wi-Fi network’s speed graph typically looks like a rollercoaster, wired provides consistent bandwidth — and consistency is everything when streaming video. No performance dips are allowed.
Ethernet is the preferred option, but if running cables is not an option, then powerline adapters can get the job done. Although they may be oficially rated at a slower speed than your Wi-Fi network, in practice they’re likely to be faster and more consistent.
ADJUST BUFFERING SETTINGS
Many media players have options to adjust the bu ffering settings, though you might have to dig deep for them. Increasing the bu er size will make the video slower to start as it loads more upfront, but it will smooth over any short dips in wireless performance.
In Windows Media Player, for example, if you click on ‘Organise > Options’ you’ll bring up the playback options window. Click on the Performance tab and change the Networking Buffering from automatic to, say, 10 seconds (or more). at means that a performance dip of up to 10 seconds will go unnoticed.
ENABLE QOS AND WMM
It may be that your problem is not so much raw performance as the fact you’re competing for internet time with other people in your house. To deal with this, most routers have Quality of Service settings (QoS) that let you prioritise certain types of tra c for transmission over the internet. They also have a thing called Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM), which prioritises certain types of tra c over your Wi-Fi network.
QoS can be very technical to set up, so it’s not really recommended for beginners — though it’s easier to set up on some routers than others, where the router vendor has pre-configured some apps for you and all you have to do is select the ones you want to prioritise. You can check out your router settings yourself to see if you find them logical or terrifying. Just log into your router’s admin interface and look for QoS or media prioritisation settings.
WMM tends to be easier, since it’s o en just an on-o switch in the router settings. You should turn it on — it won’t do any harm, and it might help solve your Wi-Fi bandwidth issues and deliver the kind of smooth streaming you’re looking for.