Streaming videos are now the future, not only for PCs but also for televisions where companies like Youtube and Netflix (soon in Italy) distribute films and videos for free or with subscriptions at much more advantageous prices than TVs with Sky-type decoders . The only problem is that in Italy, due to the fault of the political class and local administrations, the people who have an internet connection that allows you to watch high quality videos are much less than half of the total population. In any case, streaming, from movie and TV sites to live video sites, is now growing steadily and if in the USA it already has more viewers than traditional TV, it means that things will change sooner too. The strength of streaming via the internet is in the possibility of being able to watch videos from PC, TV, mobile phone, tablet or any other device without having decoders or antennas.
The weak point of video streaming is instead in the same internet connection which can be disturbed or slow. In this article we therefore see how to improve the streaming of videos on your PC or other devices to the maximum, to better see Youtube and other video and film sites, to make them load faster and without interruptions .
READ ALSO: If Streaming loads slow or in low quality in Netflix or other movie services, how to solve
1) If you see a video, stop everything else
This is a trivial and basic advice: if you want to see a high quality video on the internet, better stop any other application that can use the network band, then stop any sharing software, torrent client, download other files or even chat and file transfer programs. Also disconnect all other internet-connected devices to concentrate all traffic on the video.
2) Delete Internet cache and temporary files or use another browser
On PC, it is always advisable to open streaming videos, including Youtube videos, with a clean browser. Practically either you always clear the cache of your browser or use another one. For example, if you use Chrome as your primary browser, you can dedicate a Firefox installation, without extensions, only to videos, or you can use another Chrome or Firefox user if you don't want to switch browsers.
3) Optimize the wifi
If you use a Wi-Fi connection to solve any buffering problem, it is important to follow all the recommendations described to improve / increase the speed of the Wifi.
In particular, it is advisable to avoid interference on Wifi and switch the transmission on a different channel, ideally one on the 5 GHz band. To transmit on this frequency, it will be necessary to change the router, especially if you live in a very populous area.
4) Try to give up WiFi to use an Ethernet connection
Although the WiFi is more logistically efficient, an ethernet cable makes the connection more stable in any case. Connecting to the router via ethernet cable improves data transmission and video quality. Obviously this only applies to computers because cell phones and tablets do not have an Ethernet socket.
5) Turn off hardware acceleration in the settings
Hardware acceleration is commonly associated with 3D graphics, but it makes streaming videos suffer a lot and can be stuttering or jerky.
This is especially true for Flash videos (those of Youtube today are not in flash but in html5), where it is always advisable to disable the hardware acceleration of the Flash Player.
In this regard, I refer to the complete article on how to disable hardware acceleration on Windows to optimize video streaming.
6) Force uploading videos
You can have streaming video sites like Youtube upload the video without waiting for the user to start watching it.
In this regard, we talked about how to upload Youtube videos without interruption by speeding up buffering through the Smartvideo extension.
READ ALSO: Solve problems with online videos
7) Video streaming from TV
To watch streaming video on TV you can connect your PC via Chromecast or via HDMI cable. Obviously the HDMI cable is better, but certainly less practical if the PC is in another room or if it is not right next to the TV.
Ideally you should buy a La Fire TV Stick, to be used for streaming movies on TV.
Unless you have an Android TV, it would be best to leave the apps inside the Smart TV aside, too limited and often having few options to optimize streaming.
READ ALSO: Sites for online rental of movies to watch in streaming
