Consumer Survey for Connection Speed & Video Size

[KevinG]

I thought I would share some info that was a little bit interesting. I say a little bit because I already knew the answer, and this just validated it.

It is regarding video size for connection speed and download vs. streaming.

A client of mine has a well-established, very successful membership site.

He has been offering videos in three sizes for low bandwidth, medium and high.

They are also streaming only and cannot be downloaded.

We are planning a re-launch of the site and decided to take 2 surveys of the members.

The results showed that most people have broadband connections, want larger size videos and want to be able to download them.

http://www.cigar-review.com/connection-speed.jpg

http://www.cigar-review.com/video-survey.jpg

[DannyCox]

We offer our videos in various formats, and for WMV, in both a high speed and low speed versions. We are slowly removing all our true streaming videos from the site, and converting them. We found that even people on very low speed connections would rather download the high quality stuff, and just wait for it, than watch the lower quality version.

[Hell Puppy]

Yup, this jives with all of the data I have access to as well.

From a usability standpoint, it makes sense. They want to be able to start a download, go about their business, then come back and enjoy the video at full size on their monitor without it being jerky and pause, fast forward or rewind as they like without all of the hiccups that come with streaming.

I have further observed that if you offer videos in pieces, they will opt to download the larger chunks. Broadband users will very much prefer to download the entire video. Slightly slower connections might go for 1/3 sized chunks, usually favoring the end of the video which is where the most hardcore is. Only the slowest of the slow or premature ejaculators grab the 1 minute versions unless they are just sampling or previewing.