Perform an Internet Connection Speed Test
For this, you can use a free service such as SpeedTest.net to test just how fast your internet connection really is. Ideally, you’ll want your broadband/cable speed to be:
3 Mbps or higher for standard definition (SD) video streaming.5 Mbps or higher to stream high-definition (HD) video (720p+).
Once you’ve done this test, look at the download speed result to see if your connection is fast enough to stream video. If you are getting at least 3 Mbps, hen tweaking Windows Media Player is the next step.
Tweaking Windows Media Player to Optimize Video Streaming Performance
In the following steps, we’ll show you which settings in WMP to adjust to improve playback when watching video streams from websites.
Other Ways to Improve Video Streaming Playback
If you find that video playback still isn’t ideal, then there are further tweaks you can do to try and improve this. These are:
Disable UDP Protocol
Some home routers that use NAT don’t forward UDP packets correctly. This can result in buffer looping, freezing, etc. To combat this, you can disable UDP in Windows Media Player. To do this:
Tweak WMP’s Connection to The Internet
If you are having streaming problems that seem to be related to your Internet connection, then try the following:
