What can your video card help with?

Question

I was woundering if I could install or upgrade a video card. I can't find A instruction manual for my computer. Would A video card help with viewing video on the internet? Would it help with buffering at all? Thanks Don.

Answer

This question was answered on March 14, 2005. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

The system requirements for a good viewing experience are a PIII 500MHz or better Windows multi-media capable machine with a 24bit Video Graphics card, and of course audio speakers. So yes a good video do help in your viewing experience.

No,video cards have nothing to do with video buffering. The "Buffering" message appears when Windows Media Player is waiting for more information to be delivered from the network or Internet. Although buffering is normal, especially if you are receiving a stream over the Internet, you can reduce the possibility that you'll get this message by increasing the size of the network buffer.

To increase the size:

1. In Windows Media Player, on the Tools menu, click Options.

2. Click the Performance tab.

3. Click Buffer <seconds> seconds of content, and then type a number between one and 60.

Author

Posted by Kera of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on March 14, 2005