Video quality streaming YouTube is AWFUL!!

[ulrichburke]

Dear Anyone.

So I'm trying to get the hang of streaming with VLC - NOOB user here! And I read up how to stream YouTube by getting the YouTube link, shoving it in Stream via the Media tab (hope that's the right way to say it!) and click PLAY. So I did.

Er - it works technically but the whole picture looks like an awesomely badly pixillated (sp) photograph, as if you'd taken a thumbnail picture from a website and blown it up fullscreen. It's a living join-the-dots puzzle. It's blurred and distorted beyond recognition (almost) yet the YouTube vid. is lovely and sharp and clear.

So OK - there might be some video compression I don't understand going on on YouTube. Is there any way of getting VLC to stream things CLEARLY, or hasn't it gotten that far yet? My goal, if possible, is to use it to stream my own vids. to other people - nothing bad, I'm part of a disability group who likes to video our boring, disabled lives to eachother. But if the quality's THIS bad all the time......!!

If you want screenshots of the problem, just ask. The playback's totally smooth, no jerkiness, it's just more pixillated than a pointillism painting (try saying THAT after the first three pints!)

I'm using XP SP3, by the way. If it's any help, I've got Popcorn video film watcher (which IS legal, honest, if torrents are legal then it has to be legal) and it has the same problem with an occasional movie, but nowhere near as bad. Just around the edges. VLC is godawful all over.

Yours puzzledly

Chris.

[garf]

Hello,

Your computer may not be powerful enough to transcode (change video codec and resolution) the stream.
try to not activate the "transcoding" part of the streaming configuration.

[ulrichburke]

Dear Garf.

Thanks for your very quick response.

Unfortunately you've got a true noob down this end of the Net - what do I turn off where to 'not activate the transcoding part of the streaming configuration'? All I know for sure right now is if you put a link into VLC it streams the media from that link. I SORTA know that transcoding must be like changing file types - like when you change a .WAV to an .MP3 the quality deteriorates - if I'm wrong with this tell me - but I have zero idea where or how to turn it off. Is it something in VLC somewhere or do I have to download codecs or do I have to stream it in a different way?

Please, an idea/list of steps would be hugely appreciated, I mean I know more than the rest of the disability group and I don't understand ANYTHING much!!

Yours a little pathetically,

Chris.