Seeking Advice: How Does Our Video Play?

While I’ve been out cavorting with Green Jays, the web developers and multimedia team back at the Lab have been hard at work. They’ve created a stirring video about what it means to be a member of the Lab, just in time for birdy Web surfers to send gift memberships to their families.

There’s just one catch: the video is large and pretty. We’re concerned that posting it at high (i.e., most beautiful) quality might tax some of the older computers out there. As Alex puts it, we need to decide how much data compression to use – with more compression meaning faster loading, but grainier pictures.

So we thought we’d ask you. Round Robin readers have been so helpful in the past with comments and ideas that we’re turning to you again. If you can spare three minutes, could you please watch two versions of this video, then take the quick polls below to let us know how they played?

First off, watch this version:

(This poll is now closed.)

Now, watch this version. It’s the same video and same size, but it plays at a different quality. How does it look?

(This poll is now closed.)

Please leave any other thoughts in the Comments section below.

Cross our hearts – this is not some crafty ploy to get you to watch our membership video (though you are welcome to join if you’re not already a member). I would like to thank all our readers for following along with Round Robin and for adding your own voices and suggestions to help us improve.

In case readers wonder about our focus on membership: We’re a nonprofit organization that gets little financial support from Cornell University. Instead, we rely on memberships, donations, and research grants. So while we’re hard at work on research, conservation, and improving our web resources, it’s also vital for us to put effort into membership. Thanks for helping.