How Does Internet Bandwidth Affect Video Streaming Quality?

Imagine water flowing through a pipe to fill your bathtub. Internet bandwidth is the width of that pipe. When more people in your house turn on lights or wash dishes at the same time, less water goes to the tub. Streaming video works like filling a bucket with water from a hose.

Your internet connection has a certain pipe size, measured in megabits per second (Mbps). A larger pipe lets more water flow through quickly. If you have a big TV, it needs a huge bucket because high-quality video is full of details.

If your brother plays a game online while you watch a movie, they both drink from the same main pipe. The video stream asks for most of the water to keep the picture smooth. If there is not enough left over, the TV gets thirsty and shows a spinning wheel called buffering.

You can choose to use more water (high definition) or less (standard definition). High definition looks like a crisp painting with bright colors. Standard definition looks like a drawing that might be slightly blurry. When you pick high definition, your screen asks for more bandwidth. If the pipe is too small, the video stalls until it catches up.