Many users have sent in support tickets and commented on our forums about the various system requirements that ZumoCast needs in order to achieve smooth playback of their videos.  To answer that question you must line up three variables:  CPU/RAM, video source, and bandwidth.

Most off-the-shelf PCs out there today meet the minimum specs necessary for ZumoCast to transcode your video.  Officially we say that a 2GHz Dual-Core machine with 500MB of free RAM is what is needed to transcode videos at a good rate.  The important thing here is to make sure your computer has the processing power to convert your video as it is playing.  The faster of a computer you have, the quicker it is able to do so and stay ahead of the streaming.

One factor that plays a pretty major role in this is your video source.  More and more videos are now being broadcast and recorded in HD (High Definition).  If you are capturing video with your new phone in HD (along with many other devices such as point and shoot cameras), chances are, it is recording at 720p (resolution of 1280x720).  As a comparison, most DVD movies run at 480p (resolution of 720x480), and most Blu-Ray movies will be at 1080p (resolution of 1920x1080).  Setting aside the geek talk, it basically means the higher the number, the higher quality picture you are going to get (more pixels).  However, that does come at a price.  The higher the number also means the file size is much larger and it will take more CPU power to convert it on the fly.

The other factor to consider is your internet bandwidth.  Most internet provider plans give their users a MUCH faster download rate than upload.  In fact, chances are your download speed is around five times faster than your upload.  Remember that since ZumoCast is streaming from your computer, all that matters is how fast your upload speed is.  We recommend a minimum upload connection of 384kbps.  The quicker the connection, the larger the file we can stream to your device, which will mean the higher the quality of video you will get.  Please keep in mind that this only applies when you are streaming your video outside your LAN (via the internet).  Performance within a LAN is great!

Hopefully this clears up some of the questions regarding what is needed to stream video from your computer.  As time goes on and bandwidth and CPUs increase in speed, this process will become quicker and easier.