Watching an oline show

[effyl01]

Hi,
Lets say I watch an online show.
The show is 40 minutes long for an episode.
my download speed is such that I download 1 minute every 2 minutes.


when will it be best to start watching the show, so I will invest the shortest amount of time for the whole process?

Effy.

 

[daon2]

After x minutes, you have buffered x/2 minutes. If you begin playing here, while it plays for these x/2 minutes, you will have buffered an additional (x/2)/2=x/4 minutes of video. While it plays for these next x/4 minutes you will have buffered an additional x/8, etc.

To minimize your buffer time you would want that x/2 + x/4 + x/8 + ... = 40.

Now, factoring out this x and forming and evaluating an appropriate geometric series, you can solve for x.

 

[effyl01]

Thank you for the answer

Thanks