Originally Posted by Ron Bennett

Mid: h.264 mp4 1280x720 2.5Mbps (720p) ... this is very good resolution and yet within the bandwidth capability of most high-speed internet users. Going above that is pushing it.

Also, consider that many video cards will have trouble above that - and furthermore, 1280 is about as high of horizontal resolution as most screens go.

Lo: h.264 mp4 720x480 1.5Mbps (480p) ... DVD quality - and good enough for many people. Heck, if the lighting and encoding is done well, many will think it's even higher res than it really is.

With all that said, encode the videos at all the rates you mentioned and also use adaptive streaming - make it automatic by default, but give users the ability to over-ride and manually select a resolution (default / recommend "Lo" 720x480p for users who feel the need to manually select)...

Hulu does it right - they will auto-detect, but also allow users to over-ride, especially important for many people with good bandwidth, but older video cards. CBS media player only does auto-detect with no override and hence playback suffers for many. YouTube's method of overriding one's selection is even worse; there's work-arounds, but still it's bad implementation.

In short, do both - auto-detect with manual override that's "remembered" - don't make the user keep having to fiddle around with it.

Ron