This has to do with the quality of your connection. Faster connections will have the highest video quality (about 80 kbps). Since internet traffic varies over time our server is smart enough to sense that and rather than stopping the video altogether, it sends the file at a reduce quality. This will clear up automatically when the connection improves. If the file is always blurry at exactly the same time location in the video every time, then please let us know the details.
Depending on what lesson you are watching, if you have a good phone/ modem connection (40 kbps or better) the quality is fine. If you are experiencing problems you may want to disconnect and reconnect to the internet a few times until you get a faster connection. Early mornings and late evenings are the best as more better quality phone connections are available because their are fewer phone customers on your local phone system. This is not a problem with our site, but a limitation of high quality phone connections in your area. Your phone company will connect you using it's best lines first, so if you get a bad one then you may be able to try again as another better connection may come available.
Also make sure that you aren't downloading anything in the background that is competing for the limited bandwidth. You may not be aware that your virus protection system or Microsoft, etc. may be downloading updates without you knowing it.
Real Player version 10 has a new feature that MAY help some. You will need to make sure that the following is checked. Once the video window comes up, you will see a it start to buffer by looking at the timeline bar. We suggest that you let the buffer fill up for a while before clicking on the Real Player Play icon.
One way to verify if the poor quality is your connection or ours is that while a video is playing, go to Real Player's TOOLS, PLAYBACK STATISTICS, BANDWIDTH tab. Let this run awhile. "Encoded at" should be above 20 and "Current" should be above or near "Encoded". Encoded is basically what the video was recorded at (we typically record each video at 4 values), and Current is what your connection is allowing us to send. You will notice that encoded will vary as your connection improves or degrades as our server will try to send you the best quality your connection will allow. The best quality is 80 kbps. If the current numbers are consistently above the encoded then that may be a problem on our side and please let us know exactly what lesson you are watching.
You may also want to download the most current version of Real Player.