How do I improve streaming video quality

I converted a home movie from my camcorder to wmv using Windows media
Encoder. The converted file is being streamed via a website using Windows
Media
Services. The quality is however not the best. Picture quality is poor
compared to the
original. what parameters do I need to set and what values do I need within
the encoder to
improve video quality bearing in mind that I'd like to have an 'average'
file size that
does not stop and buffer every now and then. I see some sample video files
from Microsoft running for
about a 1.5 mins (1.5MB) which are pretty nice (good high quality images).
The best I have
been able to achieve for the same amount of time is about 30MB. Any help,
suggestions will be
appreciated.

thanks