Embodiments of the present application disclose a video playback method and apparatus, which relate to the field of video communication technologies. The method includes: receiving a data obtaining request for a video to be played back sent by a client; estimating a current data transmission speed according to historical data transmission speeds; selecting a target video frame discarding scheme from preset video frame discarding schemes, according to the current data transmission speed and a theoretical data transmission speed corresponding to a preset video frame discarding scheme, wherein the theoretical data transmission speed is determined according to the multiplied speed for video playback; and performing discard processing on video data of the video to be played back according to the target video frame discarding scheme, and sending to the client the video data that has been subjected to the discard processing, so that the client plays back the video to be played back. The solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application reduces the required network bandwidth for a video playback.