What bitrate should i encode at

The WMV container requires specialized plugins and is generally only supported by Microsoft products such the Zune, or Silverlight. The AVI container is not meant for web distribution, as it is targeted at desktop players it is also not supported for web playback through our own players, but it is listed here to clear any confusion on the container. On top of that MP4 can use the H.

It also offers one of the best algorithms for compressing your video on top of being freely available. File size is probably the first idea that pops in your head, but you shouldn't be thinking so much about the file size as the overall bitrate. As long as the viewer's connection can keep up with the file's bitrate, it will stream progressive download or streaming without stuttering. Bitrate is a measurement of the number of bits that are transmitted over a set length of time. Your overall bitrate is a combination of your video stream and audio stream in your file with the majority coming from your video stream.

A simplified analogy is to think about how water is pumped out of a well and how long it will take for water to travel from the well to a faucet. No matter how powerful the pump there will always be a delay because the water has to travel through the pipes connected to the faucet.

Your video is the water, while the pump represent the speed of the Amazon s3 server. The connection speed of your end user is the diameter of the pipe.

The length of the pipes can be thought as the distance from the server. The pipe is going to bottleneck the water increasing the time it will take to get out the other side. In essence, that is the major problem you face with the streaming of videos online, you have to account for the delay. If you know the average connection speed of your clients you can set your overall bitrate to be under their download speed to achieve a streaming playback.

You should encode at a bitrate below their connection speed because this will help to take into account miscellaneous ambient traffic, distance from the server, and other elements loading into the same webpage. For example, taking the US broadband average of 3. What this means is that every second of the video there is 2, kilobits required before that second can be displayed. Converting bits to bytes 8 bits equals 1 byte you can see this is kilobytes a second or 15 megabytes per minute.

Depending on the codec in use and the container this can be a very limiting number. The problem is further extended if you have varying connection speeds across your user base, which is most often the case. If you are only serving one version of your video, you will find yourself pandering to the lowest common denominator. If you have your target bitrate, but are having trouble achieving an acceptable quality video, you will have to cut back in some aspect. The contributing factors that will lead to a higher video bitrate are the amount of pixels the resolution of the video , the frame rate, and the amount of motion present.

If your video is already filmed there is not much you can do about the motion in the video, but in your planning stages you can think ahead. The easiest change can come from lowering the number of pixels displayed by simply lowering the resolution of the file. If you are playing your video in a x player on your website and you do not expect the end user to enlarge the video, then there is no reason to have a file with a higher resolution.

Even if your camera records at p, it does not mean you cannot scale down to a smaller size to save on bitrate. Although, it should be noted that you want to maintain the image aspect ratio when resizing.

Most videos are filmed in either or , changing this ratio can lead to a squishing or stretching effect that is unsightly. For better quality to bitrate ratio, also remember to keep your resolution in a value evenly divisible by 16, but do not alter a resolution to make it a multiple of 16 unless you over-crop, which will cause you to lose part of your image.

Remember that 1 byte consists of 8 bits. Video data rates are given in bits per second. The data rate for a video file is the bitrate. So a data rate specification for video content that runs at 1 megabyte per second would be given as a bitrate of 8 megabits per second 8 mbps. The bitrate for an HD Blu-ray video is typically in the range of 20 mbps, standard-definition DVD is usually 6 mbps, high-quality web video often runs at about 2 mbps, and video for phones is typically given in the kilobits kbps.

For example, these are the targets we usually see for H. LD p 3G Mobile H. MediaInfo is a nice basic tool for quickly seeing all the parameters on a video file:. Winhoros Bitrate Viewer is an excellent tool for scanning your files to get detailed bitrate information:. When it comes to choosing what bitrate is best for your video workflow, it is important to take into account what device your videos will be played on.

As we mentioned above, internet videos, phone videos, and HD blu-ray videos for tV all vary in bitrate. Consider what platform your video will be viewed on prior to selecting your bitrate. Once you have determined how your users will be viewing your video, you can use our video encoding API to apply VBR bitrate to your media files.

Constant bitrate CBR encoding maintains a set bitrate over the entire video clip, but limits the image quality in most cases—especially for complex video segments. CBR is often not an optimal choice for streaming since it does not allocate enough data for the complex segments: this results in lower quality overall and unused capacity on the simple segments. No bitrate limit required, though we offer recommended bit rates below for reference Chroma subsampling: Frame rate Content should be encoded and uploaded in the same frame rate it was recorded.

Bitrate The bitrates below are recommendations for uploads. Resolution and aspect ratio YouTube uses aspect ratio players. Learn how to use Spatial Audio , video , and virtual reality video so your viewers can experience your video's sound in all directions, just like real life.