We get a lot of questions about how to find the optimal resolution to bitrate ratio. The truth is, there really is no right or wrong answer. Depending on your encoder, video content, audience, and streaming destination, your resolution and bitrate will likely be different. That being said, you can optimize your resolution and bitrate to ensure consistent video quality and make your video viewable by the majority of your audience.
720p 60 Fps Bit Rate Chart
Resolution is the number of pixels spread across a display and is usually written in the form of horizontal pixels x vertical pixels, such as 1920 x 1080. The resolution of your display affects the highest resolution of stream you can watch. Resolution is sometimes referred to in a shorthand format using just the vertical pixels, such as 720p instead of 1280x720.
You must evaluate your network connection to determine whether it is strong enough to support your stream at your desired resolution. Streaming at 1080p60 requires more bandwidth than streaming at 1080p30 or 720p60. We recommend only dedicating 50% of your upload speed to your stream in case your connection suddenly becomes unstable or you encounter unexpected interference from sending across the internet to the streaming platform.
Finally, if you have limited bandwidth at your broadcast site but your encoder is capable of streaming with a more efficient video codec like HEVC / H.265 instead of just H.264, you can send out a lower bitrate HEVC stream from your encoder and have it transcoded to H.264 in the cloud for final delivery to streaming destinations and viewers.
Cloud transcoding can help those watching with slower connections or on mobile devices with data limits because it enables the single stream sent out from your encoder to be converted into several lower resolution and lower bitrate streams that the viewers can choose instead of each viewer receiving the same higher resolution / higher bitrate stream. Platforms capable of cloud transcoding include Facebook Live, YouTube Live, Vimeo, and IBM Cloud Video.
More dynamic content requires higher bitrates to have good quality, so you will need a higher bitrate to stream sporting events or video game competitions as opposed to speakers giving presentations at a conference or commencement ceremonies.
The encoded frame rate also affects the required bitrate. When streaming sports you could encode a 60 frames per second (fps) stream at 1080p60 or 720p60; for lower motion events like lectures or conferences, encoding and sending 60 fps may not provide a visible benefit, but requires significantly more bandwidth than streaming at the more common 30 fps. Not all online streaming platforms can accept a 60 fps stream, and not all viewers can handle receiving 60 fps, so be sure to take that into consideration.
Teradek encoders use a variable bitrate encoding to more efficiently encode. If there's not a lot of motion - like a speaker at a podium - your encoder will use a lower bitrate to save on outbound data but increase the encoding quality as needed, such as when you pan the camera or zoom for a wider shot.
Keep in mind that every streaming platform comes with different presets which may limit the video bitrate and resolution combinations they will accept. Here are some popular streaming destinations and their settings:
On Twitch, your upload bitrate is the amount of data you send to Twitch when you stream. A higher bitrate takes up more of your Internet bandwidth. The higher the bitrate, the better the stream quality. So, the higher the bitrate, the faster and more stable your connection needs to be. If you lack a fast internet connection, your stream wanes, leaving your viewers with a pixelated stream.
In addition to these suggestions, you can also work to grow your channel to become a Twitch Partner. Twitch reserves bandwidth specifically for its Partners. But before weighing your options, always consider your viewers. Not every viewer has the download speed that can match your upload. For most Twitch viewers, a bitrate of 6000 kbps is too high. So, in some cases, lower is better.
Many individuals perceive video resolution as the only essential factor affecting video quality. Well, this statement may not be correct. Other elements, like video bitrate, have equal importance too.
Thus, video bitrate is nothing but the amount of data your video sends out per second. This data transfer can be between your device and an online platform. In technical terms, bitrate indicates the amount of data your encoder needs to transfer video in one second.
Of course, video bitrate can have a direct impact on your video quality. The video quality will be lower if the bitrate is lower. With a higher bitrate, you can upload a large number of video bits per second. Thus, it results in a higher quality video.
Live video streaming usually takes more bandwidth as compared to uploading an already recorded video. In both cases, the upload speed depends on many factors. It includes the frame rate, resolution, encoding, video host site, etc.
If your quality requirements are higher, you can go for 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution. Even though it offers full HD video quality, it needs more processing power. Thus, you have to dedicate a larger portion of your bitrate.
So, bitrate indicates the amount of data encoded for a specific time unit. To get a clearer video image, you should stream at a higher bitrate. It explains why video bitrate matters a lot while streaming.
Simultaneously, it will help if you also consider other factors that might change after setting your bitrate to its higher. These factors include framerate, resolution, and internet (more specifically, upload) speed. Happy streaming!
Live Streaming Bitrate Calculator is a tool that helps you calculate the recommended and maximum bitrate for your Live Stream in order to make sure that your viewers can watch your stream without buffering or lag. Using our bitrate calculator you can get the accurate video bitrate and audio bitrate required for live streaming and video hosting.
Bitrate is the rate at which you send bits to the streaming platform. It measures how much data of your audio and video information is transmitted in a given amount of time. Audio bitrate and video bitrate are commonly measured in kilobits per second (kbps) and megabits per second (Mbps). The higher the bitrate, the faster your internet connection when streaming video content online with video streaming software.
Frames per second (FPS), also known as frame rate, is the frequency of consecutive images called frames appearing on display. The higher number of FPS means smoother motion and less lag time between each image change. The most common frame rates are 30 fps for standard video, and 60 fps for high-definition displays
Our streaming bitrate calculator will help you find the optimum bitrate and the required upload speed for live streaming on any platform. If you are new to streaming or want to learn more about the software you're using, you probably have a couple (a lot) of questions. Such as: 'Do I have enough upload speed for streaming?', 'What bitrate should I stream at?', 'What is the bitrate for 1080p?', and the most frequent 'What is bitrate on Twitch or YouTube?'
We will briefly answer those questions and more below, or if you are already familiar with the concepts, feel free to experiment with our streaming bitrate calculator! We have listed several bitrate-resolution pairs to find what works best for you, or use the advanced mode to input your own and test different combinations.
Bitrate is the number of bits transferred or processed in a set amount of time (usually seconds) by a video encoder. Its unit is often kbps or Mbps, kilobits, and megabits per second, respectively.
Whenever a video file is compressed, some data is lost, while the remainder is kept. More data kept = more quality. The bitrate determines how much information is kept/lost in the compression. Therefore, bitrate affects video quality.
Another parameter we need to consider when estimating bitrates is the source video's resolution). A 1080p video will produce a 19201080 px1920\times 1080\ \textpx19201080 px image each frame. If the video is recorded at 60 fps60\ \textfps60 fps this means each second 1.24108 px1.24\times 10^8\ \textpx1.24108 px are rendered (resolution in pxfps\textresolution in px \times \textfpsresolution in pxfps).
Now, we previously saw that a 1080p 60fps video will need to process about 6221 kbps6221 \ \textkbps6221 kbps of information (estimated bitrate for 1080p using our approximation). We could have a 6221 kbps6221 \ \textkbps6221 kbps connection, and, theoretically, it would be enough for live streaming this content to any platform. However, in a real-life case, the connection won't be stable at all, and the stream will stutter a lot or completely freeze since we're using all our resources to maintain the stream.
So, to avoid that, we'll need to allocate more bandwidth to account for fluctuations with our internet provider's speed, allow other programs/devices to use said bandwidth, etc. That's why it is wise to add about 50% of the bitrate number to obtain an upload speed that keeps the stream stable (our streaming bitrate calculator already includes it ?).
The content type will determine our resolution since, for example, a fast-paced action game will require 60 fps60 \ \textfps60 fps to produce a smooth transition with rapid camera movements. On the other hand, a card game doesn't benefit as much with an fps increase as it does with a resolution increase (720p from 540p).
Different resolutions will work the best in different scenarios, so there's no definitive answer for the question 'What bitrate should I stream at?', but obtaining the bitrate for a 720p stream is a great starting point to work your way up (or down).
The streaming bitrate calculator already has a list of bitrates preloaded based on guidelines from different streaming platforms. Just select your desired resolution, and the calculator will output a bitrate and the recommended upload speed for that value (you can check the bppbppbpp value used for the selected resolution within the advanced mode). 2ff7e9595c
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