Average bitrate
Encyclopedia
Average bitrate refers to the average amount of data transferred
per unit of time, usually measured per second. This is commonly referred to for digital music or video. An MP3
file, for example, that has an average bit rate of 128 kbit/s transfers, on average, 128,000 bits every second. It can have higher bitrate
and lower bitrate parts, and the average bitrate for a certain timeframe is obtained by dividing the number of bits used during the timeframe by the number of seconds in the timeframe. Bitrate is not reliable as a standalone measure of audio/video quality, since more efficient compression methods use lower bitrates to encode material at a similar quality.
Average bitrate can also refer to a form of variable bitrate
(VBR) encoding in which the encoder
will try to reach a target average bitrate or file size while allowing the bitrate to vary between different parts of the audio or video. As it is a form of variable bitrate, this allows more complex portions of the material to use more bits and less complex areas to use fewer bits. However, bitrate will not vary as much as in variable bitrate encoding.
At a given bitrate, VBR is usually higher quality than ABR, which is higher quality than CBR (constant bitrate
).
ABR encoding is desirable for users who want the general benefits of VBR encoding (an optimum bitrate from frame to frame) but with a relatively predictable file size.
Two-pass encoding is usually needed for accurate ABR encoding, as on the first pass the encoder has no way of knowing what parts of the audio or video need the highest bitrates to be encoded.
per unit of time, usually measured per second. This is commonly referred to for digital music or video. An MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
file, for example, that has an average bit rate of 128 kbit/s transfers, on average, 128,000 bits every second. It can have higher bitrate
Bitrate
In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....
and lower bitrate parts, and the average bitrate for a certain timeframe is obtained by dividing the number of bits used during the timeframe by the number of seconds in the timeframe. Bitrate is not reliable as a standalone measure of audio/video quality, since more efficient compression methods use lower bitrates to encode material at a similar quality.
Average bitrate can also refer to a form of variable bitrate
Variable bitrate
Variable bitrate is a term used in telecommunications and computing that relates to the bitrate used in sound or video encoding. As opposed to constant bitrate , VBR files vary the amount of output data per time segment...
(VBR) encoding in which the encoder
Encoder
An encoder is a device, circuit, transducer, software program, algorithm or person that converts information from one format or code to another, for the purposes of standardization, speed, secrecy, security, or saving space by shrinking size.-Media:...
will try to reach a target average bitrate or file size while allowing the bitrate to vary between different parts of the audio or video. As it is a form of variable bitrate, this allows more complex portions of the material to use more bits and less complex areas to use fewer bits. However, bitrate will not vary as much as in variable bitrate encoding.
At a given bitrate, VBR is usually higher quality than ABR, which is higher quality than CBR (constant bitrate
Constant bitrate
Constant bitrate is a term used in telecommunications, relating to the quality of service. Compare with variable bitrate.When referring to codecs, constant bit rate encoding means that the rate at which a codec's output data should be consumed is constant...
).
ABR encoding is desirable for users who want the general benefits of VBR encoding (an optimum bitrate from frame to frame) but with a relatively predictable file size.
Two-pass encoding is usually needed for accurate ABR encoding, as on the first pass the encoder has no way of knowing what parts of the audio or video need the highest bitrates to be encoded.