What is bitrate and bandwidth - devrath/MediaAlchemySuite GitHub Wiki

BitRate vs Bandwidth

• Bitrate: The amount of data the player needs per second(e.g., 3 Mbps)
• Bandwidth: The amount of data that the network can deliver to the player per second(e.g., 5 Mbps)

🎯 Why It Matters in Streaming

• Smooth playback = Bitrate ≤ Bandwidth
• Buffering or playback interruption = Bitrate > Bandwidth
• Now, exoplayer uses adaptive bitrate to match the available bandwidth.

📊 Bitrate vs Bandwidth (Streaming Logic)

      ┌───────────────────────────────┐
      │        Network Bandwidth      │
      │   (your connection speed)     │
      └───────────────────────────────┘
                     │
                     ▼
      ┌────────────────────────────────────┐
      │  BandwidthMeter measures available │
      │  speed (e.g., 3.5 Mbps)            │
      └────────────────────────────────────┘
                     │
                     ▼
      ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
      │  ExoPlayer chooses a video bitrate variant   │
      │  ≤ bandwidth (e.g., 480p @ 2 Mbps)           │
      └──────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                     │
                     ▼
      ┌──────────────────────────────┐
      │   Smooth playback with no    │
      │      rebuffering             │
      └──────────────────────────────┘

📦 Example

Resolution	Bitrate (approx.)
240p	300 Kbps
360p	800 Kbps
480p	1.5 Mbps
720p	3 Mbps
1080p	5 Mbps
4K (2160p)	12–20 Mbps

🧠 Visual Analogy

  Bandwidth (Pipe)      Bitrate (Water Flow)

     ┌──────────────┐       ┌────────────┐
     │              │       │            │
     │   Internet   │──▶──▶ │  Video     │
     │   Pipe       │       │  Stream    │
     │  (5 Mbps)    │       │ (3 Mbps)   │
     └──────────────┘       └────────────┘

✅ Bitrate fits → smooth flow!
❌ Bitrate > Bandwidth? Overflow & buffering!

📓 Summary

Concept	In Streaming
Bitrate	How “heavy” the video is
Bandwidth	How “fast” your internet is
Auto switching	Adapts video to your network