Posted on 09/10/2012 7:07:36 PM PDT by Arthur McGowan
I get a number of podcasts, and for some reason, the bitrates are getting ridiculous. The files are so huge, they frequently don't download completely.
Peter Boyles has been sending out his podcasts at 96kbps for years. Now they are 128kbps.
Brian Sussman: 128kbps
John Batchelor: 256kbps!!!
I've tried e-mailing the hosts and others associated with their shows. No response.
There's no reason for a talk show to use a bitrate higher than 32kbps!
I don’t know what that guy’s talking about but I like a show with a Higher Bit Rate download because it sounds more natural.
Imagine listening to music at a low bit rate.It would truly sound like crap.
I listen to Rush on a 20kbps feed and even that low rate sounds fine.
mms://media.blackcrow.fm/wndb
;-)
Your ears are apparently no longer capable of hearing the distortion of a 32 Kbit talk show audio stream.
96 Kbits is the minimum for a good audio stream for me.
If you can’t handle more on your connection, I’m sorry. Dial-up can give only about 32-Kbit.
You can listen through a radio state
Are you one a computer of phone? If you are using a phone, what kind?
What’s dial-up? :)
Rather than slowing down the bitrate, I would suggest they save by reducing bandwidth. I think you should be able to get by with 11 khz on a talk program. The bumper music might suffer slightly. But higher bit rates are better, at least 64K, but 128K is pretty standard for audiobooks.
What bit rate is required to equal the quality of FM radio?
“Thus = 12 x 30,000 x 2 (2 channels) = 720Kbps (CD is 1411kbps) that is uncompressed.”
From here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/366117/radio-bitrates
I think you should just listen faster
64k should be plenty good enough for talk radio.
This chart shows 96 kbps for FM quality (32 kbps for AM):
http://www.wma-mp3.org/mp3-settings.html
I wonder who’s right?
Only podcast I do is Mark Levin’s . His is 32kbps. I listen on a mp3 player with earbuds. It downloads in a minute or so 25.5 mb in length . My time Warner download speed is 8 to 11 mpbs depending on neighborhood traffic.
It’s a conspiracy, I tell you!
It’s a conspiracy, I tell you!
| Format | Bit rate | Compression ratio | File size per minute | Notes |
| WAV | uncompressed | 1:1 | 10 MB | If the wave wav file was sampled at 16 bits/44.1kHz, you've got CD quality sound |
| MP3 | 160 kbps | 9:1 | 1.5 MB | Very low compression, superior sound quality |
| MP3 | 128 kbps | 11:1 | 1 MB | The standard "CD quality" bit rate |
| MP3 | 96 kbps | 15:1 | 700K | Considered "near CD quality" |
| MP3 | 64 kbps | 22:1 | 400K | About the same quality as an FM radio station |
I’ve also tried to email Mr. Batchelor about his bitrates. They are all over the place. They’re usually 128 kbps but i’ve seen them as high as 73 megabytes per segment the odd time instead of the usual 27.5 mb’s. In my email I told hime that 32 kbps was the industry standard but I guess I was wrong. Another thing that bugs me is that they sometimes post broken podcasts where the posted file didn’t completely upload to the hosting server and is missing a major portion of the podcast. I always wondered if anybody else was pissed enough to email them. Thanks for trying.
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