Bit rate of youtube videos

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There is a great deal of music content on youtube, including some full
albums or even multiple versions of same. Does anyone know the standard
bit rate for them, if there is such a thing.

Some on the web say it is proportional to the quality of the video file
encoding. So those labeled as "hd or hq" are the highest quality videos
and the bit rate for the audio follows accordingly. Some are labeled as
"audiophile" without mention of what it means.
Has anyone experience and/or information about this?

[Audio_Empire]

In article >,
wrote:

> There is a great deal of music content on youtube, including some full
> albums or even multiple versions of same. Does anyone know the standard
> bit rate for them, if there is such a thing.
>
> Some on the web say it is proportional to the quality of the video file
> encoding. So those labeled as "hd or hq" are the highest quality videos
> and the bit rate for the audio follows accordingly. Some are labeled as
> "audiophile" without mention of what it means.
> Has anyone experience and/or information about this?

Far as I know, there is no standard. it is MP3 layer audio, though, I'm
reasonably sure of that, but I suspect that the bit rate at which sound
is encoded is determined largely by the software one uses to encode
these videos. Now, within that software, the user MIGHT be able to
choose an audio quality level, but it's my guess that most people just
use the default which could be as low as 32 kbps, IOW, lousy. OTOH, it
could be as high as 192 kbps which isn't bad (OPINION ALERT:don't expect
any MP3 encoded audio to be high fidelity. It isn't and can't be. END
OPINION).

Audio_Empire

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[Doug McDonald[_8_]]

On 5/7/2013 8:29 PM, Audio_Empire wrote:
> Far as I know, there is no standard. it is MP3 layer audio, though, I'm
> reasonably sure of that,

Youtube is not using MP3.
It is not using what is sent to them. Everything is transcoded.

The quality is abysmal. I have uploaded and compared the downloaded
version (ripped from analog of course.) It equivalent to stereo
MP3 at maybe in the best case 96 kbps but often much worse.

MP3 can, of course be actual high fidelity, much better than 1964
grade analog tape, at 320 kbps, despite what some people say ...
but this isn't.

Doug McDonald

[Arny Krueger[_5_]]

> wrote in message
...

> There is a great deal of music content on youtube, including some full
> albums or even multiple versions of same. Does anyone know the standard
> bit rate for them, if there is such a thing.

One thing about Youtube is that there is no single standard.

The audio and video quality of downloads can be all over the map.

> Some on the web say it is proportional to the quality of the video file
> encoding. So those labeled as "hd or hq" are the highest quality videos
> and the bit rate for the audio follows accordingly. Some are labeled as
> "audiophile" without mention of what it means.
> Has anyone experience and/or information about this?

One can get insights to the actual quality of Youtube files if one attempts
to download them, which is possible via a number of means including the web
site "Keepvid". http://keepvid.com/ .

Files will be presented for download in a number of resolutions and formats,
none exceeding the best format used to upload, it appears. Once the file is
downloaded, various software tools can be used to examine and separate out
the video and audio components. Unfortunately it is not possible to know the
full history of the files, and what formats they may have been upsampled and
downsampled to along the way. Generally Youtube uploads are not stunning
performers. I tend to look at it as the "AM radio of Y2k".

[Audio_Empire]

In article >,
Doug McDonald > wrote:

> MP3 can, of course be actual high fidelity, much better than 1964
> grade analog tape, at 320 kbps, despite what some people say ...
> but this isn't.

This is obviously your opinion, Doug, and you are certainly entitled to
believe that. Perhaps for certain types of music 320 kbps IS transparent
and acceptable to you, but I and others can still hear the increased
distortion and in some extreme cases, even the compression artifacts on
classical music (yes, that's MY opinion). I'm not saying here that MP3
is bad or useless technology, that wouldn't be true at all. In fact, as
a replacement for FM it's great. Web radio can sound very listenable if
the bit rate is 128 kbps or higher. I have taken the 128 kbps Web feed
of a local FM classical station (transmitter is about 6 miles away) and
compared it with the same station on my Yamaha T85 FM tuner. Without the
heavy compression and hard limiting that plagues modern broadcasting,
the Web feed sounds MUCH cleaner with better dynamic range and a velvet
black background. Add to that the fact that Web Radio affords us.
literally, "the world at your fingertips"* and in stereo, I'd say it's
a very positive piece of technology. But, keeping in mind it's
limitations, it becomes a matter of "horses for courses" as they say.

A_E

* "The World at Your Fingertips" was, if memory serves, the
1940's/1950's advertising slogan for Zenith Radio's "Trans-Oceanic"
portable all-wave radio. If someone knows different, chime-in and let me
know. Thanks.

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[[email protected]]

On Tuesday, May 7, 2013 1:10:26 PM UTC-5, wrote:
> There is a great deal of music content on youtube, including some full
>
> albums or even multiple versions of same. Does anyone know the standard
>
> bit rate for them, if there is such a thing.
>
>
>
> Some on the web say it is proportional to the quality of the video file
>
> encoding. So those labeled as "hd or hq" are the highest quality videos
>
> and the bit rate for the audio follows accordingly. Some are labeled as
>
> "audiophile" without mention of what it means.
>
> Has anyone experience and/or information about this?

128 seems to be the standard for audio on Youtube. When someone say high quality or audiophile worthy that means they're original copy is high quality. Once it's coverted to Youtube you usually get low end Mp3 Mp4/ACC.