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How can I determine the minimum constant internet bandwidth that is theoretically needed for smooth streaming in each video quality levels for Youtube: 480p, 720p and 1080p?

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Wikipedia gives bitrate for audio and video for each format, of which there are multiple for a given video resolution. Sum those, add about 20kbit/s to compensate for jitter and encapsulation overhead, and you'd have a decent ballpark.

For example, itag 22, 720p mp4 takes up to about 3 Mbit/s for audio and video together.

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  • So I just sum the video bitrate with the audio one and add about 20kbps and voila...?
    – Karolinger
    Oct 15, 2012 at 3:35
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    @Karolinger yes, total bandwidth required is video bitrate + audio bitrate.
    – Mxx
    Oct 15, 2012 at 6:09
  • Youtube might also send some additional information, like ads, video annotations, captions etc., but the bandwidth required for those is mostly negligible compared to the actual video stream. So yes, video and audio bitrates added together is a good enough approximation.
    – Indrek
    Oct 15, 2012 at 15:38

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