An important metric in media quality is bitrate. testRTC shows bitrate related information at the top ribbon results across the various solutions available for testing and monitoring:
The bitrate values shown are split between incoming and outgoing bitrate to the user or probe, as well as between audio and video. The data is averaged throughout the duration of the session.
Unlike other values on the ribbons, bitrate has no thresholds associated with it. This is due to the fact that different services and scenarios have very different expectations of what the required bitrate for them is.
Video bitrates
When it comes to video, there is no gold standard to what a good bitrate is. You can use the following best practices as a general rule, and then see how they apply to your application:
- The higher the bitrate, the higher the video quality should be
- But, the higher the bitrate, the higher the CPU and memory consumption will be
- In a 1:1 video call, bitrates of 1,000-2,500 kbps should offer good video quality. Higher than that is usually unnecessary
- In group video calls, try not to get over 4,000 kbps of total average incoming video. That is rather wasteful and consumes more resources than are necessary. At such bitrates, you may experience reduced video quality due to CPU overload which will end up video data to get unprocessed, leading to a poor video quality and overall experience
- The lower the video window on the screen is, the lower the video bitrate for that video channel should be