Bitrate

How much data a second of audio or video carries. Raise it for fidelity, lower it to travel; the fight is always this.

Bitrate is the image's allowance per second, and every frame spends it: motion, detail and noise all bid for the same budget. Starve a busy scene and the codec triages, blocking shadows, smearing texture. The number is where fidelity and travel weight hold their permanent negotiation.

The fight is settled by content: still, dark, atmospheric footage compresses gracefully at rates that would butcher confetti and rain. That is why our slow ambient loops can run lean, and why the reference numbers we measured, around two to three megabits for hero work, hold. Rate is tuned per piece, judged on the worst connection that still matters.