Streaming radio and bandwidth?

[general_koffi]

Hi guys.

I have a question wrt to streaming radio over the internet. How much bandwidth does it actually use?

If the stream is 128kbps, does that mean that my connection is constantly downloading at around 16KB/s when I'm streaming?

 

[Fulton17]

Hi guys.

I have a question wrt to streaming radio over the internet. How much bandwidth does it actually use?

Hi Koffi,

LOTS!!

I listen to lots of internet radio and have found that from 32kbps upwards, that quality is acceptable without using too much bandwidth. Here one uses about 4 kbps. At 64 K streams quality is great and will use about 8 kbps. I never go to 128K as bandwidth is consumed far quickly, but think you are right at it being about 16 kbps.

For internet radio you need a good few gigs per month to cope at fair quality.

 

[waynegohl]

i just went onto a radio station overseas and wanted to know about audio streamimg and found this thread.

as i know nothing about this stuff what do i look for if i want to listen to a radio station even if its only for a minute or two?

will it eat my gigs if i am on for a few secs or a few minutes?

 

[general_koffi]

i just went onto a radio station overseas and wanted to know about audio streamimg and found this thread.

as i know nothing about this stuff what do i look for if i want to listen to a radio station even if its only for a minute or two?

will it eat my gigs if i am on for a few secs or a few minutes?

No, not really. If it isn't music, then quality isn't very important - you could listen to hours of 32kbps spoken word and not use much bandwidth.

Usually you just need a web browser to stream audio. Click on the link, and it should play in a browser window. A lot of media players can do it too, like Winamp or iTunes.

 

[waynegohl]

ok cool i will give it a go.

 

[NeCroFire]

Does anyone know what is needed to start your own internet Radio here in SA and where I can read up more about it?

Thanks