checking streaming bitrate

[mchalu]

Hello,

Does anyone have any idea how to check the real bitrate value of the audio stream? What I mean by the real bitrate value is what I really get on my sound card (therefore the quality I can record at) rather than what is displayed on the streaming website or streaming application.

Thanks

If there are no such properties in the media player, you can rip/capture/download a stream and check the bit-rate of the recorded file(s).

[mchalu]

Originally Posted by Stream Recorder

If there are no such properties in the media player, you can rip/capture/download a stream and check the bit-rate of the recorded file(s).

Thanks,
as far as recordnig a stream is concerned, in most of the sound capturing applications you have to set the bit-rate prior to recording so that the bit-rate of the resultant file is determined by your settings. This means that your file can be too big for the 'real' underlying bit-rate you can hear. Similarly, you can lose some quality if you set the bit-rate too low.

Originally Posted by mchalu

as far as recordnig a stream is concerned, in most of the sound capturing applications you have to set the bit-rate prior to recording so that the bit-rate of the resultant file is determined by your settings. This means that your file can be too big for the 'real' underlying bit-rate you can hear. Similarly, you can lose some quality if you set the bit-rate too low.

Few streams have multiple bit-rates at the same URL. If you select the max one in your stream ripper and/or media player, then the highest possible bit-rate will be used when ripping, so you will definitely not lose any quality.

You should also know that stream recording and capturing are misused very often. If you capture/download/rip your stream, you do not lose any quality. But if you record from your sound card, then you can lose some quality (alternatively you can use lossless codecs when recording from your sound card, but the recorded files will be pretty big).

[mchalu]

Originally Posted by Stream Recorder

Few streams have multiple bit-rates at the same URL. If you select the max one in your stream ripper and/or media player, then the highest possible bit-rate will be used when ripping, so you will definitely not lose any quality.

You should also know that stream recording and capturing are misused very often. If you capture/download/rip your stream, you do not lose any quality. But if you record from your sound card, then you can lose some quality (alternatively you can use lossless codecs when recording from your sound card, but the recorded files will be pretty big).

Sorry, I'm probably not making myself clear enough. What if there is a website with a 'listen-again' programme. But it doesn't say what bit-rate it plays. Similarly, I am using nexus radio and sometimes in the status bar it says 64 kbps but the station info says 128 kbps. In 'Sound Capture' or sound recorders I have to specify what bit-rate my resultant mp3 file should be. How do I know what bit-rate is sent to my computer?

Originally Posted by mchalu

Sorry, I'm probably not making myself clear enough. What if there is a website with a 'listen-again' programme. But it doesn't say what bit-rate it plays. Similarly, I am using nexus radio and sometimes in the status bar it says 64 kbps but the station info says 128 kbps. In 'Sound Capture' or sound recorders I have to specify what bit-rate my resultant mp3 file should be. How do I know what bit-rate is sent to my computer?

The only solution I had was mentioned in the second post:

If there are no such properties in your media player, you can rip/capture/download a stream and check the bit-rate of the recorded file(s).

Also stream rippers and streaming media players usually negotiate a bit-rate. If you look onto the logs you can find something like

07.02.2008 15:32:23.843 content-type: audio/mpeg
07.02.2008 15:32:23.843 icy-br: 128

Which means that this is a Shoutcast stream using MPEG audio codec. And the bit-rate is 128 kbps.

Besides analyzing logs you can use Proxomitron that shows negotiations between servers and clients.