The average number of bits that one second of video or audio data will consume.

The bitrate refers to the amount of digital information that will be encoded into your video in relation to the duration of the video clip (bits per second).

A higher bitrate means a bigger file size, and generally better video and audio quality. A lower bitrate means a lower file size, but lower quality video and audio quality.

It is usually expressed as bits per second. Here are a few approximate bitrate examples commonly seen in video and audio files:

• MP3 - 128 kbps (kilobits per second)
• VCD - 1,374 kbps
• DVD - 4,500 kbps
• DV - 25 Mbps (megabits per second)