Hey there! Alright so in Part 1, we covered why streaming beats downloading, how chunked delivery and manifest files work together, and the difference between containers and codecs. If you haven't read that yet, it's probably worth a quick look before proceeding with this one, we'll be building directly on top of it.
Bitrate vs Resolution
Bitrate and resolution correlate to the amount of data in a media file, it's easy to mix these two up so let's clarify how they differ.
Resolution measures the detail in a single video frame by counting the pixels across its width and height. For instance, a 1920 by 1080 display is made up of 1,080 stacked rows, with each row stretching 1,920 pixels wide. More pixels means more detail, and then a bigger picture.
Bitrate, think of it as the amount of digital information your audio or video is allowed to use per second. Giving it more information to work with creates a crisper, more detailed, media experience, usually measured in kbps or Mbps. This is where the actual compression trade off lives.
