… and why should I care …
Well for those times when you get this error message when trying to download a 1 hour podcast:
My suspicion is that the podcast author is using a high Bit Rate. Luckily you can get this information by adding the “Bit Rate” column into the iTune application Podcast view.
ie.
Which confirmed my suspicion. My favourite podcast uses a 256 kbps Bit Rate (podcast not shown above).
Let’s confirm that by looking at the actual audio files. I did that by doing the following:
- Downloaded the iMazing application.
iMazing will allow me to extract some additional; information from the podcasts.
(the iMazing trial edition allows you to copy up to 50 files off the iPhone). - Exported a number of podcasts to compare with the “large” podcast.
- Compared them below.
| Podcast | Bit Rate (kbps) |
File size | Length | Format | Mono / Stereo? |
| A.D.D. Comedy with Dave Razowsky | 114 | 50.8 MB | 1hr |
m4a |
Stereo |
| Conversations | 64 | 22.3 MB | 0hr 48m 10s |
mp3 |
Mono |
| How ‘Bout This | 128 | 95.7 MB | 1h 44m 9s |
mp3 |
Stereo |
| Impro Podcast – Claudia Hoppe | 160 | 67 MB | 0hr 58min 30s |
mp3 |
Stereo |
| Improv Nerd With Jimmy Carrane | 128 | 52.6 MB | 0hr 57min 11s |
mp3 |
Stereo |
| Mr. Fred’s Amazing Podcast | 256 | 108 MB | 0hr 58min 56s |
mp3 |
Stereo |
| Story Wise Woodend | 64 | 12.4 MB | 0hr 26min 51s |
mp3 |
Stereo |
| The Comedian’s Comedian | 64 | 34.2 MB | 1h 11m 36s |
mp3 |
Stereo |
The reason why the “Mr. Fred’s Amazing Podcast” podcast is over 100 MB, is that the author is using a high Bit Rate. Reducing the Bit rate would mean that I could download it over a cell phone network AND they would save on hosting costs.
References:
The Podcast Host: What Bitrate Should I Use For a Podcast?
Related posts:
Podcast: “Sorting out Internationalization with Michael Kaplan”
Deleting missing or dead iTunes music entries
Converting WMA to MP3
Powered by YARPP.