Audio (MP3)
4 kbit/s — minimum necessary for recognizable speech (using special-purpose speech codecs)
8 kbit/s — telephone quality
32 kbit/s — MW (AM) quality
96 kbit/s — FM quality
128 kbit/s — Typical "acceptable" music quality
256 - 320 kbit/s — Near audio CD quality
Video
16 kbit/s — videophone quality (minimum necessary for a consumer-acceptable "talking head" picture)
128 – 384 kbit/s — business-oriented videoconferencing system quality
1 Mbit/s — VHS quality
5 Mbit/s — DVD quality
15 Mbit/s — HDTV quality
Notes
For technical reasons (hardware/software protocols, overheads, encoding schemes, etc.) the actual bit rates used by some of the compared-to devices may be significantly higher than what is listed above. For example:
Telephone circuits using µlaw or A-law companding (pulse code modulation) — 64 kbit/s
CDs using CDDA — 1.4 Mbit/s
4 kbit/s — minimum necessary for recognizable speech (using special-purpose speech codecs)
8 kbit/s — telephone quality
32 kbit/s — MW (AM) quality
96 kbit/s — FM quality
128 kbit/s — Typical "acceptable" music quality
256 - 320 kbit/s — Near audio CD quality
Video
16 kbit/s — videophone quality (minimum necessary for a consumer-acceptable "talking head" picture)
128 – 384 kbit/s — business-oriented videoconferencing system quality
1 Mbit/s — VHS quality
5 Mbit/s — DVD quality
15 Mbit/s — HDTV quality
Notes
For technical reasons (hardware/software protocols, overheads, encoding schemes, etc.) the actual bit rates used by some of the compared-to devices may be significantly higher than what is listed above. For example:
Telephone circuits using µlaw or A-law companding (pulse code modulation) — 64 kbit/s
CDs using CDDA — 1.4 Mbit/s