---
title: 'Choosing the right bitrate for your video'
description: 'How to choose a transcoding bitrate for your videos, with recommended bitrates per use case and how to recreate a video at higher quality.'
url: https://www.medialab.co/support/core/review-and-approve/choosing-the-right-bitrate-for-your-video
---

# Choosing the right bitrate for your video

By default, MediaLab transcodes videos at **1 Mbit/s**, which is recommended for most cases. If the converted video quality is insufficient, use the **Recreate** option to select a higher bitrate.

Keep in mind:

- The bitrate of the **original file** is the maximum quality you can achieve. Uploading a 1 Mbit/s video and recreating it at 5 Mbit/s will not improve quality.
- Higher bitrates produce larger files.
- Higher bitrates increase conversion time.

### Common Bitrate Guidelines

<br>
<table class="table-basic break-word">
  <tbody>
  <tr>
  <th>Usage</th>
  <th>Bitrate</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>videophone quality (minimum necessary for a consumer-acceptable "talking head" picture)</td>
  <td>16 Kbit/s</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>business-oriented videoconferencing quality</td>
  <td>128 – 384 Kbit/s</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>VCD quality</td>
  <td>1.25 Mbit/s</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>DVD quality</td>
  <td>5 Mbit/s</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>HDTV quality</td>
  <td>8 – 15 Mbit/s</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>HD DVD</td>
  <td>29.4 Mbit/s max</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
  <td>Blu-ray Disc</td>
  <td>40 Mbit/s max</td>
  </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>