Data bandwidth for livestreaming video

January 6, 2021

In general, livestream data bandwidth depends on the video content (lots of motion vs. talking head) and wireless conditions.

YouTube Live has livestreaming modes from 240p to 4K @ 60 fps. Consider 480p to start to keep the connection from dropping out, with data bandwidth of 500 - 2,000 kbps ~ 16 Mbyte/minute.

These live streaming methods are easily accessible via PyLivestream that lightly wraps the FFmpeg command line. It generates a command line that you can use directly, or copy / paste for future reference.