Bitrate
A megabit is a unit of digital information storage, abbreviated Mbit (or Mb).
1 megabit = 106 = 1,000,000 bits which is equal to 125,000 bytes. In kilobytes this is either 125 kB (decimal meaning) or about 122 kB (122 KiB) (binary meaning). The megabit is most commonly used when referring to data transfer rates in network speeds, e.g. a 100 Mbit/s (megabit per second) Fast Ethernet connection. In this context, like elsewhere in telecommunications, it always equals 106 bits. Residential high speed Internet access is often advertised incorrectly in megabits (a unit of information) rather than megabit per second.
Video streams are often referred to as being "N megabit" streams (which means N Mbit / second). Novice users often confuse Megabits and Megabytes.
Here are some helpful numbers:
| Source | Mb/Sec | MB/sec | MB/hour | GB/hour | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DVD (max peak bitrate) | 10.08 | 1.26 | 4536 | 4.43 | |
| HD-PVR Recording (adjustable settings) | 13.5 | 1.6875 | 6075 | 5.93 | |
| HD Recording (ATSC) (max bitrate) | 19.4 | 2.425 | 8730 | 8.53 |
