coldfinish said: What's your upload speed to the internet? It seems that even 320Kbps should work over 3G as long as your ISP is giving you more than that for your upload from the PogoPlug. I can stream 320Kbps video over to my iPhone 3G when using the PogoPlug website (i.e. my.pogoplug.com).

My upload speed is about 3 mbit, and download is about 9 mbit. I don't think that's the issue but higher bitrates do require higher network speeds, no doubt.

The 320k bitrate works pretty well over 3G to my iPhone, but it does pause from time to time. I don't think it's my upload speed, since I can upload at about 3 mbit, and download at about 9 to 10 mbit.

I have some live music recordings that I'm sharing, and they were WAV files, then 320K MP3, and now I've created a 128K directory with those files (still higher than FM which is 96K) and the streaming was not interrupted.

Apple tunes are 128-K (the ones they sell) so it's apparently a pretty good rate, and less prone to problems with network speed and congestion.

So you're right, 320K SHOULD work, but (1) it's probably overkill, and (2) 128K is probably more reliable for uninterrupted streaming.

The key to my post is the very nice batch convert program I found to make the copy/convert job very easy.

Coldfish,

My rhetorical question was intended to get some attention to an issue that many have not considered -- 320Kbit music may be fine for authoring a CD, or playing on a high quality audio system, but it not required for most casual listening. I don't think people realize this or pay much attention to it.

Bitrates above FM quality (which is 96Kbit) are simply going to run into more problems when streaming, it's a fact, not conjecture. A streaming server that gets feedback from the listening device will adjust the streaming quality to accomodate changing conditions. This is how Netflix works with different network quality (congestion, delays, bandwidth, etc.).

I use a video streaming server that works great with iPhone and iPad video by adjusting the quality based on "network quality" which changes constantly.

For video, see pogoplug's help

http://www.pogoplugged.com/article/14727/Pogoplug-Media-Streaming-Video-Trans...

I can convert videos to the required format, bypassing the need for transcoding. From the above link: "Standard MP4 format utilizing H.264 encoding is the recommended format. Some users have reported excellent luck with clicking the "Web Optimized" format in HandBrake."

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to get handbrake and give it a try. I have other video formatting programs, but handbrake is free and they have a version for MAC, PC, Linux, etc. http://handbrake.fr

Thanks for your interest, and consider the purpose of my rhetorical "question"

Jeff

Brief followup:

Over the past few months, I've converted some of my music to 96 Kbit, FM station quality, and it sounds very good over 3G, no skips, pauses etc. This isn't recommended for mastering CDs or MP3 disks, but it's good for streaming audio over 3G.

I use a very nice program called media monkey. http://www.mediamonkey.com/

It can read and convert FLAC files to MP3, and convert MP3 bit rates to other bit rates. It can tag Music files with images which are easily accessed by searching for images using google.com and dragging the image off the browser page right into the image box, the way you can with iTunes, a clever feature.

I tried handbrake, I agree, it's an excellent file converter but it won't create AVI files that I can play on my DVD player, but for converting video media for iTunes it's great and I use it for that purpose.

Jeff