dialup loading times for WP audio player
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Can anyone with dialup give me a rough idea of how long an audio file takes to load on dialup if it’s the WP.com audio player? If you could test it for me, the file in this post is exactly three minutes long. If you could give me a rough idea how long it takes to load the song I’d appreciate it very much.
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It depends on the bitrate it’s in, and the length of the tune. Three minutes in a high quality will easily take the same time as 15 minutes at a much lower quality. I like my music (non-streamed) at 192, but a streamed radio station might play the same tune at 96 which is about half the file size and therefor half the loading time.
My rule of thumb on dial up was a five minute tune at 128 (decent enough for most ears) is about 5mb (roughly) which would take about 20 minutes to download. This is all dependent on a lot of factors and will vary a lot.
I encode my audiobooks at a nice slim 32 which is perfectly fine for someone talking, it does not need a mic on every instrument with crystal clear quality…..and can get a 6 HOUR file to around 80mb.
I’d suggest getting a tune and re-encoding it to various bitrates and trying it yourself, the lower you go, the quicker the loading time and lower the sound quality and smaller the filesize. It’s about finding a balance you’re happy with. Kinda like the limbo, go as low as you can without falling.
Many on dial up are unlikely to use a streamed media source anyway, so they may not even click play….and having it play automatically many will take offense to, especially if it is stuttery as it loads into the buffer.
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How long is a piece of string? All I can offer is a guide depending on the bitrate and filesize…..it also depends on how busy the server is at the time, what else the user is doing with their connection and how busy their ISP is among other things. My rough times are for downloading, not streaming….I doubt it makes much difference but it might.
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depends on the file size to be honest. i had no adsl the other day (moving provider yay!!!) but i was using my dial up (gods whow can we live without adsl anymore >.<) and took me just over 16 mins to dl a 6mb podcast. This was streaming from the site. Wont be doing that again, start stop start stop over and over lol
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The file I linked to in the original post is 2.67 meg. The WP.com audio player is streaming, not downloading. That’s what I need the information for.
I am hoping that someone with dialup will say: it took me X amount of time to play that file.
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ahhh sorry i missunderstood. when i get back home i’ll try it for you since i still have dial up at the moment
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Thanks, I appreciate it. I’m in no particular hurry for the info, but I would like to know if posting using that audio player is pointless or useful for my dialup-using readers.
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Sounds like when I ask a question around here :)
You don’t want me to try on my dial up when I get home. Got a 9.6k connection this morning when I tried to grab my mail.
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2.67 megs at average download speed of 11 K/second = 4.3 minutes. Depends on others dial-up, but that is what I saw when I tried it on the old dial-up line. Thankfully, I have high speed.
Trent
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okies, i tried and it wouldnt start, kept timing out on me. I rebooted the comp, unpluged and repluged the modem. Even tried directly connecting it to the line box, Still couldnt get it.
My dial up connection isnt the best though, it barely qualifies as a 56k connection.
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Actually took me over a minute to load as well on the OC-192. I gather Rain is hosting this file over at Odeo.com. Looks like they may be having bandwidth issues.
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I wondered about that. I’ll make a test page with a one-minute file on Odeo and hosted elsewhere. I thought maybe using the Odeo player would be an improvement, though, as I believe it allows you to pause while it’s loading. Five minutes for a three minute file isn’t too bad, actually, but timeing out is no good.
Thanks for the answers.
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