Jellyfish Video Bitrate Test Files

Below are a number of H.264 and H.265/HEVC encoded .mkv video clips that can be used for testing the network streaming and playback performance of media streamers & HTPCs.

For best streaming results, use wired ethernet, NFS (rather than SMB/Windows file sharing), and stream from a dedicated server or capable NAS (Synology, QNAP, etc).

For HD Videos, the Blu-ray Disc spec calls for a maximum bitrate of 40 Mbps for video and a maximum of 48 Mbps for audio and video combined. A number of discs do regularly exceed these numbers but only for relatively short bursts. If your media player can play the 55 Mbps Jellyfish File with no issues, it should have no bitrate-related problems with any BD rip.

For Ultra HD (4K) Videos, it looks like the new BD spec calls for 10-Bit H.265 encoding and allows for a maximum bitrate of 128 Mbps. I'm not entirely sure whether this is just for video, audio and video combined, or the total allowable data transfer rate (audio, video, java, etc). It's probably a safe bet that, if your media player can play the 140 Mbps Jellyfish File, you should be good to go for UHD rips.

Finally, if you're looking for sample files to test your media streamer's ability to play various audio/video formats/codecs, check out the Kodi Wiki Samples Page, maintained by hdmkv.