Client Bitrate Settings vs Sync Settings

[Dizzy49 94]

I've been playing with the settings on the various devices we have.  Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, HTC One M8, and HTC G Pad.  The two Galaxy devices are a bit older, so I lowered the client bitrate on them to 720p 1MB, and they play beautifully over the LAN.  I wanted to sync a few things on my daughters tablet for our upcoming trip.  When I went to sync I expected similar options but was surpised at what I found.

The sync setting descriptions were quite vague and I had NO idea what to select.  I tried to do a custom setting, but it would not allow me to enter anything into the bitrate field.

 

While I think that it's cool that you can schedule a sync to another device, I would guess the two main use cases are syncing to that device, or syncing to a folder on the server for that device.  In which case, I think an option of "For This Device" would make sense, and would use the audio for the device and the bitrate selected.

 

I'm still struggling on what to select for the Samsung devices.  Suggestions?

 

I was going to look into the Sync to Dropbox or Google Drive.  Are there any issues copyright issues there?  I would think that would all fall under fair use, but I know the studios aren't exactly known for being sensible when it comes to those things.

[Luke 37060]

if you're unsure, best thing to do is trust the defaults. high quality will generally be at the same bitrate as the original, perhaps even syncing the original file. medium and low will both be fractions of the original designed to conserve space.

[Dizzy49 94]

I picked a short episode and did a bunch of variations so I could compare them  The baseline Custom (Bitrate: 1) gave me a 720x404 @ ~640k, and approx 85% smaller file size.  The Baseline-Low gave me 1280x720 @ ~1.2Mb and approx 75% smaller file.  Baseline-Medium gave me a 1920x1080 @ ~2.5Mb and approx 50% smaller file.

 

Baseline-Medium is overkill for the tablet, and the Baseline-Custom(1) is a bit too small, so I think the Baseline-Low is perfect for it.    The Baseline-Medium is prob good for my G Pad and HTC M8, but I prob wouldn't notice the diff between the Low and Medium on those devices.