# How exactly Wowza adapts the stream bitrate for the viewer

**URL:** <https://community.wowza.com/t/how-exactly-wowza-adapts-the-stream-bitrate-for-the-viewer/51221>\
**Category:** Wowza Video (Formerly Streaming Cloud)\
**Created:** [April 27, 2018, 3:52pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-exactly-wowza-adapts-the-stream-bitrate-for-the-viewer/51221 "2018-04-27T15:52:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Gianpaolo\_Papa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e4f/32.png) [@Gianpaolo\_Papa](https://community.wowza.com/u/Gianpaolo_Papa)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2018, 3:52pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-exactly-wowza-adapts-the-stream-bitrate-for-the-viewer/51221/1 "2018-04-27T15:52:24Z")

</div>

Guys please could you let me know–

1. Is it the case that the connection quality is established when the viewer connects and then doesn’t change or can the quality adapt throughout?

Does it do so every minute, every thirty seconds…?

1.1) What renditions are available on Wowza or is it a sliding scale?

Any help is highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Andy\_Wong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@Andy\_Wong](https://community.wowza.com/u/Andy_Wong)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2018, 7:13pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-exactly-wowza-adapts-the-stream-bitrate-for-the-viewer/51221/2 "2018-04-28T19:13:12Z")

</div>

For HLS (in adaptive bitrate, ABR), the video quality is selected by the HLS player. Are you asking how the list of ‘Compatible Players’ in [https://www.wowza.com/products/streaming-cloud](https://www.wowza.com/products/streaming-cloud) does the HLS ABR quality adaptation ?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mac\_Hill](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/community.wowza.com/mac_hill/32/434_2.png) [@Mac\_Hill](https://community.wowza.com/u/Mac_Hill)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 8:56pm UTC](https://community.wowza.com/t/how-exactly-wowza-adapts-the-stream-bitrate-for-the-viewer/51221/3 "2018-05-29T20:56:08Z")

</div>

Hello,

As long as you configure the transcoder to be adaptive bitrate (with multiple renditions) then the player will adapt and adjust as needed after each chunk is requested. So if you use the default chunk duration, it would be every 10 seconds.

The transcoder templates default to

3840x2160

1920x1080

1280x720

854x480

640x360

512x288

320x180

So by default we will pass through your source and then transrate everything below that.

I hope this makes sense and is helpful.

Regards,

Mac