(1) A DVD/Blu-ray mode (see
Bitstream mode).
(2) A series of bits. A bitstream may refer to any stream of bits transmitted on a network or in memory or storage. There is no standard format.
Bytestreams and Octet Streams
A stream of bytes is a bytestream. A stream of 6-bit characters is an "octet stream." Octal is human shortand for earlier 6-bit characters instead of the common 8-bit byte. All these streams are bitstreams. See
byte,
octet and
application/octet stream.