Constant Bitrate Vs. Variable Bitrate

[Habby]

Someone educate me here. I have this option in Pinnacle Studio 9 in the make disc section. Will either do a better job quality-wise? I am looking for the best quality. Constant bitrate or varible bitrate

[Baldrick]

search!
http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic...riable+bitrate

[bugster]

It comes down to playing time, quality required, type of material and a host of other factors.

If your required playing time is short enough to encode at a highish bitrate with CBR then you might as well use CBR. If your playing time is over 75 mins or so, then using a VBR type encode will generally give you a higher quality final product than a lowr bitrate CBR because it will allocate higher bitrate where required such as high motion scenes.

[jagabo]

If your playing time is over 75 mins or so, then using a VBR type encode will generally give you a higher quality final product than a lowr bitrate CBR because it will allocate higher bitrate where required such as high motion scenes.

You mean "than the same bitrate CBR"

[bugster]

If your playing time is over 75 mins or so, then using a VBR type encode will generally give you a higher quality final product than a lowr bitrate CBR because it will allocate higher bitrate where required such as high motion scenes.

You mean "than the same bitrate CBR"

Not really what I meant. If the playing time is longer, you have to use a lower bitrate for CBR than you would for a shorter playing time. With VBR you use a lower average bitrate, thats true, but the encoder allocates higher bitrates where most needed, thus the final quality is generally better.

As an example, CBR 5000Kb/s Vs VBR average bitrate 5000Kb/s, max 9000kb/s. The VBR will usually be better quality.

But CBR 8000kb/s Vs VBR average 8000kb/s, max 9000kb/s, you will probably not notice the difference.

[jagabo]

Bugster, that's much clearer.