Bitrate Calculators - Resolution Question

I just captured about 2 hours of home videos and I wanted to convert them into DivX to fit on one 80-minute CD. I've tried a bunch of Bitrate Calculators, but none of them have a place to put picture resolution in.

Is that to say bitrate vs. file size is completely independent of resolution. Am I missing something?

Any insight is greatly appreciated!

[DivXExpert]

No matter how high or low the resolution is, the program is still only going to encode 500kb per second of video (if your bitrate is 500kbps).

If you encode at movie at 720x480 @ 500kbps its going to be the same file size as
320x240 @ 500kbps

Because its only gonna spend 500kb every second of video.

Ahhh! Kind of like "which weighs more: 5 lbs. of feathers or 5 lbs. of lead?" Gotcha!

Thanks!

[Jukka]

Ok so the follow up question has to be - which is better 325x288 @ 500k or 704x576 @ 500k?

[MOVIEGEEK]

Ok so the follow up question has to be - which is better 325x288 @ 500k or 704x576 @ 500k?

704x576 will look sharper but take approx.twice as long to encode.

[andkiich]

Also, it depends on your source material and your capturing hardware.

[ktnwin]

Ok so the follow up question has to be - which is better 325x288 @ 500k or 704x576 @ 500k?

Answer:
352x288 at 500k will look just OK if not bad
704x576 at 500k will look like crap for sure

other answers:
352x288 at 3000 kbps look marvelous
704x576 at 3000 kbps look barely OK

Hope you find these answers helpful.

[funkguy4]

For Frame res calc, use the one in the signature!

[DivXExpert]

Say you have a bitrate of 1000kbps. 352x240 is going to be more blurry due to a lack of pixles, but because there will be more bits put in every pixle there will be less macroblocks. 720x480 will look a ton sharper, but there will also be alot of blocks because there will not be enough bits for every pixle.

[Jukka]

So that explains why DVD -> VCD conversion even at 850Kbps looks perfectly acceptable on a 28" TV then.