Has anyone used the Bit Rate Viewer 1.4 freeware tool which can be found at www.visualdomain.net? (Not to be confused with the Bitrate Viewer trialware tool in the Tools section here.) I tried it and I'm skeptical of its output. First, it reads the source DVD disc for about 1 second and then gives an average bit rate graph for the whole DVD. Does this mean that bit rate calculations can be determined from the IFO file or from the VOB file headers without the need to scan them all completely?

On DVDs encoded with TMPGEnc using 2-pass VBR, I find its reported average bitrate fairly accurate, but it shows momentary peaks hitting 10000 kbps which exceed the maximum I set at 9000. Is the bitrate really exceeding my maximum or does this tool use inaccurate approximations?

On DVDs encoded at CBR with Pinnacle Studio 8, I find its reported average bitrate is far less than what I set in Pinnacle. For instance, something encoded at 5000 kbps CBR showed up around 2000 in the Bitrate Viewer tool. I watched the DVD and know that it can't be 2000 kbps because its quality is decent.

These same DVDs when played on an old Pioneer player which has an on-screen bit rate meter shows different numbers. On the TMPGEnc encoded DVD at 6000 kbps VBR average (4000 minimum, 9000 maximum), it shows about 5.1 most of the time. On the Pinnacle encoded DVD at 5000 kpbs CBR, it stays near 4.2 most of the time.

This makes me wonder if Visualdomain's Bit Rate Viewer and the Pioneer DVD player are somewhat inaccurate, or if the encoding programs are inaccurate. Can anyone explain these discrepancies or should I find a different bit rate analysis tool, such as the trialware Bitrate Viewer here? I was merely trying to save a little money by trying Visualdomain's freeware version first. Thanks.