Video Converting HD 720p .mov to .mp4?

[jamorama]

I currently have a canon sd780is which records video in .mov, but the file size is way too big for its quality at (I think) nearly 24 mbps! I am thinking about converting them to .mp4 (or is there a better container...?) using adobe media encoder but am not fully sure about the bitrate needed (I've tested various ones, but truthfully can't decide on which is the best balance of quality and size) and the frames per second (camera records at 30, so for now I'm thinking 30). Can anyone help?

[Baldrick]

Can you select any constant quality encoding in adobe encoder? Then try it. Or else I would try around 2-5mbit and try and see.

Use same framerate as the source.

[guns1inger]

The camera shoots in H264 with LPCM audio. You can immediately save space by re-encoding the audio at a lower bitrate - 256kbps AC3 or AAC is probably enough for stereo in most cases. Use MediaInfo to find out what the true bitrate it. It isn't 24Mbps, or you wouldn't be able to fit much on the SD cards - certainly not what the maker is claiming. My guess is maybe 8Mbps, probably less. I don't hear much that is good about the quality of the Adobe Encoder, so perhaps you might consider Xvid4PSP or Handbrake for re-encoding.

[jamorama]

The camera shoots in H264 with LPCM audio. You can immediately save space by re-encoding the audio at a lower bitrate - 256kbps AC3 or AAC is probably enough for stereo in most cases. Use MediaInfo to find out what the true bitrate it. It isn't 24Mbps, or you wouldn't be able to fit much on the SD cards - certainly not what the maker is claiming. My guess is maybe 8Mbps, probably less. I don't hear much that is good about the quality of the Adobe Encoder, so perhaps you might consider Xvid4PSP or Handbrake for re-encoding.

I'm pretty sure about the bitrate. On average, my 8gb sd card can hold approx 45 minutes. 24 megabits translates into 3 megabytes per second, 180mb per minute, and 8100mb per 45 minutes (so a little over). I'm sure this is overblown, as I have tv recordings in 720p that are less than 6megabytes per second (some even less) that have a clearer picture (obviously, an sd780 isn't going to outperform any true hd recorder, not hoping that will happen, but I want to cut down on the file size).

[jamorama]

Can you select any constant quality encoding in adobe encoder? Then try it. Or else I would try around 2-5mbit and try and see.

Use same framerate as the source.

I am not aware of such a setting, and have tried multiple bitrates. I am not sure why, but vlc shows degrading (just the player, or the converter?) of the overall quality and contrast even if there's no bitrate drop, and a quality drop is minute but noticeable. I did try 20mbps, 10mbps, 5mbps, and 3mbps all of which was slightly (I took a frame from each and viewed it, and it was slightly noticeable) different. Any ideas?

Update: Upon using handbrake, I have found the constant quality encoding. As default, the bitrate translate to around 6mbps I think at around 62%. The quality seems to have been converted quite well. As for the percentage, however, can you explain what exactly it is for? Thanks.