The 1600 bitrate mark, a question.

[bebopdeluxe]

Hi all, in doing some reading on the site I've come across a couple of people that mentioned a bitrate minimum of 1600 when converting to SVCD. Is there a technical reason for this or is this just a suggested minimum for quality? I have just converted an AVI using a bitrate of 1387 (so I can fit a 6 part series on 3 CDs vs. 6 CDs), it is supposedly from a DVD rip and looks superb, would it be that much better with a much higher bitrate?

[hwoodwar]

Yes, it is suggested to maintain a minimum quality level (I personally prefer even higher.) If you really think your 6-part series looks superb on 3 cds, then there is no real reason to re-encode at a higher bitrate.

What you could try is just to make a short test, cut (maybe five minutes) of a dark, and/or fast-action scene and encode at 1387 and at 1600+. Then burn both to the same SVCD and compare. This wouldn't take much time and would allow you to see the difference. The reason why I suggested making the cut of a dark scene, and/or fast action scene is that is the most likely place you may see a quality difference.

[bebopdeluxe]

Great suggestion, off to try it, thanks.