VBR....benefits?, how to use it?

[LioCraft]

Hi there,
I read somewhere that VBR was way better than CBR, so I decided to ask how to use it. So far, I've been using BitRate calc to get the BotRate I need to fit a movie in n CDs. Using CBR I just change the setting to the number i get from the calculator and it fits...but "2 Pass VBR" asks for a min, max and avg BitRate.....
-how am I supposed to fill those blanks?
-the number I get from the calc is supposed to be the avg bitrate?
-would there be any difference in terms of quality using VBR instead of CBR?

Thx very much.

[Heavensent]

lets say you have a movie at a certin length, you have calculated
that the bitrate you need to fill in is 2000 CBR.
vbr can make the video look better, because it uses bitrate in a diffrent way.
you give it a min/everege/max bitrates,and it will give the movie
the bitrate where it needs it.
it will give a high action scene the max value
it will give a everage scene the avg
and the min for a scene that doesnt need more.

if you gave the same movie a VBR 1500(min) 2000(avg) 2500(max)
you will get better qulity then if you used a CBR of 2000
and you will get about the same size of file on both.

BUT if you use CBR of 2500,
it will look better then VBR (with max of 2500)

[Gazorgan]

From yor bitrate calcualtor, take the bitrate to hit a CD size and put it in your average value. Set your minimum to ...oh say 1/2 of that? You didn't say if you were doing Xvid/DivX or SVCD/DVD. Your max is another story. For SVCD, some players have a maximim around 2250, as opposed to over 9000 for DVD's. Some players will do SVCD streams at 4000-5000, whereas other bomb at 2500.....experiment! In DivX/XviD, there is no max per se, although 4000 is a practical maximum.

Quality in VBR is much better than CBR, especially in action scenes, and longer movies.

[LioCraft]

I'm doing VCDs (SVCD + Header Trick) from xVid / DivX movies.

Thx for the replaying, I' try a couple of VCDs to test VBR.

[Conquest10]

vcds don't support vbr.

[awhitney]

XVCDs support vbr, I have and works great!