Bitrate Difference between Movies and TV Shows

[bteamstephen]

I have been re-encoding my movies to a lower bitrate/smaller file size in order to cut down on storage space required for my video files.

For my movies, I have decided that I like a bitrate of 2500 bps since the movies I used to get from RARBG used this bitrate. I found this quality for 1080 movies is perfect for me. (1080, 2 pass VBR at 2500 bits/s).

However, I have moved on to applying this same bitrate to TV Shows in my library but I find that the quality (pixelation & halo effect) is noticeably lower compared to using the same settings for Movies.

I have tested this on TV Shows that have the same framerate as some of the Movies that I have tested and that doesn't seem to be the reason.

Can anyone help me understand - in general, is there some difference between movies and TV shows that I am missing which would require a higher bitrate to essentially get the same quality?

Happy to provide more info if needed... Thanks!

[johns0]

There's no difference between any movies or tv shows for bitrate settings,it's just what's provided by who puts out the videos.

[Cornucopia]

Per bitrate, there may be quality differences in progressive (more efficient) vs interlaced (less efficient), but the sources for most modern shows are primarily progressive and very high quality, regardless of whether it is longform/feature length vs short/episodic/serial, so the differences are more about shot content complexity.


Scott

[_Al_]

For my movies .... is perfect for me. (1080, 2 pass VBR at 2500 bits/s)!

Because you might waste bitrate, too much bitrate could be distributed. You never know using 2pass instead of single pass CRF.

same bitrate to TV Shows in my library but I find that the quality (pixelation & halo effect) is noticeably lower compared to using the same settings for Movies!

Scenes quality, across show, can vary, for example . Or you do not have enough bitrate allocated.

Overall using 2pass, all comparison logic is broken. You cannot compare things. You can get different quality per same intro scene in TV shows, because it depends on what actual content is, if keeping same bitrate (and time) total.

[jagabo]

For my movies, I have decided that I like a bitrate of 2500 bps since the movies I used to get from RARBG used this bitrate. I found this quality for 1080 movies is perfect for me. (1080, 2 pass VBR at 2500 bits/s).

However, I have moved on to applying this same bitrate to TV Shows in my library but I find that the quality (pixelation & halo effect) is noticeably lower compared to using the same settings for Movies.

This observation may because of properties of the particular movies and TV shows. But not as a firm rule. Some things that make movies more compressible:

1) Movies are often shot at 2.35:1 aspect ratio. When put on a Blu-ray disc or streamed they are usually letterboxed into a 16:9 (1.78:1) AR frame. So 25 percent of the frame is pure black -- which compresses down to nothing. TV movies are usually shot 16:9 to fit modern TV screens. So they have 25 percent more picture to compress.

2) A lot TV shows come from old studio video tapes (even if they're upscaled to BD or modern streaming/broadcast). Those will have a significant amount of tape noise which makes them harder to compress. Even if they were shot on film (and most TV shows were) they may be encoded interlaced after hard 3:2 pulldown. Or sometimes may be fully interlaced (news, soap operas, live sports).

3) Movies often have lots of very dark shots (especially some genres like horror and sci-fi). All those dark areas compress better than bright videos.

4) Limited color palettes (like all those blue/orange shots in a lot of modern movies) make them a little easier to compress.

5) If all you movies are anime/cartoons -- that is much easier to compress than live action.

I agree with others, you should use crf encoding rather than bitrate encoding. You'll always get the right bitrate for the quality you want. In general, I think 2500 kbps is too low for most 1080p movies.

[johns0]

Lot of tv shows are being shot at 2.35:1 aspect ratio now a days most likely to save on streaming costs.

[bteamstephen]

Thanks everyone for the replies. They truly did help inform me why I am getting the results from the settings I am using.

I was using those settings in order to keep a standard file size for each of my videos, which I now see is not a great idea. I realize now that the quality depends the characteristics of the scenes/frames being processed (thanks @jagabo for the detailed response).

I have been testing with various CRF values and trying to find the "sweet spot" that works for me personally. I would love to hear from you guys if you have a preferred value that you typically use for 1080 movies/tv shows. I know there has already been a lot of discussion on that around the video encoding forums, but just curious if anyone would like to share.

Thanks again! I am considering my issue solved, but not sure how to mark the thread as solved.

[jagabo]

I would love to hear from you guys if you have a preferred value that you typically use for 1080 movies/tv shows. I know there has already been a lot of discussion on that around the video encoding forums, but just curious if anyone would like to share.

With x264 I usually use crf 18 with standard definition videos, simetimes 20 with high def. With critical material I'll go a few units lower.