Lowest "Acceptable" Bitrate

[snapware]

Just curious to see what people have to say is considered a low bitrate that is still decent video quality for mpg2 videos.

I am rendering a piece now where the max is 2,000,000 and the avg is set to 1,450,000

Can I go lower than that and still get acceptable quality on the tv?

[greymalkin]

acceptable is totally subjective and bitrates are very dependant on the quality/camerawork of the source. so without knowing exactly what you are re-encoding we can't give you even an approximate answer.

[Baldrick]

And you can use different resolutions/image sizes for dvd, 352x240, 352x480, 704x480, 720x480....for bitrates below 2Mbit would I use 352x480.

[Treebeard]

ditto what greymalkin said, also it depends on what this will be watched on and from what distance. a 13" tv it may look awesome, but put on a 42"lcd it will look like piece of crap. Lots to consider.

[jagabo]

Here's a way to find the lowest acceptable bitrate:

Use an encoder that supports constant quality encoding. Encode some short segments at different quality settings. Decide which is the lowest quality that's acceptable to you. Render the entire video at that quality setting. Look at average bitrate of the result. That's the lowest acceptable bitrate for that video for you.

Of course, since you've already encoded the video the information isn't of much value!

[ROF]

The lowest acceptable bitrate is the point at which on the output device the display is unacceptable to you. I've seen people claim that something is acceptable when in fact it hurts my eyes to watch. My idea of acceptable will without a doubt be vastly different from yours. I also might be viewing the output on a vastly superior/inferior device.

In short, acceptable bitrate depends on your own personal preference.

[snapware]

Do you think it's reasonable or unreasonable to squeeze 1 hour of mpg2 footage 720 x 480 into 1 gig of space

[Treebeard]

what is the source of the footage? is quality already bad? its all preference. For my home movies which is DV to DVD I prefer to keep no more than 2Hrs on a DVD.

[snapware]

Original quality is fine, but Yeah 2 hours on a dvd is cool, but problem is i rendered a big portion that is 1 hour and 15 mins, andi it's 3.32 Gigs, Now i need to squeeze all my bonus material onto the remainder of the dvd.