mpeg streamclip exporter option "quality"

[meatwad666]

I've attached a screenshot of the window in question with the region i'm asking about highlited. If i set the "limit data rate" option, does the "quality" slider do anything? the reason I ask is that i'm having a bear of a time to get my encodes to come out as 700 MB (and to try and make the size limit clear, i'm refering to the maximum amount of data that can be stored on a normal 80min cd-r) and despite my best efforts, cant get any mac products to hit the mark consistently (autoGK gets it done right, but xvid is slower than x264 and i'm trying to avoid bootcamping XP

[rumplestiltskin]

The "quality" slider affects only that: Quality. The firther to the right you set the slider, the longer the encoding will take.

The "limit data rate" box is what you modify in order to reduce the size. Frankly, that "2170 kbps" you've set seems pretty high for H264. I usually use around 550-700 for my vids that I play through my iPod to my TV. Perhaps your source material is considerably higher than the 2170 and you need that high a data rate to maintain quality?

[terryj]

[deleted by Poster. H.264 does not allow for "options" to be active,
like other codecs.]

[meatwad666]

the source is transport streams captured from OTA or clear QAM HDTV; so if i swing it up to 100% it just takes longer? the reason i use such a high data rate is becuase i'm encoding to a large frame size, and displaying on an HDTV, so PQ counts....

[meatwad666]

nm

[rumplestiltskin]

I use the 100% setting when I encode AVIs to H264 for my iPod but this is because I need to squeeze as much "quality" into the video for eventual display on my SD TV. I could increase the data rate but I'd prefer not to have the file size be too large.