Bitrate Question

[Anakin]

Is there a standard bitrate people use? I don't mean like standard as in 1150 for VCD. I mean, a standard that everyone seems to use. My standard for 352x576 is 4000. Im just wondering what everyones standard is.

[redwudz]

That's really what bitrate calculators are used for. For DVDs, higher is better, up to a point. Above 9000kbps-10,000kbps, you may have problems. For me, below about 3500kbps, I'm probably going to switch to 1/2D1 format.

A lot depends on the quality of the source video, and it's length and the size I need it to be, how much action is in the video and how much noise it has. Noise or camera shake eats up bitrate and requires higher settings. No standards otherwise.

I'm assuming you are asking about MPEG-2?

[jagabo]

I usually use constant quality (aka constant quantizer, target quantizer) encoding.

[manono]

There is no standard. You use whatever bitrate you need to fill whatever medium you're burning to. If you're not burning to DVDR or to CD (like keeping them on an HTPC media server, for example, where size isn't as much of a consideration), then you might make them for a certain quality, which could mean virtually any bitrate.

[thecoalman]

I think it's safe to say everyone has their own standard, there's a few factors in deciding on a bitrate. Some are personal such as if you are trying to get as much as possible on the disc and quality is not that great an issue, others are technical such as considering the source. Is the footage of choir practice or a football game, choir practice isn't going to require much bitrate but a football game will. Is the source super high quality where even using 8000kbps will degrade it? Is it some crappy old noisy VHS with a lot of camera shake which would require a lot of bitrate? And lastly the biggest factor, what resolution are you encoding at.

Lot of things to consider but having said that for 720x480 I usually use 6000kbps .

[Anakin]

Ok, I seem to have put it wrong. What I meant is, what is the best for A, no pixelation or very little, and B, Not too big of a file size. Like inbetween. Using 1000kbps for a mpg2 file of 352x576 seems stupid as does 9200.

[thecoalman]

Using 1000kbps for a mpg2 file of 352x576 seems stupid as does 9200.

Yes it would be, I believe 4000 is pushing the upper limits for a resolution of 352x576 . Basically you are insuring the best possible quality for that resolution. Lordsmurf has a chart somewhere on his site that gives basic upper and lower limits for bitrates according to resolution, I think it's under the encoding section. www.digitalfaq.com

[jagabo]

Ok, I seem to have put it wrong. What I meant is, what is the best for A, no pixelation or very little, and B, Not too big of a file size. Like inbetween. Using 1000kbps for a mpg2 file of 352x576 seems stupid as does 9200.

Use constant quality encoding and you'll get exactly the right bitrate for the quality you specify.

[Anakin]

Ok, I seem to have put it wrong. What I meant is, what is the best for A, no pixelation or very little, and B, Not too big of a file size. Like inbetween. Using 1000kbps for a mpg2 file of 352x576 seems stupid as does 9200.

Use constant quality encoding and you'll get exactly the right bitrate for the quality you specify.

I cant find it on TMPGenc 3

[redwudz]

Look here:

[Anakin]

Thats TMGEnc 2

[AlanHK]

Call me a Philisitine, but I'm happy with encoding TV episodes at 1650k, for 720x480 res. That gets about 6 hours per DVD, which keeps the clutter down.

I use HCEnc, which seems to squeeze very high quality out of the bits. A bit of macroblocking on swathes of black, no pixellation even on fast motion.

Higher rates don't make a noticeable improvement when viewed on my 29" CRT. (And I have tried up to 4000.) I'm not concerned about "how bad it will look in 20 years" on a wall-sized screen or piped directly into my brain, since I'll probably be dead by then, and if not, and still interested in antique TV shows, will be able to download a super-duper-res 3D version for a few cents.

Flame on...