Is higher bit rate = better quality??

[imdaman]

i have 2 of the same clip same dimension but 1 is higher about ~80 more bitrate but it seems to be the same quality.

[redwudz]

What format? +80 (Kb/s?) probably won't make much difference with a high quality MPEG. But it might make a difference with the visible quality of a highly compressed WMV or RM file.

[guns1inger]

There are also many other factors to take into account, including

1. Condition and quality of the source
2. The number of times it has been encoded
3. Which encoder was used (they are not all equal)
4. How the encoder was configured
5. Overall video bitrate

And as Redz has rightly pointed out, 80kbps is a spit in the ocean in the big picture scheme of things for high bitrate video. And for low bitrate video, while it might be better, the low quality might make the difference marginal anyway.

[jman98]

Yes, higher bit rate does equal higher quality. As the others have said, a difference of 80 in the bit rate certainly won't be noticeable. For example, I could give you a DVD encoded at a constant bit rate of 6000 Kbps and the same video encoded at a constant bit rate of 6080 Kbps and you wouldn't be able to tell a difference. You could tell a difference in the same video encoded at 3000 Kbps and 6000 Kbps though.

[imdaman]

Thanks for the info guys

[RabidDog]

If you re-encode a 1000kb bitrate avi (divx) file into a higher bitrate avi (divx) file, the file will be higher bitrate but of lower quality. If however you are using a hi quality source and have two encoded files of different bitrates say 1000kb and 1500kb then the higher rate one should be greater quality.