Good bitrate to encode a DV file captured from a VHS tape to h264 mp4?

[incubuscsg]

I have several DV files (in AVI containers) captured from a VHS tape. Obviously these files are ginormous at 13GB per hour of video/audio. I want to encode them into h264 files in mp4 containers. I was wondering what bitrate I should select for the lowest file size while still maintaining very good quality. I would assume I could get away with a lower bitrate since VHS quality isn't that good to begin with, but am not sure and wonder since they are in DV format now, if the original format of VHS is irrelevant.

[yoda313]

Use a bitrate calculator to find out.

[jagabo]

Use constant quality encoding and you'll always get the right bitrate for the quality you ask for. VHS usually requires more bitrate than DVD because it is noisy and full of time base wiggle. Those two things eat up bitrate.