I'm looking to capture and archive approximately 1200 DVCAM tapes. The tapes are all being captured via firewire and will be backed up to harddrives. We are also looking to compress .mp4s from the captured AVIs as well. My question is, what is the best bitrate to create the .mp4s? I've seen some video vendors saying they would create 15mbps .mp4s, but I don't know why they chose 15mbps. I believe firewire captures DVCAM at 25mbps. I know there is a law of diminishing returns regarding the compression bitrate and file quaility. That being that the higher you go, the less you will notice a improvement in the quality. I'm just not sure what bitrate to compress the .mp4s at. 25mbps, 15mbps, 10mbps?

If you have ever done this and have a recommendation I would love to hear it.

Thanks!