Anyone got a cheat sheet for ideal video bitrate vs resolution?
 

I'm whipping up some quick clips at different dimensions, just want to get a rough idea of how to set my encoding presets. This would be for web delivery, so I can't just scale filesize up to a hardcoded media (DVD, Blueray, etc) limit.

I'm interested in this too.

I'll be following this thread.

Bump for this, anyone?

It isnt really that simple.

While there are general guidelines current codecs like H.264 look at delta changes from frame to frame so a perfectly good setting for a movie without a lot of quick cuts and busy frames movement wise would look like ass in a different style of shooting.

I suggest you learn what the parameters in the codec you are using do. It should also be noted that not all devices will play a full set of H.264 profiles.

Yup, I know that - hence the term "rough idea". With a lot of my antique footage you have a great deal of motion simply from scratches/artifacts/flicker on the old film, so I typically adjust accordingly. I was just looking for general guidelines as you say, for the different standard sizes. And far as parameters (this will be H.264 FWIW) I'm just looking at bitrate for these purposes - the rest I have optimized for my footage.

Something like that at the bottom of this page https://developer.apple.com/library/...8332-CH102-SW1

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?hl=en

i think they suggest a bit more than necessary

This one is almost a college course.


I know all of the answers, but it would be a full page of technical explanations of what is what.



One thing I can tell you for sure; There is an absolute difference between a $40 compressor and a $1500 compressor.


The point of having a good compressor is to get the best quality files at its smallest size. If you get this formula right, you can have the right quality formula with a reduced bandwidth bill. This is so important if you have a large amounts of video, I can't even stress enough. And it will be h.264 wrapped up with MP4, .mov, etc.


And for 4K look out for h.265 wrapped up with MP4 coming out soon.


I learned this when I was shooting 3D content 4+ years ago. I was shooting 2 EX3s and overlaying both files over each other. (Massive Files)


The 3D pop and depth looked best uncompressed. As we would compress both over laid files, the pop and depth would noticeably get worse and worse as far as the 3D was concerned.


This was my 1st experiences with actually being able to measure different compressors and how their algorithm worked. This was done with a shit ton of reading with actually testing out what I would read. I was paid very well of my research and answers.


Thats when I saw for myself that cheaper compressors were in fact that..Cheap!


I would work on this 12 hours per day for months with visual tests after tests.



So without getting too into it, my solution for the best compressor out there is Sorenson Squeeze. http://www.sorensonmedia.com


I use that and or Matrox with Max with Apple's compressor for quality and speed.



What ever you choose, you will still have to test, tweak and test and tweak until you get what works best for you.


Hope that helps a bit.



Just Dave

Thanks for the info Just Dave, and yeah - I used to have a license for Sorenson and they were easily the best in my experience.

I actually have my own workflow setup that works pretty well for my purposes far as codec & settings go, that part's nothing new to me and I've definitely put a lot of trial & error into it too.

Right now just got a quick and dirty project where I need to whip up a bunch of clips in bulk at different resolutions, so again basic guidelines are all I need for this one.

MaDalton - that probably covers it, thanks!

For sure. Always like to help others when I can.


Just Dave