Encoding gurus: What bit rates do you encode your hi-def videos for wmv & quicktime?
 

I am trying to find the best balance of file size and video quality for different customers. I used to use a 750 Kbps video bitrate and 1500 Kbps video bitrate for 320x240 and 640x480 sized wmv videos in standard definition and that worked well.

Now with widescreen hdv shot videos at a 1440 x 1080 frame size or even halved to a 720 x 540 frame size the file sizes are getting HUGE and the encoding times ridiculously lengthy. I started using 4300 Kbps video bitrate and 1900 Kbps video bitrate for those two frame sizes respectively and the result is a 30 minute wmv movie ends up over 1 Gb in file size and takes half a day to encode even on a Pentium D dual core pc!

So I was curious what bitrates others were using and their results.

Bump for the morning crew.

I am interested in this also...I wonder if NoWhErE would know???? :(

about 1900 is what I use, though there are people that will say it is no longer High Def at that bit rate.

Do you understand what 'pixel aspect ratio' means?

You are shooting in 16:9, but 1440/1080 != 1.7777 (16:9).

We encode our 1280x720 WMV's at 3.7Mbps. Each UCV update contains ~ 0.75 to 1GB of video. If you want high quality videos, you have to have larger bitrates (therefore, larger files). There is no way around the file size issue without sacrificing quality.

Around 4000 kbps and upwards is fine for 1280x720 WMV's if you don't want your clips to look like shit. This of course will result in rather large files, but what did you expect? It's HDV after all...

As for rendering times: I switched to using a Quad-Core Mac Pro which handles it just fine. I usually let it render half a dozen clips in various resolutions and formats overnight or just do it in the background if it's just a couple short clips.

Thanks for the feedback. I guess I am in the ballpark since you guys are using similar bitrates.

What's your point about the pixel aspect ratio though? The pixel aspect ratio is 1.33 so the videos do indeed come out as a properly encoded 1440 x 1080 frame size file when displayed on a computer monitor.

Perhaps we're on the same page, but to clarify...

The 'actual' version (i.e., pixels) you see on your display is 1920x1080, not 1440x1080. The pixel aspect ratio times 1440x1080 will give you the actual pixels ('frame size') you see on your display.

If you look at the full size files (or the encoded wmv files for example) in WMP on a computer monitor, it always describes the size as 1440 x 1080 pixels under File-Properties however. I know if you hook the camera directly into a hd television it will display at 1920 x 1080, but that is another story.

This is due to the pixel aspect ratio.

If you play the "1440x1080" wmv file in the Windows Media Player and take a screencap, it will be 1920x1080. Again... this is due to the non square pixel aspect ratio (i.e., non 1:1).