Mobile paysite - what video bitrate?
 

Looking for suggestions on what bitrate to encode my videos... My samples look pretty good at 500kbps on my Iphone, but it buffers like crazy on my shitty costa rican fake 3g. I've tested with 400, 500, 600, and now they're all starting to look the same quality-wise...

Is 400kbps too low to offer a paying mobile member? Am I way off base and could be encoding this shit at 200kbps?

I'm encoding my mobile members mp4s at 480x270 1000kbps and have had no complaints about buffering. Am interested to see what bitrate other mobile sites are doing as well.

Damn 1kbps is way higher than I ever planned... I want my shit loading fast, and 600kbps looks fine (granted all my stuff is pretty gritty and amateur, well lit high quality glam stuff will require a higher bitrate I'm sure).

I was considering offering low and high bw versions at 300 and 600kbps.

(480x360 or 480x270 for me too, depending on the aspect ratio of the original).

bump bump

Id love to talk to some people who are "into" the encoding of various mobile video formats.
Been testing this myself for a couple months now, and i think we should share some knowledge (icq/aim/msn) so we can help eachother find the best ways.

Im even willing to test stuff out for others, maybe you can test for us, we test for you etc.

Contact info in sig.

I have all of the info that topbucks gave out during their mobile seminar but I'm on my iPhone right now. Will try and post it later.

Off top of my head was something like 300 3g 500 ? And 750 wifi

My personal opinion would be 300 for 3g and 700 for wifi.

this is what i do myself. I dont sell much mobile porn but when i put it on my ipod it looks awesome, good buffer time and very clear video. I have the pleasure of using FC Studios so it has presets for Ipods, phones, and what not which makes my life easier.

mobile resolutions: edge = 320x180 3g = 428x240 wifi = 720x400
Edge (low): 200kbps 3G (medium): 600kbps WiFi (High): 1000kbps

I would have to say topbucks has been one of the most successful mobile programs there is so they must be doing something right. :)

Kristin... hope you guys dont mind me posting this... was from your mobile seminar some of us took part in.

Have us do it for you :)

I did my whole members area in like an hour using one command and ffmpeg... I'm a one man show yo.

But is it working on all phones now?
Theres a lot of secret/problems surrounding playable videos on mobiles.

I even notice it playing on one iphone, not playing on the next, then playing on blackberry, the next blackberry doesnt have sound, the next one doesnt see videos etc etc.