Spot said, "To determine bitrate up to 8000kpbs, use a bitrate calculator unless your project is shorter than an hour."

Let's say I have a completed project that's 30 minutes. Is there an advantage to just go Constant Bit Rate at 8,000 kpbs since I have the room? I have done this many times and it played and looked fine, just wondering if I am wasting rendering time or something.

Or is VBR, say, 8000/6000/192 just as good?

Thanks,
Jeff

The absolutely critical thing that you must do is - DON'T EVER use the Default MPEG2 template. That template has a very low quality setting and will ruin your resulting video. Always use one of the other templates as DSE mentioned.

Hey, if you have the space and the time, I'd use the 8000kpbs template, yes. but unless it's reasonably high motion or fine detail, you won't be gaining much. MPEG looks for the differences between frames. A talking head won't require as high a bitrate as a NASCAR event or a closeup pan of a detailed sculpture.

Reminds me that, a couple of years ago, I was just getting my feet wet with MPEG2 encoding. I was using a really nice encoder called CinemaCraft, which had the added feature of being able to review the encoded MPEG2 video and see on a graph just how much bitrate was needed to encode the various parts of the entire project.

The video was of a family trip to Texas. I was astonished to see that, from time to time, the bitrate zoomed up to the maximum value I had allowed and stayed there for a few seconds before dropping down. Upon reviewing the video, I discovered that my dad was wearing a rather colorful golf shirt full of highly-intricate designs. Whenever he was in the video, the bitrate pegged at the maximum.

Rendering fine detail (pebbles at the beach, leaves on a tree, video noise) really stresses an MPEG2 encoder. That's why my VX-2000 makes such nice DVDs--even in low light, there is very little video noise.