Stupid question time? XVid encoding

Soldato
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Yeah I know, I've searched around the internet and think I already know the answer but here goes :D

Is there such as thing as knowing what bitrate to use when encoding to say for example XVid? I know that the bitrate is obviously directly related to the size of the end file but seeing stuff on the internet there are loads of so called 720p files. These are normally 1280 x 5xx with a bitrate of around 2500-3000. Now this bitrate isn't really that much higher then the same file at a res of 720 x 3xx.

So how the hell do the guys encoding the files work out what bitrate to use? Is there some sort of utility that would scan the source and give you low and high values or is it just simply a case of taking a best guess.
 
Soldato
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Overground, underground..
If you work it out, the bitrate of files on the internet is often chosen so the finished file is a certain size. eg for a TV series, an entire 'season' is encoded so that it fit's neatly onto a single DVD, movies fit onto a CD etc
 

mrk

mrk

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There are bitrate calculators out that can tell you the bitrate to use.

Also multiple passes are done so quality is usually good!
 
Caporegime
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If you want all the videos you encode to be the same quality then use a constant quality quantiser. It takes care of the bitrate for you giving you a variable filesize but guaranteed quality. Just experiment with different settings.
 
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