Inspiring

Export set for 15Mbps, exported file is 30Mbps. What gives?

Forum|Forum|2 months ago
May 25, 2026
7 replies
191 views

As you can see from the screenshots, I’ve set the target bitrate for 15Mbps. When I actually render/export the video, the resulting file is 30Mbps. I’m on version 26.2.2 (Build 3). I got a new computer a few days ago. On my old computer, I was using an older version which did not have this problem.

When I set it by hand for 14Mbps, the resulting file is 25Mbps.

What gives?

KizzumeAuthor

Inspiring

Well, after the latest update, the problem is back. This is silly.

Averdahl

Community Expert

Why do you use VBR 1-pass instead of CBR? Is there any special reason why you opt for VBR 1-pass?

Since there is no way to set a Target and Maximum bitrate for VBR 1-pass it is more or less plain CBR.

VBR 1-pass=Only Target bitrate
CBR=Only Target bitrate

KizzumeAuthor

Inspiring

Because when there’s temporarily more details in the footage, CBR just doesn’t deliver.

This worked perfectly on the previous version, as I had said, and on all versions before a couple months ago. This is a recent thing, and I don’t know why they even LET me select something below 30 and tell me a small filesize if it’s not actually going to export it that way. This is a bug. This cannot be called a feature or have excuses made for it. If I can select something, and it says it’s going to do something, it should actually do what it says.

I just know that if they fix this again on the next version, I’m going to turn off automatic updates in case they bork it again.

KizzumeAuthor

Inspiring

After I installed the latest Nvidia drivers (from the 16th of this month) and updated Premiere, this problem no longer exists.

Averdahl

Community Expert

Great, thanks for reporting back! :)

Warren Heaton

Community Expert

@Kizzume:

Change the Bitrate Encoding pop-up menu from “VBR, 1-pass” to “VBR, 2-pass” where there’s a setting for Maximum Bitrate.

KizzumeAuthor

Inspiring

There is no VBR, 2 pass option. And why would I want to wait TWICE the time to render? That’s awful.

Warren Heaton

Community Expert

Scroll up a little higher and change the Performance pop-up menu from Hardware Encoding to Software Encoding.

Sometimes more processing time is required. It's just the nature of video encoding. When fast encode times are really important, hopefully we have figure out our hardware specifically for that purpose.

KizzumeAuthor

Inspiring

The forum says it needs more info. What more information do you need? I supplied the mediainfo files, and I explained that there ARE ways of making it work, but not variable bitrate using hardware encoding.

KizzumeAuthor

Inspiring

Anything? It’s been over a week now.

KizzumeAuthor

Inspiring

Any updates on this?

IanB_360

Community Manager

Hi @Kizzume
Thanks for including the screenshots.

One thing that stands out is that the bitrate value is being read from Windows File Properties. Before concluding that Premiere is ignoring the bitrate setting, I'd recommend checking the exported file with MediaInfo, as Windows Properties can sometimes report HEVC stream information differently than the encoder settings would suggest.

A few questions:

Does MediaInfo report a similar ~29 Mbps average bitrate?
Is the issue reproducible with both Hardware Encoding and Software Encoding?
Does the same behavior occur when exporting H.264 instead of HEVC?
If you switch from VBR 1 Pass to CBR, does the resulting bitrate still come out significantly above the target?

From the screenshots I can see:

HEVC (H.265)
Hardware Encoding (NVIDIA Codec)
VBR 1 Pass
Target Bitrate: 15 Mbps
3840x2160 at 60 fps

If MediaInfo confirms that the actual average video bitrate is nearly double the requested target, that would certainly be worth investigating further. If you can provide some sample files we can check them out for you as well.

Here to help
Ian

KizzumeAuthor

Inspiring

It gives the right filesize and bitrate when I do CBR, as well as when I do software encoding (which takes many times as long to process). When I encode in h.264, hardware encoding, it creates a file that is 23.7Mbps, which is still far too much.

Attached are the files MediaInfo created for the two video files in question.

RuPaul put out a recent video false 15Mbps.mp4.MediaInfo.txt

RuPaul put out a recent video h264.mp4.MediaInfo.txt

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