Why is the bit rate of my video so much lower than project settings?

[Guest]

For whatever reason the bit rate of my finished/rendered video is far lower than the settings I input in the menu. How do I fix this? (Pictures Below)

[R Neil Haugen]

That's showing it at what, about 4.6 Mbps?

Neil

[Guest]

No, the target bitrate is supposed to be 6k kbps but the finished video is 577 kbps.

[R Neil Haugen]

Mbps and Kpbs/Kbs are not the same thing at all. Don't confuse them. I was converting K/bs into Mbps for accurate comparison.

Neil

[Jim_Simon]

577 Kb/s is the same as 5.7 Mb/s, which is very near your Target.

I don't believe there is a problem here.

[Ann Bens]

Besides its vbr so if there is no motion there will be little max target.

[Guest]

Ummm no, 5.7 mbps is 5700 kbps not 577...

[Jim_Simon]

Oh yeah, I did the math wrong.

OK, next thing to check are the reported bitrates.  I recommend using either PotPlayer or VLC to play the media.  Both have tools to check bitrates during playback.

[Meg The Dog · Accepted solution]

Bit rate is flexed based on the complexity of the source material. If, for example, your video is an audio book reading and the video consists of 1 shot of the cover of the book and the audio track, when using Variable Bit Rate the bit rate will be very low as there is little for the codec to do. Once it compress the first video frame it just keeps repeating it.

If on the other hand, your video consists of a shot of surf and ocean waves, where there is almost constant motion in the shots, the bit rate will be at your upper limit because of this complexity. Every frame is different and needs to be compressed separately and each frame needs to be played back.

If you look at the video you export and it looks OK to you, then the bitrate is OK for the task at hand.

If you see objectionable artifacts after the compression, then switch to Constant Bit Rate and set it where you please.

As long as you are happy with the video quality, the lower the bit rate the faster the download/the smoother the streaming.

MtD

[Guest]

Changing it to CBR (Constant Bit Rate) seems to have made it better, still not the same as what I input for output, but still much better.

[Kristian Gabriel]

I definitely agree that VLC is a great way to check bitrates. I also love MediaInfo. Its free and will give you massive amounts of accurate information. MediaInfo - Download