Bitrate balance

jamesd1981

Active Member
Any serious video editors have any guides for balancing bitrate with quality with file size ?

I have some huge video files on my drive which when it was just a small amount was fine, but as the collection gets bigger i am becoming more aware of how quick space is vanishing, would like to get a nice spot of lower file size, but just before the point of losing quality.

The main resolutions i work with is 1080, 2k, 4k

I know to go higher than the original file is pointless, but how low can i go at these resolutions before quality drops.

I have checked various original files from the cameras I use.

My gopro at 4k with 30fps sets a bitrate of 60mbps, at full hd with faster 120fps it`s also 60mbps

My dashacam at full hd with 30fps sets a bitrate of 15mbps

Do these bitrates seem about right or could i drop them any to lower file size ?
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Depends what kind of quality you want really. Normally for my 4K videos I've rendered at about 40mbps and the picture quality is good and the file size is large (about 24GB for an 80 minute video in MP4 h.264). I think with 4K you can drop it down to about 20-25mbps and probably still be OK. I probably wouldn't go lower than about 10 or 15mbps.

For 1080p I usually do about 20mbps and again the picture quality is very good and the file size is large (about 12GB for a 70 minute video in MP4 h.264) so you can probably go to about 10mbps and it will still look good. Your dashcam records at 15mbps but if you wanted the files to be smaller you could step it down to about 10 or maybe even less (I've often used about 7mbps for 1080p and it's been fine). I wouldn't go lower than 3 or 4 though.
 

jamesd1981

Active Member
Well pretty much want the quality to stay as high as possible in most cases, especially anything i post on Youtube, so you think a decent rule would be stick to the rates of the original recorded file and perhaps slightly lower bit rate for footage that doesn`t need to be A quality ?
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
If you want to upload to YouTube you probably want the file size to be a bit smaller so just reduce it a bit from the original. Maybe 5mbps lower? Unless you really want the absolute best quality.
 

jamesd1981

Active Member
Thanks Jason, sticking to the original bit rate for H.264, but testing various settings for H.265 then converting to H.264 for upload to Youtube

So i can do all my videos in H.265 to save some drive space, but due to Youtube not STILL not supporting H.265, i have to convert to a temp file of H.264 to upload
 

ssal

Active Member
Any serious video editors have any guides for balancing bitrate with quality with file size ?

I have some huge video files on my drive which when it was just a small amount was fine, but as the collection gets bigger i am becoming more aware of how quick space is vanishing, would like to get a nice spot of lower file size, but just before the point of losing quality.

The main resolutions i work with is 1080, 2k, 4k

I know to go higher than the original file is pointless, but how low can i go at these resolutions before quality drops.

I have checked various original files from the cameras I use.

My gopro at 4k with 30fps sets a bitrate of 60mbps, at full hd with faster 120fps it`s also 60mbps

My dashacam at full hd with 30fps sets a bitrate of 15mbps

Do these bitrates seem about right or could i drop them any to lower file size ?
A 5TB backup drive is about $110. At that price, you can afford to get 2-3 of them and backup your videos by the year it was made. I can't imagine you'd need more than 3 of them unless videography is your livelihood. That would save you all the trouble of resizing your existing videos (not an easy task).
 

ssal

Active Member
His issue, as I read it, was "free space disappearing".
The easiest solution is to get more storage space, which is also cheap.

I don't know if you have tried to resize (convert) a video. I did that and it is not pretty. It takes a lot of time, once at a time.

Also, OP indicated that he would like to keep the highest quality possible.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
His issue, as I read it, was "free space disappearing".
Any serious video editors have any guides for balancing bitrate with quality with file size ?
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