[MPlayer-users] Re: Bitrates and File Size

[Jonathan Rogers]

Ethan John wrote:
>> If you can't hit the target size, the ratecontrol has decided that this
>> quality is enough :) -> "let's not waste anymore bits".
> 
> The reason I have a hard time believing this is that the movies have 
> noticeable artifacts -- seems like if even I can tell that the bitrate 
> isn't high enough, the encoder should be able to tell too. =- )

It's been my experience that libavcodec often shoots too low. That is, 
it often ends up with an average bitrate (what mencoder reports at the 
end, AFAIK) lower than what was requested and it never gives a higher 
average. I've often had to request a bitrate significantly higher than 
what I want to get there.

Jonathan Rogers