Video Bitrates and Export Myths

Video compression is vital. Getting the lowest file size with the best quality for the delivery medium doesn’t just save space, it also saves time and money.

Given the importance of video compression, and the complexity of the algorithms involved, it’s not surprising that there are plenty of myths and misconceptions surrounding this topic. So let’s start with a closer look at video compression in general, then we’ll break down some of these myths.

Contents

• What is bitrate?

• Constant bitrate vs variable bitrate

• A look at YouTube playback bitrates

• Video compression basics

• Lossy and lossless compression

• Hardware vs, software decoding and encoding

• Interlacing? Please no!

• Take advantage of Smart Rendering for faster exports

• Apps for calculating and checking bitrate and file size

• Myths Myth #1: MOV is better quality than MP4. (False) Myth #2: Higher bitrate yields higher quality. (Not always true) Myth #3: Export bitrate shouldn’t exceed the footage bitrate. (False) Myth #4: The YouTube HD preset is perfect for YouTube. (False) Myth #5: Just adjust your Target Bitrate to get your desired file size. (False) Myth #6: Video compression always reduces video quality. (False) Myth #7: 2-pass encoding is always better. (Partly true) Myth #8: Exporting high quality video takes a long time. (False) Myth #9: Upscaling to 4k gives you better HD quality. (Partly true) Myth #10: Exporting at a high bitrate will make the video stutter. (Partly true) Myth #11: You can’t export ProRes on a Windows system. (False)

• Summary of myths

• Conclusion

If you want to skip to the myths, click here .

What is bitrate?

A term you’ll bump into almost immediately when exporting a file is bitrate . Video bitrate is simply the number of bits (ones and zeros) used per second to describe the video image. The bitrate times the duration (in seconds) will be the size of the file.

It’s measured in bits per second (bps), but since video