Request - Encoding and Compressing Movies?

[TheAnimeKingdom]

This is more of a "How the hell do they do it?" thread.

So, it's not rare to find MKV encodes of 40 minute episodes at 150MB. I'm currently encoding the X-files in DVD quality with modest encoding options. x264, 22 on the quality setting, and I'm getting 400MB files. How the hell do they get 150MB at the same quality as me?

[Sumato]

Sure, just calculate the necessary bitrate and encode it at that to get the desired size. Say the video is 5 minutes long:
(20,000kb*8bit)/(5min*60seconds) = 533kbps
Dropping the resolution will help a lot. But ultimately the bitrate is going to tell you exactly how big the file is when you're done. Lowering the resolution will just allow you to retain better quality.
That said, if your MP4 is currently 300MB, I'm guess that it is something like 40 minutes long. That is going to be incredibly difficult to get down to 20MB with any quality. Using the above formula:

(20,000kb*8bit)/(40min*60seconds) = 66kbps

I don't think you can reasonably get a video down to 66kbps unless it is tiny.

EDIT: Oh, you also need to factor in the bitrate of the audio component. Audio and video are encoded separately. That can be pretty low, but not insignificant considering your ultimate goal. Maybe 32kbps for audio is reasonable.

Handbrake does a great job on most files,
but I use Quick Media Converter by Cacoonsoftware:

Code:

http://www.cocoonsoftware.com/

It is free. No spyware. Tons of settings to play with and fairly easy to use.