Thorsten Froehlich <tho### [at] trfde> wrote:
> Inquisitor wrote:
> > Can anyone suggest a better method?  I have already done a search on this forum
> > and checked the resources page, which led me to these.  Anyone have a better
> > route to get to 720p?  I want to work on Windows and prefer freeware.  I don't
> > really have any plans of going professional.
>
> ffmpeg <http://ffmpeg.org/> is free and can do what you want. The package is
> mainly developed on Linux, BUT Windows binaries are available as well as GUI
> frontends, see: <http://www.videohelp.com/tools/ffmpeg>
>
>  Thorsten

Thanks Thorsten, Once I connected to your second link to get the Windows
versions, I was successful!  The UI doesn't seem to handle working with
bitmaps, but running the ffmpeg.exe in the command prompt does fine... once I
figured what to use for settings.

Which brings me to a tuning issue.
I've fiddled with the bitrates and I see a drastic quality difference.  Is there
any rules of thumb for setting the bitrate?  Obviously, higher is always better.
 But I'm guessing that at some point equipment can't keep up.

CASE 1 - DVD players... what can a typical DVD player handle, before it pauses
or pixilates?

CASE 2 - I'm creating a 720p video - 1280x720x15 frames/second using mp4.  I
want to put it up on YouTube.  I know their size quotas and I'm way under that
even with very high bitrates, but factoring in typical download rates to home
broadband Internet connections, what kind of bitrate should I aim for?

Thanks.

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