Ripping TV Episodes: Bitrate or File-size (Handbrake)

[JonHimself]

So I've just started to move past ripping my movies with Handbrake on to my TV episode DVDs. I've encountered a problem recently that i was hoping to get some help from. Would it better to rip according to file size or to go by average bitrate. Using examples, would it be better to rip TV shows at 3000kbps for shows I like/need detail and then 2000kbps for others and end up with different file sizes for each episode (most have a minute of variation in lengths) or should I instead rip shows I like at 600mb target size and 400mb for others then have mixed bitrates for each show.
Space isn't a concern but I'm not sure if I would rather have all episodes of one show be the same bitrate and different file sizes, or the same file sizes and different bitrates.

 

[zedsdead]

So I've just started to move past ripping my movies with Handbrake on to my TV episode DVDs. I've encountered a problem recently that i was hoping to get some help from. Would it better to rip according to file size or to go by average bitrate. Using examples, would it be better to rip TV shows at 3000kbps for shows I like/need detail and then 2000kbps for others and end up with different file sizes for each episode (most have a minute of variation in lengths) or should I instead rip shows I like at 600mb target size and 400mb for others then have mixed bitrates for each show.
Space isn't a concern but I'm not sure if I would rather have all episodes of one show be the same bitrate and different file sizes, or the same file sizes and different bitrates.

Why not rip them all at 2500 and call it a day...I don't think you really are going to see a difference between 3,000 and 2,500...If you do, and space is not an issue, but all means rip the ones you want at a higher bit rate...why does it matter which shows are larger than others?

 

[stomer]

Space isn't a concern but I'm not sure if I would rather have all episodes of one show be the same bitrate and different file sizes, or the same file sizes and different bitrates.

These days I tend to just set the quality rate. 68% does it for me. I just don't see the point in setting a high bitrate for content that has relatively low resolution.

 

[gnasher729]

So I've just started to move past ripping my movies with Handbrake on to my TV episode DVDs. I've encountered a problem recently that i was hoping to get some help from. Would it better to rip according to file size or to go by average bitrate. Using examples, would it be better to rip TV shows at 3000kbps for shows I like/need detail and then 2000kbps for others and end up with different file sizes for each episode (most have a minute of variation in lengths) or should I instead rip shows I like at 600mb target size and 400mb for others then have mixed bitrates for each show.
Space isn't a concern but I'm not sure if I would rather have all episodes of one show be the same bitrate and different file sizes, or the same file sizes and different bitrates.

Even 2000 Kbit/sec seems quite exaggerated for TV shows. I use H.264, two pass encoding, TV shows would usually need de-interlacing turned on, and 1000 Kbit/sec seems good enough.

 

[HelixOmnimedia]

I have experimented for month... roughly a year, as I thought the new iPod Touch was coming out at MacWorld 2007...

Anyway... just to add my opinion here's the settings I use:

Bitrate: 960, Resolution: 640x"Whatever" h.264 (iPod)

This is FANTASTIC for the iPod Touch, and the quality is perfect for my AppleTV which is hooked upto a 50" Plasma,... the good side of using this is the file size for a full movie is about 1GB.

 

[JonHimself]

I have experimented for month... roughly a year, as I thought the new iPod Touch was coming out at MacWorld 2007...

Anyway... just to add my opinion here's the settings I use:

Bitrate: 960, Resolution: 640x"Whatever" h.264 (iPod)

This is FANTASTIC for the iPod Touch, and the quality is perfect for my AppleTV which is hooked upto a 50" Plasma,... the good side of using this is the file size for a full movie is about 1GB.

Thanks for the help (to everyone). I'm not sure what it is, but when I start dropping below 1500 (even 2000 sometimes) I just don't see the quality as being as good. Maybe it's all mental but it just seems inferior to me, I would like to see what the 960kbps 640x? file would look like on my 23" monitor and can't even imagine what it would look like on a 50" plasma.
I'll probably stick with 1500 and 2000 depending on the show... in retrospect, I'm not sure why I cared if the files were all the same size, going with a bitrate makes sense.