What bitrate to use?

[pawnslinger]

I haven't gotten my iPad 2 yet. I don't own a 1st gen iPad. While I was waiting for my iPad 2, I thought I would convert some of my videos for viewing on the iPad 2. But what bitrate to use? I read someplace that the 1st gen iPad would handle 2 mbs, but choked on anything over 5 mbs. It seems that many of my videos are encoded at around 4 mbs... I am hoping that will play okay. The videos are mostly 720x480, so that shouldn't need to change, but they are all in mpeg-2, so I will be converting to mp4 with an h.264 codec.

Can I just leave the bitrate as it is? Or should I down shift it?

 

[yvrgal]

Most of my videos are at 95 kbps at .mp4. The quality is not all that bad.

 

[pawnslinger]

Most of my videos are at 95 kbps at .mp4. The quality is not all that bad.

I am confused. That bitrate sounds like the audio bitrate. I am asking about the video rate, which usually is at least 1 mbs (and that looks bad on my PC screen, so I would not use anything like that). I would want the resultant files viewable on iPad and PC, and while 1 mbs may be okay on the iPad, it definitely is no good for the PC or anything with a larger screen.

Usually audio bitrates are 64 to 128 kbs, so something in the 90's makes me think of audio.

 

[yvrgal]

Most of my videos are at 95 kbps at .mp4. The quality is not all that bad.

I am confused. That bitrate sounds like the audio bitrate. I am asking about the video rate, which usually is at least 1 mbs (and that looks bad on my PC screen, so I would not use anything like that). I would want the resultant files viewable on iPad and PC, and while 1 mbs may be okay on the iPad, it definitely is no good for the PC or anything with a larger screen.

Usually audio bitrates are 64 to 128 kbs, so something in the 90's makes me think of audio.

Sorry. Most of my videos are at 750 MB or higher, depending how long the movie is.