MPEG4 vs H.264 Uncontrolable Bitrate?

[Diat®ibal¹]

Just a quick question if I may?

I'm massively impressed with the ease of use and quality of the finished encoded movies with MediaFork|HandBrake, so this isn't necessarily a biggie.

The thing I've noticed is that despite selecting an encode in MPEG4 at a max bitrate of 2500 kbps, the finished encode only comes out at a total rate of about 1400? It seems a shame that my encode is being wasted to that of a H.264 encode? Although I must admit, the quality of the MPEG4 even at a total of 1400 kbps still looks very impressive on my 5G iPod.

Does anyone know why I can't get the total video encode up nearer 2500 kbps?

Also there seems to be a bit of a grey area regarding the superior of the two encoders (MPEG4 vs H.264), although a little dated now this article http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articl ... solutions/ suggests that MPEG4 at 2500 kbps is slightly better quality than H.264 at 1500 kbps (although Apple iTunes movies apparently use H.264). If anyone has any up-to-date knowledge on this and would be so kind to share it, I would be very grateful.

Thanks for takin' the time to read this...

[darksol360]

I'm running trials to currently see which format gives me better SPACE on my iPod.

Both seem great quality wise on the iPod:

2-pass, 320x(whatever media fork sets), & 400 bitrate. i primarilly watch these on my iPod, not to any tv, tho the picture is watchable to the
non-A/Vphiles I would guess.