I am confident that all of us (KnoppMyth users) have wondered what video bitrate setting is best for every day recording.....

There are two obvious ways to answer this question

1. Trial and Error - set a bitrate, record and view

2. KnoppMyth Forum - search and see what others are using

I searched the forum, and although there were a lot of posts, I didn't find one that had a poll.

So, I thought a poll where KnoppMyth users reported their DEFAULT VIDEO bitrate setting would be of benefit to the new user.

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Q&A

A. What is the bitrate setting and why would I want to change it?
The bitrate controls how much detail is in the recording. Higher the bitrate, the greater the detail, the more disc space the recording takes.

Lowering the bitrate allows users to record more programs. It is useful to adjust for users that have limited disc space (<80 Gb), or who don't want to allocate more space than is necessary (quality may not be noticable above a certain bitrate under certain circumstances).

B. Why report on the DEFAULT setting?
Because this is the setting that is likely to be used most often.

C. Why video bitrate and not audio bitrate
Lowering both video and audio bitrate will conserve disc space; however, lowering video bitrate will have a greater effect.

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I purposefully chose to do ranges to give others an idea of what range to consider AND so that users can specify the bitrate setting that works for them.

Please provide the following information when posting to this thread:

(1) Specific video bitrate setting

(2) Resolution (e.g., 480x480)

(3) TV Tuner Card make and model

(4) Aspect Ratio of recordings (4:3 - traditional, 16:9 - widescreen, other)

(5) TV size (diagonal inch)

(6) Do you record programs broadcasted in high definition?

1) I use a bitrate of 4Mbps for most recordings with my PVR-250 or -350. This is at half-resolution, or 352x480. That's my default profile. This allows about 2 hours of video onto a DVD-R.

I also have a high-quality profile of (I think) 6.5Mbps at full resolution, 720x480. I think I have a low-quality profile of 320x240 at 2Mbps but I rarely use it.

2) KnoppMyth R5A16 (but this should be irrelevant)

3) Hauppauge PVR-250 and PVR-350

4) 4:3 recordings

5) Multiple TVs

6) Yes and that's a whole other ball of wax. As mentioned in other threads, you get whatever data the tuner grabs... there are no options for reducing this data stream.