I just bought qt pro because of its ability to export mpeg-4 video with the option of encoding with a variable bitrate. However, when I try and export a qt mpeg-4 from Prem Pro I see no VBR option. Ive also tried opening up the avi I am trying to encode with the quicktime player and exporting as an mpeg-4. Again, I see no VBR option. To make matters more lame, I cant get the search index on QuickTimes web help to work. How do I do a VBR encode??????

Where did you see that VBR was supported in QT Pro? AFAIK it is not. I know you don't want to hear this but you need to use another tool. Sorenson has paackages that support VBR. You can buy just the compressor you want. You don't have to buy the whole suite.

Hey Ernest. Thanks for the advice. Here is a link to apple's site where it talks about the abilitly to use VBR when dealing with mpeg-4 authoring. Last paragraph on the page:

http://www.apple.com/mpeg4/

If this is false advertising then Im not suprised that QT 6's new help page is corrupt. This is supposed to be a search index but there is no "search box", therefore no way to search for VBR and find out how to use it. Or am I just a total noob? :

http://helpqt.apple.com/qthelpwr2/english/QuickTimeHelp/pgs2/qtFmSet.htm

I see the problem. We need to separate what's in MPEG-4 and what's in the QT Player Pro. There are a number of capabilities in MPEG-4 that the Pro player doesn't provide an interface for. VBR is one of them. The Sorenson tools are very good and I like supporting companies that support the Mac market as Sorenson has chosen to do. If you are on a tight budget, you may find a trial version of a package on versiontracker.com that will do what what you need done right now. However, the Squeeze products are very good, known to produce top quality QuickTime and MPEG-4 output and their packaging gives you a low cost of entry. There may be others out there that are similar,

If you are going to be doing alot of compression, you'll come to appreciate the batch interface that these tools provide.

Sweet.

But does Sorenson encode to MPEG-4? I don't actually know. I've only used it for encoding to the Sorenson Codec and on Flash Video (I have Sorenson Squeeze 2, 3, and 4)

-just asking.

There are 4 Sorenson products:
Suite
Flash
Mpeg-4
Video 3 Pro

Each one consists of the basic Sorenson application for setting up your compression job, filters, etc. The different products just have the additional support for the CODEC. The MPEG-4 product has a $50 rebate which brings it to $99.

I have the Suite version 4 which encodes a whole bunch of formats (including MPEG-4).

If you go to the home page, it's all listed. THere's even a try before you by option.