I'm curious if anyone knows a way to get exact bit rates when exporting from FCP--> QT conversion or using Compressor.

Lately I've been noticing that when I try to restrict the bit rate while exporting H.264 files, it completely ignores it and just exports at whatever it wants.

Example: I was asked to export a 640x360 H.264 file at 800kpbs for a web upload. The length of the clip was :30 and they expected the file to be around 3-5 MB.

I used FCP --> QT conversion and set all the specs accordingly, even choosing "Restrict bit rate" and setting it to 800 kbps. However, my file ended up being 12MB and when I opened it in QuickTime, it said the bit rate was 2000 kbps. I tried a number of different things and even tried setting up a compression setting in compressor and the bit rate was different EVERY time.

It's frustrating... especially when you've been asked to export something at a specific bit rate and file size.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Don't know if this would work, but have you tried exporting a self-contained QuickTime and opening it up in Quicktime 7 and making the file from there. It seems to work better. If not, you could also try making it out of MPEG Streamclip. The swiss army knife of video.