<p>Yes, the quality will be worse. But probably not perceptually. Encoding ALWAYS loses a little information, that’s why it is called lossy compression. Increasing the bitrate will only reduce the information loss. The best you can do is lossless compression, and it will look exactly like the source</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-10T01:37:14.870Z
depending on the original compression you could end up with more artifacts around those artifacts.
3pointedit
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-10T17:16:58.183Z
Thank you for your reply. Actually I am trancoding my MP4 videos to different HLS segments so I wanted to know if my MP4 File bitrate is 2000kbps would it make any sense if I set the bitrate to 4000kbps for 1080p?
GoogleChef
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-10T17:20:26.097Z
If your original isn’t 1080p don’t scale it up. Let it be scaled in the decide side. You can not “add” image quality
SlimSCSI
CC BY-SA 4.0
2017-11-09T14:43:30.233Z
2019-01-04T00:25:45.443Z
2019-01-04T00:25:45.443Z
SlimSCSI
<p>"Quality" is a tricky term. You need to define "quality" before asking whether it will be better or worse. What you surely will not get is more information — you will have only as much or less information that you started with. Visual quality, though may be improved depending on what you do to your video. If your video is interlaced, you can deinterlace it to get rid of combing. Moreover, if it has been incorrectly deinterlaced and the combing artefacts are already baked in, you can remove them. You can change contrast or color. You can change aspect ratio. You can digitally zoom into certain sections. If your video has visible tiling artefacts, a good decoder will smoothen them out, so you can get visually more pleasant video.</p>

<p>But if you are not planning any of the above, then better leave it as is, unless a specific format is required.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-04T23:26:36.753Z
2018-12-04T23:26:36.753Z
Rusty Core
<p>I need to know if there will be any difference in the quality of the encoded video if the bitrate of the source file is, let's say 2000kbps and I encode it to 4000kbps. </p>

<p>Any help will be much appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

<encoding><transcoding>
Encoding low bitrate video source file to a higher bitrate
GoogleChef
# Encoding low bitrate video source file to a higher bitrate

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-11-09)

I need to know if there will be any difference in the quality of the encoded video if the bitrate of the source file is, let's say 2000kbps and I encode it to 4000kbps.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

**Tags:** encoding, transcoding


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2017-11-09. Score: 1

Yes, the quality will be worse. But probably not perceptually. Encoding ALWAYS loses a little information, that’s why it is called lossy compression. Increasing the bitrate will only reduce the information loss. The best you can do is lossless compression, and it will look exactly like the source

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: depending on the original compression you could end up with more artifacts around those artifacts.  
> **username_0**: Thank you for your reply. Actually I am trancoding my MP4 videos to different HLS segments so I wanted to know if my MP4 File bitrate is 2000kbps would it make any sense if I set the bitrate to 4000kbps for 1080p?  
> **username_1**: If your original isn’t 1080p don’t scale it up. Let it be scaled in the decide side. You can not “add” image quality  

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### Answer by username_3 on 2018-12-04. Score: 0

"Quality" is a tricky term. You need to define "quality" before asking whether it will be better or worse. What you surely will not get is more information — you will have only as much or less information that you started with. Visual quality, though may be improved depending on what you do to your video. If your video is interlaced, you can deinterlace it to get rid of combing. Moreover, if it has been incorrectly deinterlaced and the combing artefacts are already baked in, you can remove them. You can change contrast or color. You can change aspect ratio. You can digitally zoom into certain sections. If your video has visible tiling artefacts, a good decoder will smoothen them out, so you can get visually more pleasant video.

But if you are not planning any of the above, then better leave it as is, unless a specific format is required.


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