Suggested Compression Ratio with H.264?

Question

Note bene: I realize this is an immensely complicated question with about a million levels of nuance that I\'m trying to reduce to a single number...

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Answer 1

Don't forget normal playback MPEG will only use YUV 4:2:0. In 8-bit color depth each pixel only worth 16-bit(or 64bit each 4 pixels). Please, only RAW file from camera will use 16-bit depth, and it must worth millions USD!!Medium high Film DVR only can provide 12-14bit!!And nobody will use H.264 to store RAW. H.264 is deigned for end product.

In 640x360/24p YUV4:2:0 the bitrate will worth:

  640x360x24x(8+4+4)/8 = 10.5MB/s

For 500Kbps the compression will be only 172:1. It's normal

For expatiation of YUV4:2:0, read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling