What does the Average Bitrate setting ensure?

The Average Bitrate setting is designed to manage the amount of data used for encoding video or audio over a specified duration. By setting an average bitrate, you're essentially determining a consistent level of data transfer that sustains a certain quality across the content. This means that over the course of the media being played, the average amount of data per second remains stable, which is vital for ensuring efficient use of available bandwidth while maintaining acceptable quality.

This approach helps in various scenarios, particularly when streaming, as it provides a balance between video quality and the amount of available bandwidth. The content encoded with an average bitrate can be more predictable as it results in less variability in quality compared to other encoding settings. Thus, it effectively prevents excessive fluctuations in quality that might occur during faster-paced scenes, where more data might be required, compared to slower scenes.

Other settings, such as maximum quality irrespective of bandwidth or higher image quality with no limits, might lead to issues with buffering or require a higher bandwidth connection that isn't always available. Additionally, variable quality based on scene action does not guarantee the stable quality that the average bitrate approach achieves, which can lead to inconsistent viewing experiences.