Um, for those of you starting out with the iPod preset then jacking up the bitrate, be sure you are also changing the vbv settings in the Advanced Panel.They are directly related to the average bitrate you use. Or try removing them altogether if you want. Though you then risk the chance of local bitrate spikes that could cause your iPod to drop frames on playback for complex scenes.
I posted this in a related post to this iPod setting on Handbrake forum, but thought I would post here also for other to see.
Can you please help me to understand how vbv and bitrate are tied and the impact of not increasing vbv if I increase the bitrate? Does it make it pointless to increase the Bitrate if I do not increase the VBV?
I use these settings to work with AppleTV, iPhone and iTunes with 5.1. One high quality encode for all.