Video encoding is very difficult. Any experts here?
 

ok. So I have video shot in 960x720p, which due to square pixels v. non-square pixels somehow displays with a PAR 16:9. Don't completely understand but it works, so whatever. However, I don't want to throw 8 minute clips that are half a gig and take all day to dl at my affiliates, so I try to downsize to 480p and reduce the bitrate using handbrake. I expect to see new values for height and width, instead I end up with a file that's 960x540 and still 16:9 without much visible loss of quality and the desired smaller size. I don't really understand what's happening and I don't know everything affiliates might get up to with these clips, so I don't want to leave it at this weird size and finally I settle on 960x720 with a bitrate of 2500, which seems kind of low to me but also seems to look ok on the screen.

Any experts got input on this? Is 2500 a high enough bitrate to hold up on a TV, for example?

the more imporatant thing than bitrate is the codec if you are using h.264 main profile the 2500 is certainly acceptable quality

try and try with different bit rates and different settings.,

looks up what other affiliate programs are doing, open their promo content in vlc and you will see their specs. like bitrate and resolution and fps.