Does a low bitrate produce dark video?

[pchelp]

I'm ripping a video for my PVP. If I rip it at a high bitrate (over 1000K) I get a good appearance but jerky motion. If I rip it at a low bitrate (400K) I get smooth motion but the picture is much darker. Is this normal? Thanks.

[signals]

What is the screen size on the player? For a typical handheld using h264 encoding, set the bitrate to produce between 0.15 and 0.2 bits/pixel, which for most movies will be 1200-1500 kbps. If it is jerky, try a different profile/file format and try keeping the frame rate to "same as source".

[pchelp]

My PVP is an Archos 404. Screen size is 3.5". In pixels it's ambiguous-I was told it was 640x480 but discovered that it will actually play videos with higher resolutions, but not smoothly. I've never tried changing the frame rate, I assume the default is 'same as source'. (It always shows a number but it changes with the video so my assumption is that by default it sets the frame rate to the source.) I've experimented with videos I've ripped from DVDs, trying to find the 'best' settings for the PVP. Black & White videos play fine at 240x180, 400Kbps. Note that I don't need really good quality here-I'll take this on trips so it just needs to be good enough that I don't get disgusted with it. And size is important since some trips I'm gone for a week at a time so I want to get the settings as low as will play smoothly. And visibly, of course-that's my current problem. It seems to play smoothly but is too dark to watch. I'm thinking it might be the difference in the bits needed to store color vs. black & white. But the black & white videos, at 1000Kbps, don't play smoothly. So maybe I'm stuck with this PVP-I can play videos either smoothly or visibly, but not both. If that's the case can you recommend a good replacement? Thanks.