Apple's H.264 Trickery

Does anyone know what encoder (software of hardware) was used to create the clips for Apple's HD Gallery?
I can't for the life of me figure out how they managed to create such high-quality content at such low bit rates...
I've tried encoding some SD (640x480) material with H.264 in QuickTime 7, Compressor 2, and Sorenson Squeeze 4.1 (all approximately at the same bit rate, as was used for Apple's HD clips) using the highest quality settings, and the results were terrible, to put it mildly.
Any idea what was used?
Check out this http://www.apple.com/quicktime/hdgallery/magnificentdesolation.html Try the 480p version, despite the legend, it's actually 640x480 running at around 2 Mbit/s. HOW DID THEY DO THAT?

Does your footage run at 24 frames per second, and if so, are you encoding from a pristine source that doesn't have a 4:1:1 or 4:2:0 colorspace? Is your footage interlaced?
29.97 fps, uncompressed 8-bit, 4:2:2, progressive. Is that not good?
By the looks of it, the video was encoded at 2.5 Mbit/s.
True, but the WildlifeHD video was encoded at <2 Mbit/s, runs at 30 fps (although originally it was shot at 24 fps), and its dimensions are greater.
I tried encoding mine at as high as 5 Mbit/s and the quality is still bad.
I'm not saying that I'm doing everything right; I just can't believe Apple used its own H.264 (or any software-based encoder at all).

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Apple's H.264 Trickery

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