Postby ooterness » 03 Sep 2010 01:00
A lot of videos are encoded with variable bit rates; a single number for the whole video isn't necessarily very useful. (Even if you pick a specific target rate, it can vary quite a bit higher or lower at any given moment.)
In any case, the instantaneous bit rate is displayed under the "Statistics" tab. (In VLC 1.1.4, it's right next to the Codec Details. Click on Tools -> Codec Information, then click the Statistics tab.) Look under "Input/Read" and "Content bitrate". I believe this is the total for the video and audio, but you can subtract the known audio bitrate.