This session explores the latest advancements in the SMPTE VC-3 codec family, building on innovations presented at the SMPTE 2023 Media Technology Summit. Since then, significant progress has been made, including the recent standardization of VC-3 compressed content within the Interoperable Master Format (IMF) and the development of a tunable bitrate method that surpasses the fixed bitrates of previous VC-3 and other mezzanine codecs. These advancements aim to enhance visual quality and maintain the essential attributes that make VC-3 a valuable tool for current broadcast and post-production workflows. The session will outline the requirements and use cases that drove the standardization effort, particularly for broadcasters adhering to the DPP delivery spec who seek to reduce costs, minimize generation loss, and use a fully standardized mezzanine codec across their media supply chains. Additionally, the session will present research on a new rate control approach that allows for continuous bitrates, achieving high-quality encoding across a range of profiles, from 4:4:4 to 4:2:0. The session will also address how traditional rate control methods for DCT-based codecs can lead to visible artifacts in low-complexity areas at low bitrates, and introduce an improved approach that balances compression to preserve quality across all areas of a frame, particularly in graphics and mixed-complexity content.