diff --git a/benchmark.js b/benchmark.js
index 817b5e2..1f0f4be 100644
--- a/benchmark.js
+++ b/benchmark.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import { createWriteStream, promises as fs } from 'fs'
 import { pipeline } from 'stream/promises'
 import { asyncBufferFromFile, parquetMetadataAsync, parquetReadObjects, parquetSchema } from 'hyparquet'
-import { parquetWriteFile } from './src/write.js'
+import { parquetWriteFile } from './src/node.js'
 
 const url = 'https://s3.hyperparam.app/tpch-lineitem-v2.parquet'
 const filename = 'data/tpch-lineitem-v2.parquet'
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ const metadata = await parquetMetadataAsync(file)
 const rows = await parquetReadObjects({
   file,
   metadata,
-  columns: ['l_comment'],
+  // columns: ['l_comment'],
   rowStart: 0,
   rowEnd: 100_000,
 })
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ const columnData = schema.children.map(({ element }) => ({
   // type: element.type,
   ...element,
   data: [],
-})).filter(({ name }) => name === 'l_comment')
+})) // .filter(({ name }) => name === 'l_comment')
 for (const row of rows) {
   for (const { name, data } of columnData) {
     data.push(row[name])
diff --git a/src/datapage.js b/src/datapage.js
index 0d3b996..fa47406 100644
--- a/src/datapage.js
+++ b/src/datapage.js
@@ -28,10 +28,12 @@ export function writeDataPageV2(writer, values, type, schemaPath, encoding, comp
   // write page data to temp buffer
   const page = new ByteWriter()
   if (encoding === 'RLE_DICTIONARY') {
-    const maxValue = Math.max(...nonnull)
+    // find max bitwidth
+    let maxValue = 0
+    for (const v of values) if (v > maxValue) maxValue = v
     const bitWidth = Math.ceil(Math.log2(maxValue + 1))
-    page.appendUint8(bitWidth)
-    writeRleBitPackedHybrid(page, nonnull)
+    page.appendUint8(bitWidth) // prepend bitWidth
+    writeRleBitPackedHybrid(page, nonnull, bitWidth)
   } else {
     writePlain(page, nonnull, type)
   }
@@ -115,7 +117,7 @@ function writeLevels(writer, schemaPath, values) {
   const maxRepetitionLevel = getMaxRepetitionLevel(schemaPath)
   let repetition_levels_byte_length = 0
   if (maxRepetitionLevel) {
-    repetition_levels_byte_length = writeRleBitPackedHybrid(writer, [])
+    repetition_levels_byte_length = writeRleBitPackedHybrid(writer, [], 0)
   }
 
   // definition levels
@@ -131,7 +133,8 @@ function writeLevels(writer, schemaPath, values) {
         definitionLevels.push(maxDefinitionLevel)
       }
     }
-    definition_levels_byte_length = writeRleBitPackedHybrid(writer, definitionLevels)
+    const bitWidth = Math.ceil(Math.log2(maxDefinitionLevel + 1))
+    definition_levels_byte_length = writeRleBitPackedHybrid(writer, definitionLevels, bitWidth)
   }
   return { definition_levels_byte_length, repetition_levels_byte_length, num_nulls }
 }
diff --git a/src/encoding.js b/src/encoding.js
index cab7b71..d633ca9 100644
--- a/src/encoding.js
+++ b/src/encoding.js
@@ -5,16 +5,11 @@ import { ByteWriter } from './bytewriter.js'
  * @import {Writer} from '../src/types.js'
  * @param {Writer} writer
  * @param {DecodedArray} values
+ * @param {number} bitWidth
  * @returns {number} bytes written
  */
-export function writeRleBitPackedHybrid(writer, values) {
+export function writeRleBitPackedHybrid(writer, values, bitWidth) {
   const offsetStart = writer.offset
-  // find max bitwidth
-  let max = 0
-  for (const v of values) {
-    if (v > max) max = v
-  }
-  const bitWidth = Math.ceil(Math.log2(max + 1))
 
   // try both RLE and bit-packed and choose the best
   const rle = new ByteWriter()
diff --git a/test/encoding.test.js b/test/encoding.test.js
index 7aa134e..7f59734 100644
--- a/test/encoding.test.js
+++ b/test/encoding.test.js
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ function roundTripDeserialize(values) {
 
   // Serialize the values using writeRleBitPackedHybrid
   const writer = new ByteWriter()
-  writeRleBitPackedHybrid(writer, values)
+  writeRleBitPackedHybrid(writer, values, bitWidth)
   const buffer = writer.getBuffer()
   const reader = { view: new DataView(buffer), offset: 0 }