Encoding Speed Slowdown

[wwaag]

I've been using CCE basic for encoding under XP Pro (P4-2.53Ghz). I use a separate OS just for video work and shut down all the background processes except firewall protection during encoding. Encoding speed has always been around 1.3. In the last few days, it has slowed to 1.1. The slowdown has also occurred when encoding in my normal OS (down to .85). I've had no configuration changes. For grins, I installed CCE in my Win98 SE OS and the speed went to 1.35. Any ideas? Thanks.

wwaag

[snowmoon]

even after a reboot? nothing new installed? no other running applications?

Also input bitrate has a big imapct ( ie higer input bitrate video will be slower than low bitrate input even with the same cce settings).

[wwaag]

snowmoon

Tried the suggestions--no luck. I've even disabled all of the start-up items using msconfig.

I capture using an ADVC-100, so the input bit rate is constant.

wwaag

[snowmoon]

de-frag?

I've found that de-frag or the occasional re-format of my cap drive helps smooth things out quite a bit.

[DJRumpy]

Hey Snowmoon. I haven't seen you post in ages!

Definately degrag. You'll find that the more you do video conversions, the more fragmented your drive will get. Video encoding specifically seems to be very bad at fragmenting your hard drive. Since the video's tend to take up large parts of your hard drive, the day to day tasks that you do working around those big files cause your OS files to get fragmented, which in turn causes your video files to become fragmented during decoding/encoding.

You should consider splitting off a partition that contains only video files, segregated from your OS files. It doesn't even need to be a seperate hard drive (although that's even better). I take it one step further, and segregate my program files, from my OS files. I use a seperate raid array for video.

In the event it's not a fragmented drive causing the problem, use the performance monitor to see what could be causing the problem. Look at CPU utilization, Hard Drive que's, and Memory Utilization.

[wwaag]

Snowmoonl & DJ,

I'll definitely try to defrag. Most of your suggestions regarding configuration, I've already followed. All of my program files are on a separate drive. I also use a 240GB raid array for my video work, as well as another smaller drive just for captures. The OS that I use is only for video--none of the usual stuff. I even copied my capture file to the other hard drives and still no difference. Yesterday, when I shutdown all of the background processes using msconfig, I found that it had virtually no effect on encoding speed, so that doesn't seem to be the problem. The surprising thing to me is that the encoding speed was the fastest I've ever seen when running under an old Win98SE OS that has lots of old stuff still running. If the 4GB limitation wasn't a problem, I'd use that OS for encoding. Again, thanks for your inputs.

wwaag

[DJRumpy]

It may be time for a format of your video drive. XP/NT uses a file table that cannot be defragmented using the built in defrag tool. As you create/move/delete folders, this table also get fragmented. A format is the quickest way to wipe this table, and create a new one.

I would almost suspect a corrupted driver at this point, since the 98 install seems to be running full steam. If these things don't work, then it may be time to do a new install of XP. Wiping the old install will ensure there are no legacy/corrupt/custom files that could interfere with your new install.

[wwaag]

Reformatted my smaller video drive and tried an encode from newly captured material--solved the problem--encode speed is back to normal.

Thanks for the help.

wwaag

[DJRumpy]

Your lucky you can just wipe it. I have so many movies on my video drive arrat, that I can no longer back them up I have to finish converting them and then burn them before they can be deleted. It says something about procrastinating.