Canopus Procoder how many MPEGs at 1 time??

[franco]

I have a number of MPEGs to encode and I'm wondering how many are feasible at 1 time?? E.G 3 different MPEGs at once?? I can open a few Canopus screens, but I just want to make sure there is no disadvantage to doing this.

I am using Adobe Encore to author so I have to encode seperate MPEGs.

[Gideon25]

I have a number of MPEGs to encode and I'm wondering how many are feasible at 1 time?? E.G 3 different MPEGs at once?? I can open a few Canopus screens, but I just want to make sure there is no disadvantage to doing this.

I am using Adobe Encore to author so I have to encode seperate MPEGs.

You mean run them CONCURRENTLY not one after another (as in a batch mode)? That would be FAR, FAR slower than encoding them one after another. Far, FAR slower!

[teegee420]

You mean run them CONCURRENTLY not one after another (as in a batch mode)? That would be FAR, FAR slower than encoding them one after another. Far, FAR slower!

So what are you saying(just kidding)?

[Alan69]

Actually it may not be any slower at all. If the encoding takes enough time then the disc I/O to deal with 3 files in and 3 out may not be a problem. And while any one will seem slower, the total time for all three won't be far off if I/O isn't a bottleneck, minus just a little for the task switching.

But there is no gain over doing them one after the other if the program supports it. Plus if something causes a crash with 3 at once you could stand to lose 3 instead of just 1.

Alan

[franco]

Thanks guys, I'll do some tests then and see if it will take much longer. It would be so much easier to start them encoding when I go to sleep and have them all done at once.

[teegee420]

Please post your findings. I'm curious as to how overall speed will turn out.

[DaveS]

shouldn't make much of a difference but let us know....seems to me the cpu still has to crunch as many calculations either way...only difference I can think of is efficiency of os multithreading several canopus instances vs. canopus's own ability to shovel as many calcs through the cpu at once (e.g. cpu, bus, etc.)...I think results would be different on p3 vs. p4 as well..

[lordsmurf]

Procoder uses a queue. Just do that.

[franco]

There's no queue as I don't have the most recent version. Anyway, it was not possible to encode more than 1 file. Premiere is using up memory as well as Procoder and my PC was way too busy encoding the 1 file. I have heard you can do this if your PC can handle it, but my PC can't.

[Gideon25]

There's no queue as I don't have the most recent version. Anyway, it was not possible to encode more than 1 file. Premiere is using up memory as well as Procoder and my PC was way too busy encoding the 1 file. I have heard you can do this if your PC can handle it, but my PC can't.

Yea I think they may be right about doing it ok as long as you have a fast PC. A good while back when I had my slow computer trying to do multiple files using procoder ground my system to a halt, but now with my Athlon 3200+ I can run 3 files at once and the combined fps of the 3 files are about the same as doing a single file.

Why not run them in queue (Batch processing)?? HERE is how:

Basically setup up your conversion and save the project as a project file. Do this for each file you want to convert.


Create a batch file (name it mybatch.bat or whatever). Basic options:
Basic options

/Start - Starts conversion immediately
/Shutdown - Closes ProCoder after conversion finishes
/Log:<filename> - creates a logfile that details the conversion and reports any errors that may have occurred.
[project file] - (for ProCoder application) the complete name and path of your ProCoder project file. If the filename contains a space, you should enclose the entire path in double-quotes (i.e. "C:\Windows\Desktop\My project.PCP").


Here is an example of a .bat file I setup:


"D:\Program Files\CanopusProcode15\ProCoder.exe" /Start /Shutdown /Log:E:\DVDfiles\logfile1.txt "E:\DVDfiles\project1.PCP"

"D:\Program Files\CanopusProcode15\ProCoder.exe" /Start /Shutdown /Log:E:\DVDfiles\logfile2.txt "E:\DVDfiles\project2.PCP"

"D:\Program Files\CanopusProcode15\ProCoder.exe" /Start /Shutdown /Log:E:\DVDfiles\logfile3.txt "E:\DVDfiles\project3.PCP"

"D:\Program Files\CanopusProcode15\ProCoder.exe" /Start /Shutdown /Log:E:\DVDfiles\logfile4.txt "E:\DVDfiles\project4.PCP"


First you put in the path of procoder.exe the add the options and log and then you put in the path of your project file for each project/video you wish to convert. This will start ProCoder with the project1.PCP loaded, automatically start conversion, automatically stop conversion, and have status and error messages logged to the file logfile1.txt, then it will automatically start up and do the next project (project2.PCP) then the next,etc. You can do as many files in a row as you wish. Basically copy/paste the stuff above over and simply change the paths and then you are ready to batch/queue encode!

[catch21]

best advice thanks

There's no queue as I don't have the most recent version. Anyway, it was not possible to encode more than 1 file. Premiere is using up memory as well as Procoder and my PC was way too busy encoding the 1 file. I have heard you can do this if your PC can handle it, but my PC can't.

Yea I think they may be right about doing it ok as long as you have a fast PC. A good while back when I had my slow computer trying to do multiple files using procoder ground my system to a halt, but now with my Athlon 3200+ I can run 3 files at once and the combined fps of the 3 files are about the same as doing a single file.

Why not run them in queue (Batch processing)?? HERE is how:

Basically setup up your conversion and save the project as a project file. Do this for each file you want to convert.


Create a batch file (name it mybatch.bat or whatever). Basic options:
Basic options

/Start - Starts conversion immediately
/Shutdown - Closes ProCoder after conversion finishes
/Log:<filename> - creates a logfile that details the conversion and reports any errors that may have occurred.
[project file] - (for ProCoder application) the complete name and path of your ProCoder project file. If the filename contains a space, you should enclose the entire path in double-quotes (i.e. "C:\Windows\Desktop\My project.PCP").


Here is an example of a .bat file I setup:


"D:\Program Files\CanopusProcode15\ProCoder.exe" /Start /Shutdown /Log:E:\DVDfiles\logfile1.txt "E:\DVDfiles\project1.PCP"

"D:\Program Files\CanopusProcode15\ProCoder.exe" /Start /Shutdown /Log:E:\DVDfiles\logfile2.txt "E:\DVDfiles\project2.PCP"

"D:\Program Files\CanopusProcode15\ProCoder.exe" /Start /Shutdown /Log:E:\DVDfiles\logfile3.txt "E:\DVDfiles\project3.PCP"

"D:\Program Files\CanopusProcode15\ProCoder.exe" /Start /Shutdown /Log:E:\DVDfiles\logfile4.txt "E:\DVDfiles\project4.PCP"


First you put in the path of procoder.exe the add the options and log and then you put in the path of your project file for each project/video you wish to convert. This will start ProCoder with the project1.PCP loaded, automatically start conversion, automatically stop conversion, and have status and error messages logged to the file logfile1.txt, then it will automatically start up and do the next project (project2.PCP) then the next,etc. You can do as many files in a row as you wish. Basically copy/paste the stuff above over and simply change the paths and then you are ready to batch/queue encode!

[franco]

Thanks, Gideon. I'll look into this, it should come in handy in future.