Am I abusing my pc?

[NormaJ]

Let's assume I'm working with my old pc, not the dual core on my profil. It's a PIV 2.8 RAM 512.
And say I set a batch for Tmpgenc of 5-6 movies that I want to back up, then I open VirtualDubMod and prepare 10 audio extractions, while compiling a DVDLab project and set a TDA one.
Do you think I am abusing my pc?

Thanks

[dipstick]

Do you think I am abusing my pc?

No such thing. It's just a tool, use it.

[Treebeard]

True abuse would be not using it.

[Dv8ted2]

I agree with dipstick on this one. Just use it.

[FulciLives]

Let's assume I'm working with my old pc, not the dual core on my profil. It's a PIV 2.8 RAM 512.
And say I set a batch for Tmpgenc of 5-6 movies that I want to back up, then I open VirtualDubMod and prepare 10 audio extractions, while compiling a DVDLab project and set a TDA one.
Do you think I am abusing my pc?

Thanks

I would say that doing all that at the same time is a bit much especially with the TMPGEnc encoding since that can suck up to 100% of your CPU cycles.

Plus all the HDD activity especially with the encoding and the compiling of the DVD-Lab project ... something is bound to get "screwed up" somehow.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[rallynavvie]

As long as everything is being cooled properly your computer will be plenty happy doing all of those things. Heat is a killer with computer components so if you take a little time to clean out the filters, get the dust off the fans, or even replace fans and/or heatsinks with better ones will get you more use from your system if you plan to keep it around a long time.

My first SMP rig is coming up on 6 years old and it was used for encoding overnight and while I was at work during the day for many of those years and gets worked hard as a file server now and it still runs great.

[lordsmurf]

Doing multiple tasks during audio and video encodes is often known to cause corrupt files and glitches in the audio or video. It's not suggested.

As far as the "abusing the PC" not really. Maybe ruining your work, however.

If you need to do that much at once, buy multiple computers and KVM the monitor (I do this).

[AngusMacGyver]

Doing multiple tasks during audio and video encodes is often known to cause corrupt files and glitches in the audio or video. It's not suggested.

Sincerely, I can't imagine how.
Yes, if you are recording from sound card line-in or ripping a CD, that's true, but I think it doesn't happen when you are converting files.
Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

[lordsmurf]

It all has to do with the data in the pipelines, the RAM, and the hard drive activity. It's really easy for stray data to make a mess of things. I've seen this problem more times than I can count, and it's always from people who insist their computers can download, play games, encode video and 2-3 other tasks all at the same time. I've even seen people defrag at the same time they encode, by far the dumbest move ever.

[Tom Saurus]

NormaJ: It is strange that this topic has come up at this time. I have always tried not to do all that much with my computer while I am capturing a TV show to the hard drive. But over time, I have let the computer record, while I surf the net or download something from the net. For the most part I don't drop a frame. I have a C Drive, for my programs, a E Drive to capture to, and a F Drive for edited video to end up and for Tmpeg DVD Author to send its Video and Audio TS files to go to. I also have 1.024 GB or Rahm.

Well anyway, I want to get another computer, but cannot afford to get one for awhile. I want one so my original one, can be free for making DVDs. On occasion sometime I would be burning a DVD, and it would be mostly finished burning and a show I like was coming up right away I would snap the ATI MMC onto record, while the DVD would finish up. After not loosing any frames during capture, and the resulting files seem to be insync, and the DVD is fine, I have become even bolder.

Lately I have been capturing, burning a DVD and surfing the net all at the same time. So far it has been working out fine. Recently I had the Windows Task Manger running and watching how the computer preformed at various tasks. Now when it comes to using DVD Shrink to shrink a movie file to a better size to put on DVD, that takes everything my computer's got. I really don't like how it go right up to 100% CPU, it rather frightens me, and I know it raises the temperature inside my computer by 10 degrees. So if DVD Shrink is working on some encoding, I don't use the computer for anything else.

I have also been using Tmpeg DVD Author 1.6 to author a DVD and create an ISO Image to burn with DVD decrypter while capturing audio and video. So far I have success. It seems that with all these other programs running that only about 40 percent of the computer's resources are being used and atleast 600mb or rahm is left, not used. But I do feel bad about having the computer do all that stuff at once. But with capturing video, and how fast it eats up hard drive space, I have to send it to DVD as fast as I can to make room for more. I would like to have a 50 Terrabyte Hard Drive, to play around with, so I could relax and just let it fill up with video files to work on later.

It is strange though, sometimes certain things of webpages cause me to drop frames. It seems a sudden spike in the computer's resources causes me to drop frames. Or if I click on some saved pictures or other files on my C Drive, I will drop a frame or two. Strange, activity on the one hard drive that doesn't need to be defragged causes that.

[AngusMacGyver]

On occasion sometime I would be burning a DVD, and it would be mostly finished burning and a show I like was coming up right away I would snap the ATI MMC onto record, while the DVD would finish up. After not loosing any frames during capture, and the resulting files seem to be insync, and the DVD is fine, I have become even bolder.

Another source of glitches when computer is busy: Losing frames during a capture.
lordsmurf, I agree with you when you say it's not good doing many tasks at the same time. But I can't accept a conversion (digital to digital) can cause corrupt files when your pc is busy, IMHO.
The conversion proccess can be delayed with no problems.
But everything interfaces with the real world and must be done in specific time can be destroyed with pc occupation.

Once again, that's my opinion.

[NormaJ]

Thank you all, this is very clarifying. In my case, I've never captured, so never dropped a frame by doing several things at the same time. No problems with conversion, so far, as AngusMacGyver said.
There is something that amazes me. My cpu can be at only 47%, for instance, but still computer gets stuck and it takes forever to load videohelp bitrate calculator. So I guess my processor is right, but my RAM is not. Right?
About working with two computers, it's okay, I have five. The problem here is moving files from one to another takes forever too. Let say I'm "capturing" to one pc, but want to make all the processing stuff with the other one. Yep, I know there is a way to access data from one computer via LAN or something, but I'm not good at this
Finally, just wanted to say that when working with my dual core, I can do all this already said, surf the net and convert wav as they come out from VDMod, to ac3, with no major problems. Doesn´t run as fool, though, but it's ok.
There is a very simple reason to run several things at a time. I arrive home at 19.30 and go to bed at 23.00 or sooner if I can. So, while doing the "homework", I set the computer to do its job, and it works all the night through.
Regards