Make Tmpgenc 30% faster!! -The best encoder got faster......

Tick Cache setting in environmental=>Cpu

Make sure you give enough cache for the source you want to encode.(Also make sure you have enough HDD space)

Maybe I´m just a little slow, as I`ve only just discovered this feature.
But I´m sure others have also missed this.

My encodes are now 20-30% faster!!!

Done believe me......try it!!

Cheers

[kwag]

This options works fine for 2-pass.
It will not speed up any other encoding method ( CBR, CQ, CQ_VBR ).

-kwag

oops forgot to mention that its for 2-pass

Thanks Kwag

[ZenZen]

Well I tried what you suggested with little or no improvement in speed.
Using 2 pass VBR to create SVCDs. Even increased the cache size to 8mb from the original 4mb. WTF ?? What settings are you using for the cache??

[kwag]

Well I tried what you suggested with little or no improvement in speed.
Using 2 pass VBR to create SVCDs. Even increased the cache size to 8mb from the original 4mb. WTF ?? What settings are you using for the cache??

Try 500MB. Then you'll notice something!.

-kwag

[ZenZen]

I might be confusing myself (and others) here. When I said I increased it from 4mb to 8mb what I meant was that I changed the original reading from 4096 to 8096. Now the box says 8096 but also says mb on the end, so does that mean I am using a cache of 8096mb or just 8mb???

[kwag]

I might be confusing myself (and others) here. When I said I increased it from 4mb to 8mb what I meant was that I changed the original reading from 4096 to 8096. Now the box says 8096 but also says mb on the end, so does that mean I am using a cache of 8096mb or just 8mb???

If you have 8096MB in the box, is actually 8.096GB of cache.

-kwag

[ZenZen]

Thanks Kwag for your quick replies.
I tried 500mb but I just do not see any encoding time difference. As stated before, I am encoding SVCDs using 2 pass VBR. Just before I encoded a Madonna music clip. 40 mins with or without the cache box being ticked. Maybe it is an AMD Athlon thing ??? Anyone else with AMD athlon finding the encoding 30% quicker??

500Mb is definetly not enough, on my last encode (2pass) ,90min vid, I think it needed over 2Gigs just for the cache.

I made 10 1min samples, 5 cache on ,5 cache off, 30% speed increase with the cache on.

Source was Vobs framserved using DVD2AVI.
Tomorrow I´ll try with a DV(AVI) source.

Cheers

[guitar_george_skank]

I can't seem to find the cache box to enable. Am i being thick or is it really there? I'm using tmpgenc 2.57 (latest download). Do I need to be using an older version? Which version is the most reliable? Hope you can help as i've just started using 2 pass VBR instead of CBR. Great results but a long time to encode. Anything to make that faster would be greatly appreciated!

Environmental=>CPU=>Cache

Tick the box plus give the cache at least 3 gigs.

Cheers

[Trimegisto]

I think that will only work in the Plus version.

I'm using it for some time now and the tip is good, it really decreases encoding times for 2-pass VBR as stated.

But I'm also using a 2 processor system, so I've always had quite fast results.

[Panther96]

Can you use 2-pass, 3-pass, 4-pass etc for VCD ? in TMPEnc and if so how ?

what do u guys mean by 2-pass, 3-pass , 4-pass?

at the moment only 2 passes are possible. I have read that the new server version will do more when it comes out.

cheers

[ZippyP.]

I don't know why this isn't advertised more for speeding up 2-pass in TMPGenc, it speeds up my encodes by a huge amount. Any guide that mentions 2-pass should mention this setting as well.

[paulb]

I have been using this option in Plus, and giving the cache 8gb (8096). My encodes are 50% faster. 7.5 hour encodes are now 3.5 using DVD Highest quality precision.

[Stonemann]

C:\Documents and Settings\**YOURLOGINHERE**\Local Settings\Temp

is the location of the temporary file created and used during a 2 pass encode when the cache feature is enabled.

For VCD/SVCD/XVCD/XSVCD setting 4096 ( 4 gig ) for your cache file , and ensuring that you have that much space actualy free , will carry up to a 2 hour encode very safely. Typicaly landing around the 3.5 mark at the finish, so there is extra playroom left. Hour encodes typicaly take 1.7 or so gigabyte. If you are doing 3 hour encodes in one section encodes then I could possibly see bumping it up to 7 or 8 gig.

Using the newer 2-pass mode, with the data from the 1st pass cached, I am more than happy again using tmpgenc exclusively. As well as exclusively using 2-pass mode again as well. Speed and quality both are more than acceptable to me when for a while they were not. But hey , maybe that's just me ....

Hope this info helps someone.

[Betamax]

C:\Documents and Settings\**YOURLOGINHERE**\Local Settings\Temp

is the location of the temporary file created and used during a 2 pass encode when the cache feature is enabled.

So it refers to the TEMP folder.
I don't have that much space left at my C: drive.
Does it accept if I substitute the temp to another disk before encoding, let's say a drive with lots of free disk space?

[spinner886]

Yes, you can use any folder for the temp files.

[jolo]

I just learned about the caching myself.
I have a AMD XP chip. I put it at 5GB and it converted a 1:46 Divx movie to SVCD in about 8 hours, using two pass. I also was downloading files at the same time and some of the time I was working on the PC.
I didnt give it any file name though, I assume that there was a default and all I care about is that it deletes the cache after it is complete.

:P
I would like to ask the 2-passers a question. When defining the min, agerage and max settings, is there a formula they use for defining what those settings should be for SVCD and VCD ?

Thanks,

Jon

[Mordant]

Would the settings be the same if I'm doing DVD-r's?

[Dr-Ripper]

Can you use 2-pass, 3-pass, 4-pass etc for VCD ? in TMPEnc and if so how ?

VCDs use Constant Bit Rate (CBR). The Multipass mode is only for Variable Bit Rate (VBR used on SVCD and DVD)
Multipass mode improves the visual quality by optimizing the bitrate usage, simple lowmotion scenes thats easy to compress gets less bits while difficult fastmotion scenes gets the extra bits they need to look nice.

[kenmo]

hey......I tried this and vbr 2 passes that used to take 5 hours now take 3.5 hours.

[Dr-Ripper]

I put it at 5GB and it converted a 1:46 Divx movie to SVCD in about 8 hours, using two pass.
I would like to ask the 2-passers a question. When defining the min, agerage and max settings, is there a formula they use for defining what those settings should be for SVCD and VCD ?
Jon

Is there any point increasing the cache above the the size of total installed RAM, doesnt that force windows to use the pagefile resulting in a performancehit?

I dont think there is any ultimate formula for min, average and max bitrate cause its really a matter of personal preferences. If the min is to low simple scenes (scenes with no motion, start and end credits....) will be compressed very hard resulting in low visual quality, but more bits available for comlicated scens so it might be wort it.
If u wanna play the SVCD on a dvdplayer make sure the tatal max bitrate (max video bitrate + max audio bitrate) is bellow 2500. Some dvdplayers dont like total bitrates above 2200 so if u encounter any problems on dvdplayers try lowering the max total bitrate.
The DVD2SVCD default settings are good allround settings, for VCD settings just load vcd.ini
The quality of the burned CDR must be perfect so cheap media and high burn speeds can also cause problems.

[jolo]

Dr-Ripper,

I made my cache as big as it is because I have the disk space and figure it will need to use more than RAM. I want to make sure that it is big enough to hold the entire first pass. I might have to go to the TMPG page and check out exactly how the cache works.

I normally burn using 2500 as my bitrate and my standalone players work fine. I am assuming that the advantage of the 2-pass system is that you can have the same high quality and use less disk space. My thinking is that because of how I use LAME variable rate processing to create MP3s. Is it the same theory ?

Jon

[ZippyP.]

To clear some things up:

You can use 2-pass VBR with VCD (mpeg1), you get what is known as an XVCD. I do it all the time.

I think there is confusion around the type of cache that TMPGenc uses. It's being saved as a file on disk and it's very large. Stonemann says it's in the order of 1.7 gigabytes per hour. I don't know anyone with that much free ram!

Yes, 2-pass allows for more efficient use of disk space. It allots higher bitrates to high motion (high demand) scenes and lower bitrates to lower motion (low demand) scenes. It can give the same (or similar) results as CBR with a smaller file size. I believe the comparison to MP3 VBR is valid.

Settings really are a matter of personal preference/experience. Sort of, how low are you willing to go? I don't like to go below 1800 avg. for SVCD or 800 avg. for VCD. Someone in another forum recommended that the average bitrate should be equal between the high and low settings. For me on SVCD that would be 1100 low, 1800avg., 2500 high. My few tests with that gave good results.

Hope that helps. (Please feel free to correct if I got anything wrong).

[jolo]

ZippyP.,

You make a whole lot of sense. I went on the TMPG site and saw that yes, the 2-pass is about less disk space with the high quality, just like using MP3 VBR.

I really like the settings you use also, they too make a lot of sense.

I believe that in some of the postings on other strings and even on a recent guide, it was implied that the 2-pass will improve quality, one of the guides called people "lazy" who didn't use the 2-pass method. To me it is about saving some space without loosing the quality of a bitrate of 2500. That is very cool, but with CDs at .25 a piece, it is not a major deal.
Now if there is something that saves time without quality loss (like the caching option), or saves time and quality or improves quality with a minor change in time, that is pretty major.

From my first two-pass, Nero had no problems with the file and burned it as a compliant SVCD. Also my stand alone DVD player played it.

Does anyone know if there are some issues with any stand alone DVD players and SVCD with VBR ?

I do know that most if not all of the MPEG editors can't handle it for splitting files, etc. From notHonestech's MPEX Editor to Xflix XE to the expensive M2-Edit Pro. They only work on CBR.

Jon

[thegig]

I tried increasing the cache size to 8 gig and had no sucess. It still took 29 hours to do an encode (same as without cache enabled). I am using Win98SE, could that be an issue since it is limited to 2 gig file sizes?

[C53248]

I tried increasing the cache size to 8 gig and had no sucess. It still took 29 hours to do an encode (same as without cache enabled). I am using Win98SE, could that be an issue since it is limited to 2 gig file sizes?

The cache only speeds up the motion search portion of the processing. All other processing is done equally slowly for both passes. So if you have other things, like filtering, taking most of the time, then the second pass will take about as long as the first.

Something I'm going to try next time is outputing from TMPGEnc to an AVI to apply the filtering, then encoding from that AVI. That way the filter processing will only be done once. I think this technique is mentioned somewhere on the TMPGEnc website.

I wondered about the file size limit issue too, but I don't think there is any problem with it, since TMPGEnc makes multiple temporary files. During the encode, you won't see any files grow to that size. The temporary files that TMPGEnc makes show 0 bytes the whole time. But you will see the free space of the hard drive decrease.