40min AVI to VCD takes 4 hours!

[dominant11th]

i have a 40min AVI video. I use Nero (version 5) to burn it into a VCD. The first process it does is "Encoding Video". This process alone takes 4 hours, then another 30 mins for the actual burning!! why does it take this long? My CD writer's max speed is 4x... but i dont think it has anything to do with the 4 hours, because the burning process is where the CD writer enters.

my friend 'passes' through the "Encoding Video" part for just an hour. Why is that so?

HELP! thanks.

[hwoodwar]

Without knowing system specifications (hardware) it is hard to know the reason for the difference. The single major cause for a difference in encoding speed is the speed of the processor. Also, if you friend is capturing at VCD resolution (352 x 240/288) and you are capturing a a different resolution (higher or lower) then the resizing of the image adds to the encode time. Four hours is not necessarily slow.

It sounds like you are using Nero to encode to a VCD format MPEG-1 file. I suggest you only use Nero to "burn", not to "encode". The Nero encoder is known to produce a vastly inferior video than Cinema Craft Encoder or TMPGenc. You may want to look at some of the many guides available on this site about using Cinema Craft Encoder or TMPGenc.

[hoyboy]

I had a Duron 850 when I first started to dabble in DV- It really took a long time to encode things i.e 1.5 hrs to do a 15 minute video. I have upgraded to a xp2100+ and it is alot faster. You really need to check your specs and see if they are capable of giving you the speed you need

[Conquest10]

you should try to encode the file with something other than nero. you'll get better quality and it might be faster.

[Hardcoreruss]

What are the specifications of your pc, also try using a program like tmpgenc for the encoding process, you will get much better quality.

[dominant11th]

I'm using Pentium 3, 733 MHz, 128MB RAM, Windows XP. will that help? or do you need more? I dont know if these are relevant, but i'll just include it: 4x-writespeed CD burner, 40.0GB HD (10.0GB free)

thanks again.

[Conquest10]

4 hours for 40 minutes does not sound like a lot.

[LanEvo7]

Are you sure the .avi audio is not VBR?

[WeedVender]

A 4X burn should only take around 18 to 20 minutes...

[Conquest10]

A 4X burn should only take around 18 to 20 minutes...

he probably rounded up.

[hwoodwar]

Four hours forty minutes, to encode forty minutes in Nero does not seem long to me on a Pentium 3 733mhz system. On my Pentium 4 2.4ghz system (total specs listed in my profile) I take about 2 hours 20 minutes using TMPGenc and 2-Pass VBR for a 45 minute TV show.

[Conquest10]

on my p3 667 it takes roughly about 10 minutes encoding for every minute of video.