How to convert video faster ?

[come_mon]

Hi,

My PC has below configuration:-

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2400 MHz
Bus speed: 133MHz
Motherboard: GA-8S655FX-L
Memory: 512MB DDR-400
DVD drive: LG4167B
HDD: 1 UDMA-33 HD (80GB), 1 SATAII HD (320GB, operates in 1.5Gbps mode because it's the highest data rate supported by the gigabyte motherboard)

I use TSUNAMI MPEG DVD EasyPack Suite to convert DVD video to mpeg (VCD format) files. I found that a 20-25 minutes recorded TV programme (cartoons only) need over 30 minutes to convert .

I'm satisfied with quality of conversion but not with the time taken. How can I shorten the time of conversion with above H/W configuration ? What H/W do I need to upgrade if it's unavoidable ? Any other conversion S/W give comparable output quality as TSUNAMI but can complete the process faster ?

[mats.hogberg]

CCE is the fastest encoder.
More CPU speed will increase performance on the hardware side. Other hardware factors will only marginally change matters.

/Mats

[GeorgeW]

CCE is the fastest encoder.
More CPU speed will increase performance on the hardware side. Other hardware factors will only marginally change matters.

/Mats

I was going to mention CCE Basic, but I only have the trial version, and did not see a way to make it convert DVD source to VCD (as the OP wants). Do you know if there is a limitation of the TRIAL version on what types of input files it will accept? The PRO version is out of my budget, but the Basic version is pretty reasonable (imho), and converting dv .avi to mpeg2 is F-A-S-T !!!

Regards,
George

[AlanHK]

What's your ultimate aim? To watch cartoons on your own TV? Or do you actually need to make VCDs for someone?

If the first, there are fairly cheap kits to stream video from your PC to the TV (by cable or wireless). Or a new DVD player that can play AVIs would mean you just burned the AVIs as data taking a minute or two.

[normcar]

A cheap speed enhancer is to convert from one harddrive to another. The 80 GB drive (UDMA-33), is very slow. You should buy a new drive, (lots of space for small investment). It can be an IDE drive, unless you are going to upgrade your motherboard/CPU, then get a SATA drive, since the CPU is the real bottleneck. Even if you buy a new motherboard/cpu, you will have to replace the 80GB drive (use it for extra data storage).

You should also check the amount of memory you have against the Windows Task Manager, Performance - Peak. This will tell you if you are going over your max memory. If so, then buy more memory.

[come_mon]

What's your ultimate aim? To watch cartoons on your own TV? Or do you actually need to make VCDs for someone?

If the first, there are fairly cheap kits to stream video from your PC to the TV (by cable or wireless). Or a new DVD player that can play AVIs would mean you just burned the AVIs as data taking a minute or two.

1) Watch those converted mpeg files on PC cos I found no difference in quality (preception) between VCD format & DVD format for cartoon programmes.
2) Keep a copy of the recorded programmes occupying smaller disk space (or CD space).

I mean could the conversion be completed in less time e.g. 10-15 mins instead of 30-35 mins for 20-25 mins input video data ?

[come_mon]

A cheap speed enhancer is to convert from one harddrive to another. The 80 GB drive (UDMA-33), is very slow. You should buy a new drive, (lots of space for small investment). It can be an IDE drive, unless you are going to upgrade your motherboard/CPU, then get a SATA drive, since the CPU is the real bottleneck. Even if you buy a new motherboard/cpu, you will have to replace the 80GB drive (use it for extra data storage).

You should also check the amount of memory you have against the Windows Task Manager, Performance - Peak. This will tell you if you are going over your max memory. If so, then buy more memory.

As mentioned, I have one SATA HDD in the same PC. I'll try give instruction to write data to that SATA drive for the next conversion & feedback result later. I'm confident that max memory not exceeded. Actually, I'd tried used 1 512MB DDR400 + 1 512MB DDR333 RAM modules (effectively 1GB DDR333 RAM) to do the conversion, result is evenly slightly inferior.

[mats.hogberg]

Fastest would be not to convert at all, since (AFAICS) the only reason to convert a video is to make it playable on a specific device - and since you can convert it on your computer, you can already view it on the PC. Of course, the disc space factor is one thing, but hard drives are cheap! And so is DVD-R

I mean could the conversion be completed in less time e.g. 10-15 mins instead of 30-35 mins

Possibly, using CCE and the fastest CPU available.

/Mats

[come_mon]

Fastest would be not to convert at all, since (AFAICS) the only reason to convert a video is to make it playable on a specific device - and since you can convert it on your computer, you can already view it on the PC. Of course, the disc space factor is one thing, but hard drives are cheap! And so is DVD-R

I mean could the conversion be completed in less time e.g. 10-15 mins instead of 30-35 mins

Possibly, using CCE and the fastest CPU available.

/Mats

Just tried output data to my SATA HDD i.e. source data from LG DVD drive -> TSUNAMI software -> SATA HDD. Converting 26 mins DVD data (887MB data) to VCD (MPEG-1) took 28 mins 48 sec, still not a satisfactory result. I wonder TSUNAMI may be a bottleneck

[redwudz]

The Tsunami encoders, at least the one I use (Plus 2.5) are some of the slower encoders out there. They do a good job and are easy to set up, but slow. CCE is one of the faster ones. Or for freeware, you might try HC or QuEnc as they may also be faster than TMPGEnc.

[InXess]

there are 2 possibilities only: lower your output resolution or upgrade your CPU/pc specs. ~2 GHz will give your roughly 1x (realtime) speed. Check tomshardware.com for encoding benchmarks with different CPU's to find out which one you need to buy to significantly improve your speed. AMD 3800+ and above (reference your Intel equivalent) will encode at 2x cutting your encoding time in half.
You may try mainconcept encoder as well, should be much faster ( ~30%, but not 2x).

[deadrats]

Hi,

My PC has below configuration:-

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2400 MHz
Bus speed: 133MHz
Motherboard: GA-8S655FX-L
Memory: 512MB DDR-400
DVD drive: LG4167B
HDD: 1 UDMA-33 HD (80GB), 1 SATAII HD (320GB, operates in 1.5Gbps mode because it's the highest data rate supported by the gigabyte motherboard)

I use TSUNAMI MPEG DVD EasyPack Suite to convert DVD video to mpeg (VCD format) files. I found that a 20-25 minutes recorded TV programme (cartoons only) need over 30 minutes to convert .

I'm satisfied with quality of conversion but not with the time taken. How can I shorten the time of conversion with above H/W configuration ? What H/W do I need to upgrade if it's unavoidable ? Any other conversion S/W give comparable output quality as TSUNAMI but can complete the process faster ?

try gui4ffmpeg, it's an easy to use gui that use ffmpeg as it's backend. ffmpeg is a hyper fast encoder and you should see some fast encode times going from DVD to VCD.

as a general rule of thumb, TMPG's products are slow as hell, you'll realize a much bigger speed increase going with a better coded application than upgrading your aging system.

(this advice brought to you by deadrats, voted most clueless, most incompetent and most dangerous poster in the video help forums. use his advise at your own risk!!!)

[AlanHK]

What's your ultimate aim? To watch cartoons on your own TV? Or do you actually need to make VCDs for someone?

If the first, there are fairly cheap kits to stream video from your PC to the TV (by cable or wireless). Or a new DVD player that can play AVIs would mean you just burned the AVIs as data taking a minute or two.

1) Watch those converted mpeg files on PC cos I found no difference in quality (preception) between VCD format & DVD format for cartoon programmes.
2) Keep a copy of the recorded programmes occupying smaller disk space (or CD space).

I mean could the conversion be completed in less time e.g. 10-15 mins instead of 30-35 mins for 20-25 mins input video data ?

If you want to watch it on your PC, VCD (MPEG1) is not a good choice. An AVI file with the same quality is much smaller.

If you want to shrink your AVI files, see
https://www.videohelp.com/tools?convert=AVI%20to%20AVI
Maybe a tool like Super would be good.

Also, perhaps the audio part of your file is large -- if uncompressed (i.e. WAV) it could take up half the file. Just converting the audio to MP3, or recoding to a lower rate, could save you a lot of space and also is much faster than processing video. (Your audio is being converted anyway, to a different format, when making VCDs.)

There is a large subculture devoted to making anime AVIs for efficient distribution and they will have much more specific advice.

[Bjs]

The two most popular methods without buying hardware :

1: Wait for it to come out on dvd ... lmgo ... I know thats lame , but worthy of a chuckle or two .

Or seriously

2: Close all other programs prior to encoding ... ctrl + alt + del ... kill of any non-essential running task ... itunes , quicktime , printer utitlities , msn messenger ... then encode .

[jagabo]

I haven't used TSUNAMI MPEG DVD EasyPack Suite but I believe it uses the same MPEG encoder as TMPGEnc Plus. This is one of the slowest commercial MPEG encoders.

There is one setting that makes a big difference in its encoding speed, the Motion Search Precision. Setting it to "Low Quality", "Motion Estimate Search", or "Normal" will be much faster than "Highest Quality". And the difference in picture quality isn't that great.

CCE is a much faster encoder but it doesn't read MPG files. You can frame serve to it with AVISynth, and use FitCD to generate the AVISynth script for you. This will encode 2 to 3 times faster than TMPGEnc at "Normal" Motion Search Precision.