Should you restart the cpu after converting or burning?

[macnolias]

Sorry for the super newbie question but from seeing a friend burn things over the years he always restarts the comp before and after burning. So my question is, is it necessary to do so for smooth results? I'm just trying to get the best results when doing those things so basically asking for advice.

Also it's not advised to do other things on the computer when converting/burning, correct?

Thanks a bunch!

[edDV]

Like anything else in this field "It all depends".

The most critical time to avoid doing other things is during capture. Disk activity can cause the hard disk to be denied to the capture program and that causes frame drops at the extreme. Think of the Lucy show where the conveyor belt keeps sending pies and Lucy gets interrupted and can't keep up. Some pies (frames) fall to the floor.

Once video is captured, encoding can proceed without concern because Windows is in control and will cause the app to pause if the disks or CPU are busy.

Your friend may be having other issues forcing a reboot. One does that when background tasks are beyond control.

[macnolias]

So what you're trying to say is I can sit here and convert and burn all day without restarts? and the quality is going to stay the same?

Also you say I can be doing a million things on the computer while I'm converting and burning?


That's why I hate picking up habits from people that I think know what they're doing.

[guns1inger]

No

No

Yes

If you computer is running correctly and the software is sound, then yes, you can convert and burn to your heart's content. No sane person with a stable system will boot before and after a burn.

You can work while you are converting. The more you are doing, the slower the system will become, and the longer the conversion will take. Encoders will (if properly programmed) use as much CPU as you have available. Burning can also be done while other things are happening, within reason. Anything that is highly disc or CPU intensive will kill a burn, even with under-burn protection running. You can't expect to get good burns if you decide to play FEAR while you burn.

What you do with your computer while encoding will not impact the quality of the encode.

[edDV]

I was addressing capture and encoding, not burning. DVD burners tend to get upset for seemingly random reasons. Maybe its due to bad media samples but I do avoid heavy cpu activity during the 10 or so minutes the DVD is actually burning. I tend to batch burns and use the other computer while that is going on.

If I were doing constant burns, I'd dedicate a machine.

[dnix71]

The only reason for a reboot in Windows is to reclaim ram from 'leaky' apps, or apps that refuse to release ram after they are closed. which sometimes includes Windows itself. If you are running Win2000 or XP, it is easier to defrag some things at boot time.

Defragging a file before a burn might help if your hd is getting full or if you don't have a lot of spare ram.

[macnolias]

Well the whole restarting question came about after reading this post http://www.subdemon.com/forum/index.php?topic=212.0
Basically everyone says they never restart the computer unless windows says to do so after updates or new program installs. Over time the surges from the restarts take toll on the internal components faster then leaving the machine running for long periods at a time.

I'd imagine there would be some sort of program that would be able to clear out the RAM used up by the converter or burner?

[redwudz]

I'd imagine there would be some sort of program that would be able to clear out the RAM used up by the converter or burner?

dnix71 somewhat covered that. Most applications release the RAM they are using when closing. But a very few don't. But for burning, RAM doesn't have much to do with it.

But you asked about converting (Encoding) and burning. I certainly wouldn't bother to reboot for either operation. When you burn a disc, the burning program normally uses a piece of your hard drive for a cache to store the file and be able to feed it smoothly to the burner buffer. Nero and most burning software will show the cache and burner buffer levels. Those both should stay above 90% most times.

Most all burners now have 'burn proof' or equivalent to keep the buffer filled or pause the burn. That's not good, but shouldn't cause a problem with the burn. I would put the burner cache on other than your boot drive, or a external drive, if you want to really play it safe. Nero allows that, and other burner programs should also. The boot drive is used by the OS fairly often, so it may be running while your other drives are idle.

Encoding should be using all your CPU power that is available, if you want the encoding to be done in the quickest time. If you run other CPU intensive tasks, then the encode will slow down, but still should work just fine. But I wouldn't run antivirus programs, defrag or play a video game while either burning or encoding.

A minor problem could be when you use a external hard drive with USB to feed a burner. Then the OS may interrupt the data flow at intervals for OS housekeeping. This doesn't happen that often, but when it does, you may get a 'Delayed Write Failed' error. Or you more likely will have no problems. The burner will usually transfer the file to a cache on one of your internal drives to feed the burner.

As far as restarting the computer many times a day, no, that's not a good idea. Neither is running 24/7 without a reason.

But I wouldn't reboot unless I needed to with any of my computers. And I shut them down when they won't be used for a hour or two. Otherwise, use 'standby' or 'hibernate'. JMO.

[guns1inger]

I have seen/been involved in a lot of pissing competitions regarding uptime, and how linux servers can run weeks on wnd without any problems and windows servers need to be rebooted regularly because they are, well, windows.

Out in the real world (and folks, your bed room isn't the real world), servers get booted regularly. I used to manage a site of 35 mid-range HP/UX servers that housed the databases and applications for a very large government department. We rebooted once a week, every week. It flushes out the crap, makes sure all the leaks (and even well behaved programs can leak a little) are cleared, kills off zombie processes, and keeps everything running well.

We never (with the exception of the occasional shift of physical location) let the servers actually shutdown and cool down. It is the cooling down and heating up that will do more damage to components than running constantly.

Rebooting before every mouse click is nuts, but giving the system a kick in the guts once a week - be it windows, linux or OS X (wait, isn't that just a pretty linux ?) - is good for it.