can debugmode serve frames fast enough for x264

[codemaster]

The x264.exe encoder, in CRF mode, has a lookahead function. I think this means that, while it encodes frame 321 for example, perhaps at the same time it's algorithms need to check for something in frames 322 to 352.

But in order for x264 to get frames 321 to 352, first Premiere Pro or Vegas Pro must render them, then debugmode must write them to hdd as uncompressed avi. And at the same time, the CPU is used by the NLE for rendering, by avisynth for filtering, and by x264 for encoding.

What if x264 needs frames 321 to 352 but doesn't get them all exactly when x264 needs them ? Is this possible ? If yes, will this affect the eficiency of compression ? Or x264 will somehow wait for the signpost to get the frames requested ?

[poisondeathray]

quality won't be affected - it will just be a potential bottleneck as it waits for those frame to be rendered and served (ie slower to encode)

You can do some tests, time a section using debugmode vs one using a lossless intermediate. Of course it varies a lot depending on many factors, but the intermediate will usually be faster depending on what you have done in the host application (the more filters, effects, the faster the intermediate will be) . Also intermediate choice has a significant effect. For some projects, encoding with x264 using UT video codec intermediate was easily 15-20% faster than lagarith . But you have to factor in the time of creating an intermediate, then add encoding time on top of that . For mulitpass encodes, it definitely makes sense