Fast encoding on a slow computer

[si4h]

I have videos in .wmv format that have little too big resolution and I can't watch them smoothly on my slow computer. So, I have to either encode them to 400x300 smaller resolution or leave resolution as is and decrease fps. But it takes time like 4x or more of the video length.

Is there a way to encode them faster than normally by means of "some method". I don't care that much about quality.

[jagabo]

You could use Divx in single pass, constant quality mode, with it's faster settings. That will encode quickly but the resulting files will likely be larger.

[si4h]

Bigger size is fine, but how do I do it?

[jagabo]

That screencap doesn't show Divx's constant quality mode settings, only bitrate mode. If you use the Video Format pulldown are there any other Divx options?

[si4h]

I downloaded DivX Plus Converter and even there are no options like that.
What program should I download? Can you show me screens from program you use with this settings?

[jagabo]

You need to use an application that gives you full control of the codec:



Start by pressing the Restore Defaults button, then change the other settings to look like the above image.

VirtualDub gives full access to the encoder settings.

[si4h]

Is there any other encoding program that gives access to DivX settings?
VirtualDub doesn't support .wmv, I downloaded wmv plugin but it still doesn't work. I get codec error.

[jagabo]

You probably need a VFW WMV3 decoder. To check in VirtualDub select File -> File Information. The third line on the dialog will tell you what codec you need. ffdshow has VFW decoders for almost everything. Install that and enable the VFW decoder for the missing codec: Start -> All Programs -> ffdshow -> VFW Configuration. Select Codecs at the top of left pane. In the right pane locate the needed codec and use the pulldown to enable one of the options. For example WMV3/9 -> WMV9 or libavcodec. Restart VirtualdDub and open your WMV file.

[si4h]

Thanks for your help.

I did everything, but I don't see any improvment in speed.
Probably the relatively fastest I get is WinFF with 400x300 bitrate=1200 and fps=23.

Bottom line is: encoding on slow computer sucks.

[jagabo]

A few more things you can do:

Disable the Encoding Presets option in the main Divx tab. Switch to the Codec tab and use the pulldown near the top to set the Encoding Mode to Fastest. If you have a multicore or multithreaded CPU enable the Enhanced Multithreading option. Those are the fastest possible settings for Divx. Using those settings on a 480x360 video I encode about 175 frames per second on my quad core Q6600. An hour long video will encode in about 8 minutes. Using the Divx codec's resizing option to resize to 400x300 and encoding with those settings I get about 190 fps (resizing takes more time but encoding the smaller frame is faster).

What CPU do you have in your computer?

[si4h]

My computer is '2000 standard: Celeron 566 Ghz
Encoding mode pulldown is disabled.

For comparison I run a test on WinFF and Virtual Dub.
The file was: .wmv 800x448 29 fps

WinFF with 1200 kbps 400x300 and 23 fps
DivX with 1200 kbps 400x224 (I used relative (%) resizing)

Conversion time: WinFF - 43 sec. and DivX - 1.07 sec.

[jagabo]

To switch the encoding mode you have to disable the "Use Presets..." option on the main tab. The fastest setting may not be available unless you're registered (paid for a license). But the difference between Fastest and High Performance isn't very large.

If you're not using a recent version (1.8.x or newer) of VirtualDub be sure to select Video -> Fast Recompress (the default is Video -> Full Processing Mode, which is slower in older versions).

Did you use Divx's resizing on the Video tab? Or VirtualDub's resizing filter? Divx's is faster.

I have a hard time believing WinFF is faster than VirtualDub+Divx. Divx at it's fastest settings is one of the fastest video encoders around. I haven't run recent versions of Divx on a 566 MHz Celeron though.