conversion time

[THE_SAINT33]

i convert using tmpgenc and it takes me about 6 hours or more for a full dvd. when i convert using ulead moviefactory it takes about the same amount of time. i was wondering if the conversion process is based on the processor speed or the software? in the future with better software, will the conversion time go down dramatically? and im also wondering this because i was wondering if there is any point to get new software if the ones that i have work fine, because i would only want to get new software if they could speed the conversion time.
i got a dell inspiron 8000:
PENT3 800MHZ
256MB RAM
WIN2000 PRO
HITACHI 20GB HD @ 4200RPM
MOBILITY M4 8MB AGP4X

[zero_net]

speaking of conversion time, i would like to know what will increase conversions fastest ?

Processer speeds, ram, etc
i would like to be able to convert a video at the same amount of time the video is or less.

such as a 30min video, i would like to convert it in 30minutes or less.

[ryanreko]

usually the bottle neck is the cpu, if you think about it, its all about calcualtions... so the cpu speed (fsb as well) then ram then harddisk speed (usually never a problem)

[ryanreko]

with my system

p4 at 2.4ghz
768MB ddr 2100
160 GB 7200rpm

i usually convert to dvd specs in about half time using CCE

[maduser74]

I have
P4 2.4 ghz (800Mhz FSB)
512MB DDR 400
20G/40G UDMA/100 7200 RPM harddrive

and it takes 8 hrs to convert 45 mts DV video to MPEG2 (2Pass VBR) using TMPGEnc.

Is this normal ? If not what should i do to increase the speed.

[i_am_dave]

I have
P4 2.4 ghz (800Mhz FSB)
512MB DDR 400
20G/40G UDMA/100 7200 RPM harddrive

and it takes 8 hrs to convert 45 mts DV video to MPEG2 (2Pass VBR) using TMPGEnc.

Is this normal ? If not what should i do to increase the speed.

You didn't say how your TMPGEnc was configured.
The Motion estimate you select will affect your encoding time.
Any filters you have selected can drastically increase encoding time.

I usually encode with 'normal' motion estimate, no filters, and CQ mode instead of 2Pass VBR.
I have a 1.8Ghz P4 and I think 45 minutes usually finishes in about an hour

[Heavensent]

its both hardware(cpu) and software(encoder).

lets take cce and tmpeg for example,
cce is much faster on the same machine.

so its a combination of both,
BUT the cpu will allways be whats holding you down.
you cant get the same resolt on a p3 like on p4, the cpu will slow you down.

[maduser74]

I choose HQ for Motion Estimate. No filters. I will try your setting and see how fast it is. I am using 2pass vbr to reduce the file size...

Thanks

[THE_SAINT33]

what is cce? does it do the same thing that tmpgenc does?

[videocheez]

Yep, CCE does the same as TMPGE but it wasn't as intuitive for me to figure out. Others may disagree, check out Guides, Format Conversion, CCE at www.doom9.org for instructions on how to use it. It's faster then TMPGE but if you want the same quality as TMPGE most likely you will have to do multiple scans which will increase the time of the encode.
Also there is Mainconcept that is suppose to be pretty good.

Goodluck,

VC

[Vejita-sama]

The user interface for CCE is not that simple. But then without templates neither is TMPGenc's. There are some excellent CCE guides at doom9.org. In my hands CCE is about 4-5x faster than TMPGenc.

I have an AMD 2200XP and encding MPEG2 video in CCE takes me ~0.7x source runtime per pass. I normally do 2-3pass VBR encodes, so that's 2.8x source runtime.

In TMPGenc each pass takes about 3x the source runtime.

I still use TMPGenc for some things (eg. generating motion menus for stills). But for all my major encoding projects it's CCE all the way.

[zero_net]

r their any sites out their that benchmark this stuff, ?

[thete]

I'm encoding wedding videos, and it's gogin to take about 13.5 hours just top do the first disk (which is about 1.5 hours in length)! THis is at high quality (not hightest) on VBR 2 pass! My average bitrate is 6150, min is 2400 and max is 9100! This means to do both disks (the wedding is about 3 hours total), ti will take over a day to do! Is there a way to speed this up (I have a Athlon XP 1900+)? If I just do a CBR of 6150, it only takes 4 hours (so a thrid of the time??!!??), but it does szeem a little blurry, but maybe that;s just me expecting it to be? I like the idea od using CQ, but I need to make sure it fits onto a DVD, so I need to control the end file size, which I can;t do with cq, as I don;t know of a bitrate calculator for it! As weddign videos aren;t terribly action packed, I thought that Normal quality would do, but it looks even blurrier! Can anyone suggest either a better, faster setting, buit keeping quality, or a different program, but that will again sustain picture quality?

[paulb]

DV is the hardest to convert due to camera movement and the stabilization features built in. I've been capturing and converting DV Marching Band footage for two years. I've tried CCE/Mainconcept etc., but Macro blocks were just not acceptable to me. I stuck with TMPGENC 2pass VBR highest quality and used the MB1 Interlaced custom Q-Matrix (search the board for it). The custom Q-Matrix made all the difference.

As for encode time, you can cut your TMPG 2-pass encode in half by setting the cache options. In Tools or Option (I don;t have the app in front of me at the moment) you set the cache to at least the 4GB. This way the first pass is recorded to cache and the second is straight encode from cache. On my 2.4GHZ, a 6 hour encode of 30 minutes of DV footage takes 3 hours. It looks like it will take the same amount of time, but when you reach 50% on pass 1, pass 2 zooms through.

Good Luck. Paul

[thete]

Great, thank you so much for all of your help! You don;t know how much of a life saver you are! I have to admit, I didn;t think that changing the cache size would have done a thing, so I am incrdibly grateful for that piece of advice, as I would never have thought of it! I'll let you know how I get on, and thank you very much again!

[videocheez]

I also like the tip of adjusting the cache settings to 4GB, but am wondering if this will start saving 4GB of movie somewhere on my hardrive or will it be deleted after encoding.

Thanks in advance,

VC

[thete]

Don;t know if I did something wrong, but set the cache size to 4608 (4.5Gb), and it did nothing at all! It took the same amount of time to convert the file! Is there anything else I should have done? or does it only work in power of 2 Gigabyte sizes or soemthing (ie 1,2,4,8 Gb only)?

Thanks again for your help!

[paulb]

Thete,

This works only in the PLUS version of TMPGENC. This is also ONLY for 2pass VBR.

In the
TMPGEnc ->Enviromental Setting ->CPU - Cache Setting
set the cache to at least 4096 (I use 8192 since I have the extra space).

While the AVI is analyzing (fiirst pass) and you see the percentage, at 50% all transcoding takes place directly from the disk cache you allocated. The time to transcode the remaining 50% is 30% to 50% faster depending on your hardware. If you have plenty of RAM (512MB is good), 7200RPM HD with plenty of space and a newer processor (Full Pentium 4, 2.x etc.) then you should see exactly the same results.