AVI to MPEG Using TMPEGEnc - How Long?

[bigb_y2g]

I am using TMPEGEnc to convert a Divx encoded AVI file to MPEG-2. I have a Pentium II 300 and the conversion will take...18 hours!

Is it my system or does it usually take this long to convert 1 hour of video?

[ZippyP.]

It's your system!

[Fusmali]

Your machine is very slow by todays standards so 18 hours is quite reasonable, and I bet you are not using 2 pass VBR with the highest quality motion search. If you were you be asking is 36 plus hours normal for my system.

[FulciLives]

Just to give you an idea of encoding times ... the last time I did a LONG (about 2 hours) avi to mpeg-2 encoding on my old computer it took 29 hours doing a 2-pass VBR in TMPGEnc. This was NOT on the highest quality setting (but the 2nd highest setting).

That was on a P3 650Mhz with 256MB RAM and WinXP

I did the same avi clip again on a new P4 2.4Ghz with 512MB RAM running WinXP and it took 17 hours but this was at the HIGHEST setting for the MOTION SEARCH PRECISION setting. I bet that had I used the same setting as I did on the P3 my encoding time on the P4 would have been at least 6 hours less (so say 11 hours instead of 17 hours). The difference in encoding time between the HIGHEST and 2nd HIGHEST settings (for the motion search precision setting) can be rather dramatic even on a FAST system.

It really is time for you to upgrade you computer and with MPEG-2 encoding you really should get 512MB and as fast a CPU as you can afford. I would recommend any P4 above 2.0Ghz with 2.4Ghz being at a good "cheap" price point right now.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Go with a P4 vs a Celeron or AMD chip.

[falconx]

welcome to TMPGEnc world

[steptoe]

Yep, encode times using TMPGenc are very high, but I think the quality is also high, for the price that you pay for the software anyway

I have an AMD XP 2000, and my encode times are on average 5-7 hours per average (1 1/2 hrs) movie, with VBR you can just about double that, but the quality difference is noticeable

I can reduce that encode time using VCD format dimensions, but again, still about 3-5 hours per movie


How long is a piece of string .....................


Patience is a not something that people these days have. they want it done now, not in 2 hours

ahhhh, I fondly remember patiently waiting upto an hour for one game to load on my C64, then find it crashes due to the tape heads being slightly off centre, twiddle with a screwdriver, then waiting another hour to try again

Or even better, the wobbly 16k RAM on the good ol' ZX-81, breath to hard and it crashed

People had patience and understanding then, now..... none at all

Or was it because we were willing to put up with the poor build quality and the fact that people just couldn't afford the hardware that we can today that offers way, way above what could ever be achieved then, and that was less than 10 years ago !!

mmmmm, no spring chicken then



ramble, ramble, gibber, gibber

[NightWing]

Speed always cost money! Easy way is to set it up for a night run.

Along with the loose memory and 64 tape problems, I also remember the crosion problems on a Color Computer expansion port And the SS50 bus pins on a SWTP.

[FulciLives]

My very first computer was a VIC-20 which used cartridges and also had a tape drive.

Then I upgraded to a C-64 with a tape drive and FINALLY 3 months latter I could afford the 5 1/4" floppy. What a hunk of SHIT! I had to constantly open up the EXTERNAL case of the 5 1/4" floppy and fiddle with it (using a screwdriver) to get the heads aligned ... thankfully I had some simple program that gave + and - values on screen while fiddling with the floppy drive so that I knew when it was more-or-less aligned. I think I had to type that program in from a magazine or book.

Many years later in the latter half of 1990 I got my first PC which cost around $2,000

INTEL 386SX-16Mhz
Dos 4.x and Windows 3.0 (which was rather new)
Paradise 512k 256 color CGA/EGA/VGA graphics card
2MB RAM
5 1/4" HD Floppy drive
3 1/2" HD Floppy drive
80MB HDD
Keyboard and mouse
13" Trinitron SONY monitor

That package deal (which I got mail order) was $2,000 and I actually bought WORD FOR WINDOWS (version 1.0 for Windows 3.0) for a whopping $500 on top of the $2,000

A few months later I bought the very first generation ISA SoundBlaster soundcard. I forget how much it was but I'm sure the price was high.

The first two games I bought were MONKEY ISLAND which was capable of using the SoundBlaster (I think) but it was only 16 color VGA and KNIGHT'S QUEST 5 which was one of the first games to support 256 color VGA and I do remember it playing music so yeah it did definately support the SoundBlaster sound card.

Oh yeah I had a printer too. It was one of the better printers at the time. I forget how much it was but it was a PANASONIC and it was a 24pin Dot Matrix printer.

My computer was pretty much LOADED for the time otherthan the CPU which wasn't a "bad" speed at the time but it wasn't the fastest either. The fastest was a 386DX-33Mhz but since that was the top of the line I think to get the same package I got BUT with the 386DX-33Mhz it would have been something like well over $3,000

I recall that 286 based computers where still being made and sold as new at this time. So any speed 386 was considered FAST in comparision.

Is TMPGEnc slow as hell? Yeah.
but I've been there and done that hehehehe

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[SaSi]

Well, just to entertain the thread, let me add a nice comment I've read in one of the MPEG FAQ's I found in the links of this site some time ago. It talks about the different layers of MPEG-1 audio:

"Layer III is an enhancement of Layer II. It's much complicated and the processing power required to encode audio to layer III is so huge, that you shouldn't bother with it."

It's talking about the MP3 audio format It was written in 1993. Computers have become 100 times more powerful since then. I bet programs only grew 10 times as clever and fast.

Now, to the issue of Tmpgenc encoding speed, I thing we are all being unfair to Tmpgenc. Everybody is using motion search at the highest quality level and then complains about the time it takes. Try Mainconcept and select 15 for the Search method and 31 for the search range and then wait for it to finish. It might take a day on a fast PC.

[ZippyP.]

Everybody is using motion search at the highest quality level and then complains about the time it takes.

I switched to Motion Estimate from High and I haven't noticed any difference in how the video looks.

[macleod]

Just last night I converted some 30 minute avi's to VCD (not SVCD) using dvd2svcd with CCE. It took 2 hours start to finish on my 500. On the last one, I used TMPGENC, used normal setting and it took about the same time.

if time is a concern, try either VCD, OR use CBR, or 1 pass. The spec for cce is min 550 so I dont know if it will run on your 300.

[SaSi]

Everybody is using motion search at the highest quality level and then complains about the time it takes.

I switched to Motion Estimate from High and I haven't noticed any difference in how the video looks.

You can even switch to lowest quality and you will probably not notice any loss in quality provided bitrate is above 3Mbps. You will only notice a huge increase in speed.

Don't know if every system behaves the same, but on mine, every step increase in motion search method towards the highest level results in almost half speed.

I am doing some proof-conversions using the lowest quality level and it goes more than realtime (P4/2.67)

[DeathStalker77]

For what it's worth, here's my data on conversion times -

AMD T-Bird 1300, 512MB RAM (low drivespace, high fragmentation

~45min SVCD @~1800 take 4-5 hours - no tweaking, default settings

VCDs are ALMOST real-time (1 hour show = ~1 hour 15mins or less)

I just wish that TMPEGEnc would be written to accept VBR AVI files - they compriose over 80% of what I get. It gets to be a pain either splitting off the audio, or just converting the AVI to AVI_PCM (I think overall, the extra time is about the same, either way you go - I usually just convert to AVI_PCM).

Is there ANY other SVCD converter/Wizard that will give you the fit to CD data that TMPEGEnc does? (Yes, I know there are stand-alone calculators to do that, but T's Project Wizard makes that aspect nice and easy

--- DeathStalker77