Dual CPU Settings in TMPGEnc and Win2000

[Soggy Shorts]

OK, I was wondering if any of you have experience in this area. I just built my "dream machine" and have it running beautifully. Dual Athalon 1800 MP processors with a gig of Ram, with a fresh load of Win 2000 on 2 brand new 100 Gig ATA 100 Drives. The only problem is, When I do two pass VBR encoding using TMPGEnc I don't seem to be able to do it any faster than I did with a single processor 1.2 gig machine... There are environment settings in TMPGEnc that pertain to dual processor setups, but I don't want to screw anything up due to not understanding it.

Does anyone know how to setup TMPGEnc properly as well as how to set up Win 2k properly to fully utilize the dual processors. Even just web links would be great, I haven't been able to find anything to help. Thanks *again* for all of your help. Vielen Dank, fur alles deine hilfe!

[flaamer]

Under options > environmental settings > cpu, check use multi-thread, 2 processors

[disturbed1]

TMPG doesn't encode using both cpu's. One cpu is for encoding, the other is for filters.

From TMPG FAQ
<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
Is dual-CPU supported?
Currently, dual-CPU is supported for filtering and part of MPEG encoding.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

[lichtgestalt]

TMPG doesn't encode using both cpu's. One cpu is for encoding, the other is for filters.

Is that really true? Maybe tha FAQ hasn't been updated yet.
I have a dual PIII@550mhz machine and back in the TMPGENc 12.x days Win2000's taskmanager never indicated more than 50% usage, i.e. only one CPU was used.
Now, with version 2.x I see a 98% usage! That is only with the clipping filter and I doubt that could account for the additional 48% usage increase.

I also learned that the Cinema Craft Encoder doesn't scale as good (which is why I switched to TMPEG). CCE2.50 won't go over 50% usage (--> single threaded) and CCE2.62 reaches about 65%. Also not that hot...

Soggy, I envy your setup...

[disturbed1]

Are you frame serving to CCE? V-DUB, nor Avisynth are multithreaded.

TMPG's changelog from 12b to present doesn't state any multithreading improvements.

[Dave Knowles]

Could someone explain about Enable Pipeline, Enable Pipeline for Motion Search and Prefetch Video please.

[incognito]

First a reality check:
you DID install the SMP kernel when you loaded Win2k, right?
(even if you have two procesors, the install routine defaults
to using the single-procesor kernel).

Second, in tmpg, under environment settings, there's
a box to check off that will say "multi-threading"
or "use multi-thread" (depending on which version you're
using). Checking the box will tell tmpg to split up the job
into seperate tasks and Windows will schedule these tasks on
seperate processors if it can.

I believe the previous posts that indicate tmpg's multi-
threading is limited are correct. I have a dual processor
machine (although a much humbler one than described above)
and I don't see a huge speed-up when turning multi-threading
on. Even considering this, you can still make use of two
processors by, say, using flask to re-size your video and
frameserving to tmpg. It's like forcing a single program
to multi-thread by running it as three seperate programs,
one to decode/resize the video, one to serve the avi frames,
and one to do the encoding.

[Soggy Shorts]

Well it seems that I have gone and done it again... I have stepped into a quagmire of things that I need to learn a lot about, and quick! Thank god for you guys and this forum...

As far as the SMP Kernel, I wasn't given an option when I loaded Win2k, it just did a system check and loaded itself... When I got to Device Manager under computer it says: ACPI Multiprocessor PC. I assume that it loaded itself correctly, my laptop doesn't list itself as a multiprocessor PC. If this is setup correctly (I think it is) I would like to know where I can go to make changes to how Windows handles the two processors.

I have checked the multi-thread box in the environment area, but I thought I would see more of an improvement than I did. I wonder what exactly the boxes under multi-thread actually do when I check them...

I fully admint, in this case I had more bucks than brains... Hopefully with help from you guys I can get the knowledge required to figure this out and help to speed up processing. Thanks for the complements on the machine guys, it has really been something to play with so far...

One more question, when doing a 2-pass VBR encode to go from a DivX source to DVD-template MPG-II in TMPGEnc how fast should it go? As things are set up right now, it takes me about 4 times the length of the movie to encode, I was hoping to get a little more speed, even something closer to realtime...

Tanks again for your input!

[tinmancp]

Well, I don't thing this is true. On my system, a dual PIII 1Ghz with 1.5gig RAM, whenever I encode a VCD/SVCD, the task manager would show both my CPU pushing to 100%.

I currently run WinXP, but this is true when I was running Win2K

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-12-20 21:36:27, disturbed1 wrote:
TMPG doesn't encode using both cpu's. One cpu is for encoding, the other is for filters.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

[JJamez]

Interesting... I have an older system I use sometimes when I don't want to tie up my main machine - dual Celeron 366@500 - and the multithread option in TMPG effectively cuts the encoding time in half, and always shows @ or near 100% CPU usage throughout. This is without the use of any filters.

SS, if the device manager says 'multiprocessor PC', then you're alright. As long as you did a reinstall of 2000, it will autodetect the dual processors - if you had installed 2000 with only one processor in place, then just popped the second one in, it would have no effect until SMP was 'installed' by reinstalling 2000 (doesn't have to be a clean reinstall, although I guess that's preferable).

JJ

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: JJamez on 2001-12-21 17:03:08 ]</font>

[tinycorkscrew]

I have to agree with tinmancp, TMPGEnc does use both processors to the max. I have a dual 1.2ghz AMD MP, and when multithreading is enabled I get 100% CPU usage on both processors without any filters enabled.

[tinmancp]

That's not quite true. After you pop in another processor, you can enable it by going into device manager and install the SMP drivers.

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
SS, if the device manager says 'multiprocessor PC', then you're alright. As long as you did a reinstall of 2000, it will autodetect the dual processors - if you had installed 2000 with only one processor in place, then just popped the second one in, it would have no effect until SMP was 'installed' by reinstalling 2000 (doesn't have to be a clean reinstall, although I guess that's preferable).

JJ

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: JJamez on 2001-12-21 17:03:08 ]</font>
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

[Soggy Shorts]

Does it make sense that 2 pass VBR takes so long to encode with this system? 4 times the length of the movie is quite some time to wait, but it seems that it gives me the very best results...

Anyone know where to tweak how win 2k allocates the two processors?

and finally... How do I get task manager to run? I would like to see what it has to say when I am encoding...

As usual, thanks you guys (and gals)

[lichtgestalt]

Soggy, put a link to C:\WINNT\system32\taskmgr.exe into your autostart folder. Check "Minimize at startup" (or s.th. like that) in Taskmanager to not be bothered with its window each bootup.

If you go to the Process tab you can rightclick onto a team and by choosing the last option from the pop-up menu (my Win's in German, so...), you can assign the team to a specific CPU (here you see that Windows doesn't do a true Symmetrical MP).
This is quite handy if you come across a real resource hog and have to troutslap it into submission
Anyway, a dual setup is always great, even when running mainly single-threaded apps as that always leaves one CPU to do other stuff like browsing etc. which can be hampered if you have to work with said resource hogs. Just make sure you have enough memory.

Last word on TMPGEnc's SMP performance:
Just encoded a 41:29 minutes long clip, 2passVBR, Avg. 2130kbps.
SMP: 7:55 hrs.
UNI: 11:50 hrs.
I'd call that a massive gain!
This is with a dual 550 PIII, so doing a whole movie (90+ min.) in 4 hrs doesn't look too shabby to me...

[stevlover]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-12-21 16:54:40, tinmancp wrote:
Well, I don't thing this is true. On my system, a dual PIII 1Ghz with 1.5gig RAM, whenever I encode a VCD/SVCD, the task manager would show both my CPU pushing to 100%.

I currently run WinXP, but this is true when I was running Win2K

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-12-20 21:36:27, disturbed1 wrote:
TMPG doesn't encode using both cpu's. One cpu is for encoding, the other is for filters.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
Can you tell me what kind of encoding times you are getting with your dual processor setup? Im thinking of getting a dual processor myself

[stevlover]

Can any of you guys tell me what kind of encoding speeds you are getting with your dual PIII processors? I am thinking about about going dual PIII processors so any feedback would be appreciated

[Soggy Shorts]

With my dual athalon machine I can do CQ encoding in about 2/3 of the length of the video using TMPGEnc. If I do 2 pass VBR it takes about twice the length of the video that I am encoding.

[stevlover]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2002-01-04 14:08:50, Soggy Shorts wrote:
With my dual athalon machine I can do CQ encoding in about 2/3 of the length of the video using TMPGEnc. If I do 2 pass VBR it takes about twice the length of the video that I am encoding.
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>
thanx for the info ..but I have a PIII 1 gig how much of a difference do you think it would make if i had a dual PIII with the encoding time?