Hardware issues in encoding

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Is the video card involved in encoding? What are the most important hardware items for encoding? Cores, bus speed, RAM, HHD size and transfer rate. I'm trying to ballpark encoding times. Just get a general idea of time frame. I'm shooting and editing HDV in HD or SD I don't yet know. Does anyone use an encoding service? I have some two hour titles. An encoding service goes for 5 gig for $20.

[redwudz]

Is the video card involved in encoding?

Depends on your video card. Some have CUDA or similar that assist in encoding, but usually at a lower quality than software based encoding. Most have no affect on encoding, just display.

What are the most important hardware items for encoding? Cores, bus speed, RAM, HHD size and transfer rate.

Mostly CPU speed. Multiple cores help with some codecs like H.264 that can make use of them. That's why I use a six core CPU. And overclock it to 3.7Ghz. The combination speeds up H.264 encodes quite a bit.

RAM, HDD size and transfer rate have little to do with encoding. For editing and transfers, faster drives may help, but unless you are working with raw video, a regular 7200RPM HDD should be more than sufficient. I set up most of my PCs with a small, fast boot drive. I'm using a 120GB SSD at present, but the former 10KRPM 150GB Raptor was almost as fast. For the other two or three drives, I'm using 1.5TB Samsung HDDs. You need lots of room for HD.

I'm trying to ballpark encoding times. Just get a general idea of time frame.

That's very difficult to answer. Depends on your setup and the files themselves. When I used a quad core 3.6Ghz CPU, my BD>MKV encoding times were about six hours. With a six core CPU at 3.7Ghz, the times are down to about 4 hours. But the encoding time depends on the video content and the length of the video.

I'm shooting and editing HDV in HD or SD I don't yet know. Does anyone use an encoding service? I have some two hour titles. An encoding service goes for 5 gig for $20.

Never tried an encoding service, but they would probably use similar software and hardware that you can use. If you are producing Blu-ray or DVD discs for sale, then a service might be easier.

[jagabo]

Is the video card involved in encoding?

Depends on your video card. Some have CUDA or similar that assist in encoding, but usually at a lower quality than software based encoding. Most have no affect on encoding, just display.

And just to be clear: it also depends on the software you are using and the graphics card's drivers. All must support GPU acceleration. Some examples:

http://www.behardware.com/articles/828-1/h-264-encoding-cpu-vs-gpu-nvidia-cuda-amd-str...-and-x264.html

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jagabo: Thanks for the link.
redwudz: speed vs cores - "When I used a quad core 3.6Ghz CPU, my BD>MKV encoding times were about six hours. With a six core CPU at 3.7Ghz, the times are down to about 4 hours. But the encoding time depends on the video content and the length of the video." Questions: What size was the file? How many min was the BD movie? I assume the two cores increase and not the 0.1 speed increase accounted for the two hour encoding time reduction.