What's the average time to convert 10 minutes of HD video?

[snafubaby]

I am using Freemake video converter to convert 10 minutes of 720P video, from one format (.mts) to another (.avi). It appears it's going to be about 2 hours, 20 minutes before it's done. Does this seem about average? Are there any other freeware software titles that will convert it in less time? Also, if i buy a quadcore PC (Intel I7 or equivalent), will it dramatically cut down the time? Please advise.

[Baldrick]

Freemake is pretty fast.

Are you converting to h264/x264 or xvid? You can change that after you click to avi and under preset. xvid might be a bit faster.

[jagabo]

Since we don't know exactly what you're doing we can't say if your encoding time is good or bad for your computer. But here's some general info:

There can be a 100 fold difference between the fastest and slowest settings in some encoders. So the conversion time can depend on what settings you use. For example, my i5 2500K encoding a 720p24 video with x264 at different presets:

preset:     seconds
-------------------
ultrafast:       53
medium:         356
placebo:       6000 (est)

Some encoders are well multithreaded and some aren't. Well encoded encoders are much faster with multicore CPUs. x264 (well multithreaded) on my i5 2500K (quad core) with the medium preset:

cores          time
-------------------
1              1100
4               356

Modern CPUs cores are faster than older CPU cores (and modern Intel cores are faster than modern AMD cores at the same clock speed). Comparing a single core on my 3.3 GHz i5 2500K vs. an old 3.1 GHz Athlon 2 X2 255 (x264 medium preset):

CPU         time
----------------
i5 2500K     356
A2 X2 255   1952

Whether you use single pass or multipass encoding will make a difference (as much as 2x for 2 passes, 3x for 3 passes, etc.). The content of the video can make a difference too. Still shots encode faster than shots with lots of complex motion/noise.

If your profile is correct and you're running an Athlon XP 2000 I estimate a modern middle level i7 will run x264 about 20 times faster. Less well multithreaded codecs will show less improvement. Xvid may only be 5 to 10 times faster.