Slow conversion speed in MKVmerge

[carlmart]

I have been using MKVmerge for probably about 7 years or more, in its different versions.

Recently I have been doing new Windows 10 installations, and this one in particular it misbehaving.

For the first time it's taking about three or four times processing simple files, taking about 10 minutes on one film that had nothing else to do, like adjusting times or anything. A simple new file, nothing changed.

Can you please suggest what might be happening and where I might look for potential problems?

[jagabo]

mkvmerge doesn't encode anything. It only muxes and requires very little CPU. It appears you are bandwidth limited. Slow drive (SMR drive)? Slow drive interface

[carlmart]

How do I know where the weak link is? The SSD is a Crucial M4 256GB.

By drive interface you mean the mobo SATA interface?

Please help me look for the problem or suggest which problem to use to find the weak link.

[jagabo]

How big a file are you talking about? Are you going from SSD to SSD?

[carlmart]

Yes, it's an external Samsung SSD where I'm going from and to. With plenty of available space.

[johns0]

Check in control panel-device manager-disk drivers and see if enable write caching on the device is checked on the concerned drives.

[jagabo]

USB connection may be slow. Check the drive read and write speeds.

[carlmart]

Here's the write caching comparison.

The file is in the external Samsung SSD. The OS is in the Crucial.

Would say the problem is in the Samsung then?

In fact, I just processed a video file in an internal HDD with MKVmerge, and the processing took 30 seconds.

Should I change the Samsung to "Better performance"? This is new for me.

[jagabo]

How big is the file you are trying to remux?

[carlmart]

OK. Did the test, selecting "Better Performance", instead of "Quick Removal".

Then processed the file again, which is 8Gb. It took 6.30 minutes, which is just 30 seconds less than yesterday.

The USB adapter is USB 3 (or claims it is), so maybe the weak link is there. Bummer!

Such a file size would take about half that time to process. I should copy it to the internal HDD, to try and see.

[carlmart]

Point proven. Copied the file to the internal HDD.

It took 1.44 minutes to process.

So the link it's quite likely the weak part. Unsolvable.

[jagabo]

Most computers have a mix of 2.x and 3.x USB ports. Make sure the drive is connected to a USB 3.x port (usually blue). And connect directly to the computer, not through a hub.

[carlmart]

In this case it is. The case has two USB 3x sockets on top, and supposedly I connected them to USB 3x when I assembled the whole thing.

The file transfer I did from the external SSD to the internal HD was fast: about 30 seconds. So I think the USB 3x interface might be working fast. But I will check again.

I do have a hub, but very rarely do I connect an HD to it, certainly not this one. But let me connect the SSD directly to the back side connectors, which I'm sure are USB 3x, and get back to you.

[davexnet]

In this case it is. The case has two USB 3x sockets on top, and supposedly I connected them to USB 3x when I assembled the whole thing.

The file transfer I did from the external SSD to the internal HD was fast: about 30 seconds. So I think the USB 3x interface might be working fast. But I will check again.

I do have a hub, but very rarely do I connect an HD to it, certainly not this one. But let me connect the SSD directly to the back side connectors, which I'm sure are USB 3x, and get back to you.

the example you gave above, 8GB @ 390 seconds, is USB2 speed

[carlmart]

Well, you were right. And now I know the upper connectors are not linked to USB 3x on the mobo.

The conversion took 44 seconds on the external SSD now. Pity I will have to provide a different case, because the USB 3x case cable is very short, and right now the box is hanging from it for this test. Certainly not a good thing.

Also just changed back, on Device Manager, to Quick Removal. Maybe just a coincidence, but conversion now took 11 seconds more.

Well, anyway, I think this matter is settled.

Thanks a lot. You're always a great help. Can rely on you.

[carlmart]

Just another question that is not related to this. Please tell me where I should ask about it.

I am researching on a video server to be used on my home network. System, program, HDDs, etc.

Please tell me where I can find people here that can advice on the options I might have. Thanks!

[jagabo]

A file server or a DLNA server? How many simultaneous streams? 4K? Is it going to run anything else? Video conversions?

I use a low power Windows computer as a file (SMB) and DLNA server. Micro ATX case, mini ITX motherboard, Celeron J4105, 8 GB memory, 256 GB SSD boot drive, 8 TB SATA hard drive for media (and other) files, and another 8 TB USB 3.0 drive for backup (only connected during backups, about once a month). It runs Windows 10 -- Pro is necessary because it sits in the closet headless and I use Remote Desktop when I need to deal with it (usually just for backup). You don't even need a registered version of Windows for this.

Most devices I use for playback can play media files via the SMB server (Windows computers, Raspberry Pi with Kodi, Android device with Kodi). A few need the DLNA server (Roku TV). Most devices are connected with wired Gb Ethernet, a few with WiFi. It has no problems serving two or three videos at the same time.

[carlmart]

OK, sorry not answering this earlier. Some problems.

I think the answer to the first question is file server, but I'm not so sure of the right terms or concepts. Probably I should be.

Not using 4K for now, only 1080p

The same server should run audio too, through a different program. Made some ethernet tests with Rapsberry + Picoreplayer + USB to DAC output, managing Logitech, and the audio quality results were excellent. I have to convert all my LPs to digital, plus my CDs. But I don't think that should take more than 3TB.

I already have an extra Asus mobo, Intel CPU and power supply, just needing memory and a case. Should run a Linux server manager, not sure which one yet.

The problem is my video data is huge, between 15 to 20TB, not sure yet. So what I found out from a friend is that a RAID 6 with four 8TB HDDs should work for me.

Right now I'm running SMB too, into an Nvidia Shield, with Kodi too. All ethernet, I do not trust wi-fi to handle HD video well.

[Lathe]

Yes, I also have been noticing the exact same issue, and I AM using very fast SSD drives for 'from' and 'to' As a matter of fact, my new 'C' drive is the newer faster SSD drive that plugs directly into the MOBO for much faster speeds, which it DOES have when simply transferring files.

BUT... again, I've used MKVMerge GUI for years and suddenly with Win10 it is indeed taking considerably longer to mux doing what I've always been doing exactly the same way for many years.

No weird connection issues. ALL drives are set for write-caching and better performance.

I mean, it's not the end of the world if the 8 Gig file takes like 3 minutes instead of 45 seconds like it always has, but it is quite mysterious as to WHY...

Also, my muxing priority is set to 'Highest'

Thanks for any input!

[carlmart]

OK, there's something else I noticed.

Those slower conversions were with SSD, but put inside an external adapter, even if it was USB-3.

Doing the same conversion in the internal SATA HDD conversion times were the ones I was used to. Quite likely might be even faster if that SATA was SSD.

[Lathe]

Hmmm... I guess it is just an unanswerable MYSTERY!

Apparently NO ONE seems to know why MKVMerge is suddenly and mysteriously running about 1/5 it's usual speed.

Oh well, I guess compared to what's going on I'd better shut up!

[johns0]

Did you read what i posted above?-Check in control panel-device manager-disk drivers and see if enable write caching on the device is checked on the concerned drives.

[Lathe]

Did you read what i posted above?-Check in control panel-device manager-disk drivers and see if enable write caching on the device is checked on the concerned drives.

Thank you kindly for the VERY fast reply Bro! I appreciate that very much

No sir... as usual, ALL drives are set for most speed (cache enabled) NOTHING has changed, NOTHING. That is why I think no one truly knows why.

It's really no big deal, but it always kind of bugs me when something mysteriously changes for no apparent reason. I just updated to the new version and it still is slow. Probably just some odd OS anomaly, IDK... One thing that MIGHT be related somehow... TSMuxer at times like when BDRB is using it simply to extract audio/video, etc., can also be VERY weirdly slow. The other day it took literally 10-15 minutes just to extract the A/V streams, which is also not typical. There likely is some connection.

And, in ALL these cases the files are going to and from internal SSD drives, the 'C' drive as I mentioned above is also one of the much faster types that plug directly into the MOBO.

Perhaps related too... Just now I was copying a 13 Gig file from drive to drive and it weirdly fluctuated fast/slow/stop fast/slow/stop. I gave up on that and just opened FastCopy and did it that way, and it copied at full speed the whole way, no hitches.

Maybe something to do with using the OS copying system, which maybe both MKV Merge and TSMuxer may use, IDK...

[johns0]

If you did a restore or install of something recently it might have reset your cache.

[Lathe]

If you did a restore or install of something recently it might have reset your cache.

I'm not conversant enough to know if my 'cache' has been affected, but yes I recently did a 'Restore' back to a very recent (less than a month) restore point. The reason I had to do that was that Windows Update kept cycling 'updates'/restarts unendingly, so I thankfully was able to back it up to a few weeks earlier before the update and it was okay.

[carlmart]

Did you read what i posted above?-Check in control panel-device manager-disk drivers and see if enable write caching on the device is checked on the concerned drives.

The only drivers which did not have write caching enabled were the externally connected ones.

As I said up above, conversion on the internal HDDs was faster than on the external SSDs.