TMPGenc & hardware!?

[Dita]

We've just bought a new pc:
P4 2800Mhz
1024 Mb DDRAM 333Mhz (Corsair)
ABIT BE7-RAID
Sony Dru500
Windows XP Pro

We bought it because we wanted to convert Avi-movies faster to MPEG2 using TMPGenc (in combination with Virtual Dub for P4). But since we have our new computer we aren't able to convert any movie at all !!!
We still have our old computer (Atlhon 1400 Mhz 512 SDRAM DFI-mainboard-Windows XP Pro) and he converts everything we want without a problem. This is a little bit frustrating since we've bought the new pc especially to convert movies .

The software on both computers is exactly the same, so that couldn't be the cause of our problems.
We're starting to think about a hardware-problem now. Is our mainboard (ABIT BE7-RAID) known to any of you as a problemboard?
We converted the same movie on both our pc's and the new one gives most of the time 'Streaming error' (or otherwise it just crashes) while the old pc converts the same movie without any problem !

Can somebody please tell me what's going on?

Thanx
Dita

[mreed80]

Well, I by no means am any kind of expert, but I did kind of go through something similar by buying a better machine and was getting errors.(not the same one as you though)

Anyhow, TMPGE is VERY easily messed up with different settings etc. My best guess is that this new computer has some different setup in the graphic card(or something like that) that isn't working well with TMPGE.

I would double check that you have EXACTLY the same codecs installed and the same environmental setting in TMPGE.

[tww1]

One of your main problem is the fact you got a P4 will never out process the AMD or all the ones i have tryed and that is many. One other thing i personel dont like the I-Bit Board had one also didnt work right either gave it away got tired of it.

[videocheez]

I have two computers side by side. One is a P4, 2.5GHz, 1GBRAM, RAID drives and the other is a 800MHz Athlon with 256KB RAM and I've noticed that when I use Virtual Dub to scan a stream for errors my little old Athlon is probably 3 to 4 times faster. This really bothered me because i spent so much money on the new system. The last guy who posted here made me think that I'll buy AMD next time.

[Dita]

Thanks!

We're thinking about changing our ABIT-mainboard for a ASUS-board and maybe changing our P4 for AMD Athlon 3000+ .

What do you think about that? I don't want to start a discussion about Intel vs. AMD. But I really like to know what kind of (fast) computer can give good results for converting? Do we really have to change our CPU or is it just the combination of our Abit-board with P4 and TMPGenc that causes the problem?

There's must be somebody who's satisfied with his computer. Can you please give us some advice?

Dita

[Gnerma]

Dita, its good that you mention the Intel VS AMD thing since this has NOTHING to do with Intel, AMD, or hardware at all (likely). Check to make sure all these things are in order..

Install the newest drivers for your AGP card
Install the Intel INF update (get it at intel.com)
Install the Intel application accelerator (intel.com)
Install Service Pack 1 for XP Pro
Check to make sure that your hard drives are in UDMA mode (check this in device manager --> in your IDE controllers' properties)
Make sure you have the newest BIOS for the Abit board
Make sure your CPU temps are acceptable (under 50c)

As for your question for what kind of computer would be best for encoding, a dual CPU system is the way to go. I specifically recommend a dual AMD..

2 x 2100+ Athlon MP
MSI K7D Master L
1 GB of ECC REG PC2100 DDR

I recommend the AMD because a dual Xeon system will cost you A LOT more. Much more than it is worth..

[SatStorm]

You bought exactly what I wouldn't! Now, that is what I call totally different approach!

Today's smart machine, IMHO:
Athlon XP 2400 (cheap, fast, good). 3000 is even better but it is 3 times more expensive
Any new MSI motherboard (they are stable as a rock) with about 512 MB Ram
At least 2 120 GB Hardisks (WD and maybe, just maybe, Maxtor...). 7200rpm ofcourse, I don't care for the 8MB cache.
Pioneer 105 (yep, I belong to the DVD-R camp, a good alternative if you prefer the +R camp, is maybe the new cheap NEC DVD+R burner)
Windows 2000 pro + Service pack 3.

What Gnerma suggest, is quite a good solution also!

[MikeV]

If you are going the AMD route check out the motherboards that use the Nforce2 chipsets. I had a VIA chipset board before and was always dropping frames while capturing, but since I got the Nforce2 I have not dropped any frames. I you get one get it with ALL the options(lan,usb2,firewire,SATA) the best I have seen are from ASUS and MSI.

[DJRumpy]

Before you do anything drastic, what error did you get in TMPGenc? Everyone is just guessing, without knowing how TMPGenc reacted on your new machine.

[Gnerma]

bah, he is not going to buy a new computer guyz lets work on getting his current one working properly.

[mreed80]

No kidding, don't do anything drastic. I was getting lots of frustrating errors when I got my computer a few months ago, but since then, through trial and error, and this website, I'm running on all cylinders now. I certainly have a lot to learn still, but the error problems go away with a little work.

[Dita]

Thanks for your replies !

An update:

The store where we bought our computer wants to change (!) our P4 2,8 for AMD AThlon XP 3000+ and our motherboard ABIt BE7 for ASUS A7N8X Delux (Nforce) . The store really wants to help us to resolve the problem because it doesn't want to sell a computer that can't do what we want it to do (the store knew before we sold the computer that we wanted a new one especially to edit and encode movies)

The problem we have, and I've already mentioned in my first post, is dubble: the computer crashes (at different times during the encodingprocess) or we get this error 'Streaming error'; but most of the time the computer just crashes .

I know that it could be a setting, but I've tried a lot of things and it won't work. And more important, with our old AMD I've never had to change a setting at all and it always works even after a billion formats .

I know it's drastic to change our P4 for Athlon 3000+ but I'm getting really tired of it.

Nevertheless, is there somebody who can make me change my mind ?

Otherwise, I keep you informed !!!

Greetz,
Dita

[Gnerma]

Did you try all of the things I suggested to you Dita? If the system is crashing it is likely a system wide problem, not just with the video encoding. Esp check your CPU temps..

The old Athlon and the new one are both AMD indeed but the fact that encoding worked fine on your old computer means nothing with the new one you are considering. The P4 system is simply unstable, it could be something as simple as insufficient case cooling or a badly seated heatsink. So if you do get switch computers, your nuking a city to kill one man..

[DJRumpy]

I would suspect something hardware related, like a bad memory sim, or an overagressive bios setting.

At the risk of starting a flame war, the PIV is actually the more compatible of the two processors, as there are still issues with software on AMD. They crop up from time to time, and are generally resolved in fairly short order by the software maker. Things like the ResampleAudio piece being required when frameserving with AVISynth to CCE. It would crash on an AMD system without that command. Random Weirdness like that. I'm not saying you will even find a problem like this. I only mention it because you ask. That said, many swear by AMD and it's performance. I'd rather wait an extra 20 minutes and go with stable...

[SatStorm]

Pentium 4 has many benefits: It is an overall more stable and compatible proccessor. It is also way faster (newer CPUs).
Now, how it happens and the ustable AMD make it better on many things, is a mystery!

The only clear AMD benefit, is that AMD based systems, are more easy to upgrade. For a year or two, you simply change CPU and that's it. You can't really do this that easy with any Intel based PC. Untill today,at least...

[Yatima]

Don't know if this will help, but I have a similar situation ie my Old Athlon Works fine, whereas my new one bombs out sometimes. one difference between the two is I have 512MB in my old box, and 1GB (1x512MB + 2x256MB PC2700) in my new machine, so as opposed to going for a whole new machine, try going down to 512MB RAM in your machine (if possible).

[Raen]

I just upgraded to a P4, 3.06 Ghz with hyperthread technology. And let me tell you, this is the way to go if you do encoding and video editing. The baby flies, get a system able to do dual channel DDR Ram, get a gig of DDR 333 and I'm encoding movies in about a 4rth the time it took to do them on my Athlon 1800 with a gig of ram. I'm doing movies with all sorts of filters in under 4 hours that took a whole day on my other machine.

I'm a very happy camper.

I got the MSI Max 655 with the SiS chipset. It was clocked by Tom's Hardware as the fastest P4 motherboard about a month and a half ago and is fairly cheap(165 dollars.)

MSI makes a couple of different 655 max models, only the one with SIS 655 BO chipset has hyperthreading(which makes your machine thinks it has 2 CPU's.) I ordered one that didn't have it and had to send it. I specifically emailed them ahead of time asking and they said they had the one with HT so I ordered it and it wasn't the one that does. The one that does has a sticker on the box and motherboard itself that says "HT Ready." Right now only the P4 3.06 chip has the HT available on it. It cost me about 700 bucks to get the board and chip.