Slow or simply impatient ?

[redbaron_snoopy]

It takes 20 to 25mins to rip a CD into MP3 on my P3-1.2g PC
1.5hr to convert a .5hr avi tape into mpeg.

Any ballpark estimates how much faster if I were to change to a P4 2.8 HT (FSB800) ? Never felt the need to upgrade till now but not sure what improvements I'll get. A little or a lot ?

[RJ]

Well it sure depends on the encoder that you use. Some of them are fast, others are slow.

But there is a noticeable difference to a P4 2.8.

I can give you comparisons from what I had before to what I have now, it should show you the difference.
For MPEG-2 encoding I use TMPGEnc.

My old system was a PIII800 with 320 MB SDRAM and a Abit BH-6 mobo.
It took 8 hours to encode a 30 minute AVI.

My new system is a P4 2.6C with 1 GB RAM and an Asus P4P800 mobo. The rest (like hard drive setup) is identical.
Now I encode an 1-hour-AVI in about 6 hours.

RJ

[redbaron_snoopy]

6 hours for 1 hour ! Wow, that's still kinda long for a P4 isn't it ? How long do you take to encode 1 hour AVI into mpeg1 (vcd) ?
Btw, I use Ulead Videostudio.

[RJ]

Well, as I said, it is up to the encoder. Since Videostudio is done in 1.5h on your current PC, it will be about 45 to 50 minutes on a P4 2.8 I guess. If there is a trial of Videostudio I can try.

Comparing to 8 hours for half an hour of AVI it's pretty fast
I always do encoding overnight.

Can't tell you about VCD because I've never created one. I started with SVCD on my old PIII 800. But it will still need a couple of hours with TMPGEnc.

RJ

[TwoRails]

Those aren't bad times. As RJ mentions, time can vary quite a bit. Studio 8 took well over 6 1/2 hours to do what Movie Factory 2 took only 2 hours to do on my 2700+ system.

[redbaron_snoopy]

That's what I was hoping for - that an upgrade can half the time I need now.

Thanks everyone

[reboot]

With those numbers RJ, I would say there's something wrong with your system.
I can encode a 2 hour avi, in about 2.5 hours on a Barton 2500+, using Mainconcept. Tmpgenc 2 pass VBR takes about 3 hours, and that's full DVD5 mpeg2 compliant output, usually at around 5000kbps.
If you look around the web, especially at the more serious dvd burning type sites, you'll see that most go for an AMD based system. It's simply faster at doing this sort of thing than Intel.
Not trying to start a war here. I have no idea why one is faster than the other, it just is.

[RJ]

I don't think there's something wrong with my system. My friend has a P4 2.26 GHz (533 FSB), 1 GB RDRAM, and it encodes a 60 min AVI with TMPGEnc around 1.5h slower than mine.
We also use HighestQuality Possible, and a max. datarate of 8000kbps. But we use single pass VBR only.
If there's something wrong with my system, then there's something wrong with his system, too. But what could that be ?

RJ

[reboot]

Like I said in my previous post, I have no idea why, but AMD just encode video about twice as fast as Intel, given the same software, same source avi, etc.
Your friend has a faster computer, yet takes longer to encode than yours, and mine is slower than both, yet encodes in half the time (or less).
About the only people that know for sure might be Intel, and I doubt they're gonna admit an AMD is faster at anything than Intel.
The numbers I referenced are virtually the same as yours, max datarate of 8000kbps, quality 100, but I use 2 pass VBR most of the time, just for quality when the source is questionable. I said 5000kbps was probably the average, given the running time of the avi, to fit on a dvd-r, with motion menus, chapters and such in dvdlab.
If I'm not terribly concerned with ultimate quality, I use Mainconcept. It's encoder is much faster than anything else, and some would say the quality is comparable to single pass CQ-VBR in tmpgenc, but not as good as 2pass VBR. It will do a 2 hour avi in less than 2 hours, better than realtime! Of course that's on this machine, your mileage may vary.

[RJ]

Well, my PC is faster than his (I have a P4 2.6C with 1 GB DDR400), and the performance gain is as much as it was expected.
But a 2 hour AVI with the highest settingt in TMPGEnc with 2 pass VBR would be . .. 24 h ? Well something can't be right.
Maybe I do only need abou 4 hours for 1h (have to time it next time I encode something). It'd still need 16h for 2pass, 2 hours and the highest settings.
Guess that's just the way it is with the Intel CPU. But right now I'm testing ProCoder to lower the encoding times yet again.

RJ

[reboot]

I just did an encode to full D1 with Mainconcept, 2 pass VBR, 8000kbps max, 6000kbps avg, and 2500kbps min.
The movie is 2hrs, 22 min, and the exact time was 1hr, 52 min, 19 sec to encode.
If anyone else can shed any light on why a slower AMD can do more work, in less time, than a much faster Intel, please jump in.