Vista Driving Me Nuts

[Imperial Zeppelin]

This got no response in the MPEG Encoding Forum, so I'll try it here...

Here's the rundown.

1. Just loaded Vista Ultimate and SP1

2. Original CCE Basic 2.7 speed scores 4.5 which was similar to that seen in XP.

3. Suddenly speed dropped to 2.1 on the same DVD.

4. Tried multiple CCE unload/reload and things were the same.

5. Wiped system disc, loaded XP alongside Vista, both giving 4.5 on speed.

Is there some setting in Vista to ensure I stay at 4.5???

Thanks,
Zep

[burfadel]

Have you got all the latest drivers installed? Vista sp1 changed some things slightly...

[Imperial Zeppelin]

Yes to newest drivers and it wasn't just SP1. Vista pre-SP1 did it also.

Just hoping that there are some Vista settings I can evoke that will keep my speed up and not slide back into the twos.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Does the program have a lot of graphical activity going on while running (e.g., input and output video monitoring etc)?

If so, try minimizing it. Open Task Manager to look at how much CPU time it is using when visible compared to minimized. Also look at dwm.exe and see if its processor use changes, too. If it is high either way (>5%), turn Aero off.

[Imperial Zeppelin]

Just an update that things seem to be stable right now. I made "roadie" backups of Battlestar Galactica Season 3 last night and there were no issues.

Damned if I can figure out what was going on. I'll go anthropomorphic now; Vista is behaving itself since it knows XP Pro is resident and the next time it screws up I'm dumping it...

[jdobbs]

Could it have been background activity, such as antivirus software scans (that happened to me last week)?

[Groucho2004]

This is your problem:

1. Just loaded Vista

[EuropeanMan]

This is so strange. I get faster speeds through Vista Ultimate with SP2 than with XP...and have no problems whatsoever.

I wish I was at your computer to fix it... :(

Do you have the paid version of CCE/SP? because i know for a fact that many SP's (cracked) don't work so great on Vista, IF at all.

Pre-Vista: 2 hour movie encode with 4 passes took me nearly 14 hours...
Post-Vista: 10-12 hours.

system specs: HP Pav. 1.83 core 1 duo, 2GB ram.

(i also have NOT used sp1 for Vista U....i only have updates running once a month thru vista itself)

[EuropeanMan]

Do you have Vista codecs pack installed? (just out of curiosity)...because the K-pack does NOT work properly in Vista from MY experience.

[James35]

This is your problem:

Just because you dislike the OS, is not a valid reason for the problem at hand.




I get no speed issues on Vista with CCE..
I tend to defrag my drive more often on Vista, which seems to help..

[Sharktooth]

dump Vista and get a working OS. XP is ok and does not hog the system with useless stuff and gazillions of threads, processes and handles...

[Groucho2004]

Just because you dislike the OS, is not a valid reason for the problem at hand.


My point is that the OP obiously has the choice between Vista and XP. Why on earth would anybody use Vista in this case? Because of the fancy bells and whistles? And don't give me the "better security" crap. Any sane user will turn off UAC anyway and then I can't see an advantage in this area over XP any more.

[JohnnyMalaria]

My point is that the OP obiously has the choice between Vista and XP. Why on earth would anybody use Vista in this case? Because of the fancy bells and whistles? And don't give me the "better security" crap. Any sane user will turn off UAC anyway and then I can't see an advantage in this area over XP any more.

A lot of people - including me - prefer Vista over XP. Can't you just accept that and stop the idiotic and oh-so-tiresome thread spoiling that has become so damned annoying.

Some people just want to use what comes with the computer and not fart about reinstalling OSes - not everyone gets a kick from doing that.

[burfadel]

If you've got an old or low end system, XP is more beneficial, but for a true modern or medium-high end PC vista is the better choice. You can turn off what you don't want if you know what you're doing there's no excuse. Simple fact is, there's new devices and technology coming out all the time, Vista is better at handling them and indeed XP won't support things such as SATA spec 3, USB spec 3 etc etc when they are finally released so you will have to get used to it. I'm not saying Vista didn't have its teething problems, but its not that bad fully updated and running sp1. In addition to sp1, there are already more than 40 hotfixes available, just not general release hotfixes. The reason I point that out is Microsoft is continually fixing and repairing Vista like they did with XP. When you include general release + other hotfixes, there are over 1000 fixes between SP2 and SP3 for XP. Since some of those may fix more than one problem, it goes to show SP2 wasn't exactly the perfect operating system either. There isn't such a thing as a perfect operating system, as for ease of use, functionality, and support the system is that complex that there are bound to be many errors. This is true for MacOS and others as well. Linux may be said to have fewer errors but its also much less complex, and much less useful for the general computer user too!

People demand, and quite fairly, backwards compatibility, security, reliability, functionality, ease of use, performance, aesthetics, and whatever else from an operating system. Although Microsoft isn't a saint, it does do a pretty good job of Windows fulfilling all those criteria. I personally think they should have done things slightly differently with XP & Vista, and done away with Media Centre and focussed more on the necessities rather than the niceties.

[Imperial Zeppelin]

Wow, didn't mean to start a flame war!

First the facts, then I'll add some gasoline maybe...

1. Codecs on the current, good system (Never checked this before I trashed and reloaded)...

Type Name Format Binary Version
ICM Microsoft RLE MRLE msrle32.dll 6.0.6000.16386
ICM Microsoft Video 1 MSVC msvidc32.dll 6.0.6001.18000
ICM Microsoft YUV UYVY msyuv.dll 6.0.6000.16386
ICM Intel IYUV codec IYUV iyuv_32.dll 6.0.6000.16386
ICM Toshiba YUV Codec Y411 tsbyuv.dll 6.0.6000.16386
ICM Cinepak Codec by Radius cvid iccvid.dll 1.10.0.12
ICM PICVideo M-JPEG 3 VfW Codec mjpg Pvmjpg30.dll 3.0.0.12
DMO Mpeg4s Decoder DMO mp4s, MP4S, m4s2, M4S2 mp4sdecd.dll 11.0.6001.7000
DMO WMV Screen decoder DMO MSS1, MSS2 wmvsdecd.dll 11.0.6001.7000
DMO WMVideo Decoder DMO WMV1, WMV2, WMV3, WMVP, WVP2, WMVR, WMVA, WVC1 wmvdecod.dll 11.0.6001.7000
DMO Mpeg43 Decoder DMO mp43, MP43 mp43decd.dll 11.0.6001.7000
DMO Mpeg4 Decoder DMO MPG4, mpg4, mp42, MP42 mpg4decd.dll 11.0.6001.7000

I'd appreciate any comments and which ones to look out for in the future...

2. Which version of CCE?

Originally I had 2.5 SP installed and that worked fine. I decided to purchase Basic because I anticpated that 2.5 might be a problem with Vista and in the future. When I loaded Basic along side SP, my speed dropped from 4.X to low 2s, so I figured it was Basic. When tried DVD-RB using SP, I had the low 2s also. A reinstall of a pre-Basic image got my scores back up with SP, but they then deteriorated back to the 2s without Basic installed so I knew it wasn't a CCE problem per se. At that point, I played the old "FORMAT C:\" gambit, and reloaded both Vista and XP, along with only CCE Basic 2.7, where I am today. Unfortunately in my haste to make things "work" I never checked my codecs when speeds were slow.

So those are the facts and if anyone can tell me which codecs to watch out for in the future, I'd be most appreciative.

Now for the gasoline.

Yes, I have a choice of operating systems and I'm no Vista fan boy. I just figured that I was building with the latest components and it was time to give Vista a shot; it IS over 1 year old now. The "eye candy" parts of Vista are truly lost on me, but then again, when XP came out I was one of the It's Win2K SP5! contingent. I do like XP.

As for Vista, it's nice that you don't have to load drivers for most things. It's really stable, not a single BSOD or hang-up even during loading all the software. Yeah, it sucks that some of my older software doesn't work and it's becoming more and more "Mac-like" something I despise. Hell, I cut my computer teeth on a PDP-4! Command lines and octal toggle boot commands don't scare me, so I choose NOT to own a Mac, but what is sitting on my desktop is starting to look more and more like one, and that irks me big time.

Bottom line is that once you get beyond its absurd "features" like UAC (does ANYONE leave that on?) and realize that the only "Wow" moment is when you see the price, it's not a bad OS. Is XP to Vista a momentous event like Win98SE to Win2K? Hell no, that was Micro$haft's finest "WOW" moment for me. Thankfully, on the other hand, it sure isn't Win98SE to WinME, Micro$haft's biggest disgrace.

My $0.02 and keep the info on codecs to watch out for coming...

Thanks,
Zep

[Carpo]

i hit 9.5 on vista, it helps to have defragmented drives and scan disk error free drives, other thing i do is turn off three services which in vista rtm were known to hog the disc, search, indexing, and offline files, the other thing i did was to turn off vistas auto defraging option.

After i had done this i did notice a marked improvement, i even do this under Vista x64 SP1

[James35]

My point is that the OP obiously has the choice between Vista and XP. Why on earth would anybody use Vista in this case? Because of the fancy bells and whistles? And don't give me the "better security" crap. Any sane user will turn off UAC anyway and then I can't see an advantage in this area over XP any more.


Vista is ok, been useing it since release.
The dislike towards the OS is not helping the thread starter with his problem..

[jdobbs]

@All,

Let's get off the "Vista is Good" v.s. "Vista Sucks" discussion, ok? It's all personal opinion anyway. The bottom line to this thread should be: How can I configure Vista to get the best results with DVD-RB? I really can't contribute to that since I've only been using Vista (on one of my computers) for a short while -- and I really only loaded it so I can test my software on it. If someone says it can get more efficicient, I'm all for hearing how.

[JohnnyMalaria]

@Imperial Zeppelin - did you try the minimizing and/or disabling Aero options I mentioned? They can have quite an impact.

[Imperial Zeppelin]

Johnny:

On the list to do, but it still remains that this "problem" occured literally at a moment and I cannot find a root cause.

When I get my 9X50BE Phenom installed, I'll start playing can I make this faster? Right now, it's a "caretaker" CPU and I don't want to spend the time for tweaking. I just want to avoid that quantal loss I saw before.

Thanks everyone!
Zep

[GrofLuigi]

My biggest WOW with microsoft OSs was when I switched from XP to Server2003. Gui is nearly the same, (nearly) everything is at the same place and there are no children's toys. But most exciting was that there was no slowdown over time or after installing many programs (the same ones as in XP). Don't know if it's better cache management or microsoft deliberately crippled some internals of XP (besides the already known limitations), but S2003 felt "right" and no-nonsense OS like every OS should be.

I imagine it's similar with 2008 vs Vi$ta, but I'm not touching either for a very long time (especially the latter).

I felt free to express my opinion since this thread does not seem to have a particular topic.

GL

[JohnnyMalaria]

Windows comes in two major variants - client and server. Client = consumer = cheap = not as robust. Server = expensive = robust + reliable. You get what you pay for. XP x64 is derived from server code (it too lacks some of the client version's frills). Of course, not many consumers need/funds to be able to hot-swap memory sticks nor have up to 64 processors.

[burfadel]

The main annoyance between consumer and server versions is that non kernel updates under Server don't require a restart! that would be a nice feature for consumer computers, its essentially implemented in xp x64 and Vista Sp1, just not enabled. If Microsoft wanted people to switch to Vista this is one of the things that may have enticed people to switch!