Autogk times

[default]

Hi everybody

I am using a Compaq Athlon 2000+ laptop with 512mb ram and windows xp pro. I am a novice encoder thats why I prefer using autogk where I dont really need to configure anything. My problem is that whenever I am encoding a movie it usually takes something like 8-9+ hours start to finish for a 700mb final output using the xvid codec. In a forum some users there claimed that for similar systems it was taking them 1/3 of my time for similar encodings and that puzzled me. I have checked my system with antivirus and antispy/ad-ware products and everythings seems fine and I cant really say that it is generally slow. Could anyone please tell me if my encoding times are extreme and if so is there any way that I could fix this (apart from the obvious: add more ram).
Thank you for your time reading my problem.

[len0x]

You can start by :logfile: from one of your "slow" encodings.

[default]

OK, thank you for yr quick reply, I trully appreciate it. The log file is from the "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and as you can see it took me 11 hours and it is not a long movie nor has too many specil effects:

[21/02/2005 20:32:45] AutoGK 1.91b
[21/02/2005 20:32:45] OS: WinXP (5.1.2600).2
[21/02/2005 20:32:45] Job started.
[21/02/2005 20:32:45] Input dir: I:\Eternal Sunshine\VIDEO_TS
[21/02/2005 20:32:45] Output file: E:\Movies\Eternal.avi
[21/02/2005 20:32:45] Audio: English
[21/02/2005 20:32:45] Subtitles: none
[21/02/2005 20:32:45] Codec: XviD
[21/02/2005 20:32:45] Target size: 700Mb
[21/02/2005 20:32:45] Custom audio settings: VBR MP3 with average bitrate: 128Kbps
[21/02/2005 20:32:45] Started encoding.
[21/02/2005 20:32:45] Demuxing and indexing.
[21/02/2005 20:48:18] Processing file: I:\Eternal Sunshine\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_1.VOB
[21/02/2005 20:48:19] Processing file: I:\Eternal Sunshine\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_2.VOB
[21/02/2005 20:48:19] Processing file: I:\Eternal Sunshine\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_3.VOB
[21/02/2005 20:48:19] Processing file: I:\Eternal Sunshine\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_4.VOB
[21/02/2005 20:48:19] Processing file: I:\Eternal Sunshine\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_5.VOB
[21/02/2005 20:48:19] Source aspect ratio: 16:9
[21/02/2005 20:48:19] Source resolution: 720x576
[21/02/2005 20:48:19] Found PAL source.
[21/02/2005 20:48:19] Analyzing source.
[21/02/2005 21:11:44] Source has percentage of interlacing in motion areas: 0.00
[21/02/2005 21:11:44] Source is considered to be progressive.
[21/02/2005 21:11:44] Output will contain 154882 frames
[21/02/2005 21:11:44] Decoding audio.
[21/02/2005 21:24:34] Normalizing audio.
[21/02/2005 21:43:23] Encoding audio.
[21/02/2005 22:09:51] Audio size: 101,394,864 bytes (96.70 Mb)
[21/02/2005 22:09:51] Overhead: 6,195,328 bytes (5.91 Mb)
[21/02/2005 22:09:51] Video size: 626,413,008 bytes (597.39 Mb)
[21/02/2005 22:09:51] Running compressibility test.
[21/02/2005 22:09:51] Writing the following script to E:\Movies\agk_tmp\Eternal_comptest.avs
===========================================================
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\autocrop.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\RemoveGrain.dll")

movie = mpeg2source("E:\Movies\agk_tmp\Eternal.d2v")
cropclip = autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,aspect=0,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,leftadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
fixed_aspect = 1.42222222222222
c_width = width(cropclip)
c_height = round(height(cropclip) / fixed_aspect)
input_par = float(c_width)/float(c_height)
input_par = input_par > 1.4 ? input_par : (4.0/3.0)
out_width = 640
out_height = round(float(out_width) / input_par)
hmod = out_height - (floor(out_height / 16 ) * 16)
out_height = (hmod > 4) ? (out_height + (16 - hmod)) : (out_height - hmod)
new_aspect = (float(out_width) / float(out_height)) / fixed_aspect
autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,aspect=new_aspect,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,leftadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
LanczosResize(out_width,out_height)
RemoveGrain(mode=2)
SelectRangeEvery(300,15)
===========================================================
[21/02/2005 22:28:43] Duration was: 18 minutes 50 seconds
[21/02/2005 22:28:43] Speed was: 6.85 fps.
[21/02/2005 22:28:44] Compressibility percentage is: 58.20
[21/02/2005 22:28:44] Chosen resolution is: 608x336 ( AR: 1.81 )
[21/02/2005 22:28:44] Predicted comptest value is: 64.18
[21/02/2005 22:28:44] Running first pass.
[21/02/2005 22:28:44] Writing the following script to E:\Movies\agk_tmp\Eternal_movie.avs
===========================================================
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\autocrop.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\RemoveGrain.dll")

movie = mpeg2source("E:\Movies\agk_tmp\Eternal.d2v")
cropclip = autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,aspect=0,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,leftadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
fixed_aspect = 1.42222222222222
c_width = width(cropclip)
c_height = round(height(cropclip) / fixed_aspect)
input_par = float(c_width)/float(c_height)
input_par = input_par > 1.4 ? input_par : (4.0/3.0)
out_width = 608
out_height = round(float(out_width) / input_par)
hmod = out_height - (floor(out_height / 16 ) * 16)
out_height = (hmod > 4) ? (out_height + (16 - hmod)) : (out_height - hmod)
new_aspect = (float(out_width) / float(out_height)) / fixed_aspect
autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,aspect=new_aspect,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,leftadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
LanczosResize(out_width,out_height)
RemoveGrain(mode=2)
===========================================================
[22/02/2005 01:55:33] Duration was: 3 hours 26 minutes 48 seconds
[22/02/2005 01:55:34] Speed was: 12.48 fps.
[22/02/2005 01:55:34] Expected quality of first pass size: 65.48
[22/02/2005 01:55:34] Running second pass.
[22/02/2005 07:43:24] Duration was: 5 hours 47 minutes 48 seconds
[22/02/2005 07:43:25] Speed was: 7.42 fps.
[22/02/2005 07:43:25] Job finished. Total time: 11 hours 10 minutes 39 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------

[len0x]

I does seem a bit slow indeed. I'd make sure that:

- nothing is running in the background during encoding
- laptop is not in power saving mode and running full speed (!!!)
- default VDubMod priority can be increased (in its options) on some systems

[default]

Usually I am running autogk at night so that I will not run anything else (i.e. internet explorer etc). But in the meantime I am running applications like firewall, antivirus and p2p (azureus). I wouldn't post if some other users in another forum were not suggesting that it was taking them far less time for the whole process. Furthermore a couple of them were using similar systems running the same processes (two birds with the same stone, encode and download) but had significally less times (something like 4 hours) and so I thought that there is something wrong here.
Regarding the default VDubMod priority, how do I configure it? I went to the autogk folder and I found the VDub exe and opened it, there on the options tab I went to preferences but I am not 100% sure which settings to apply cause I dont want to force my system to crash.
Finally, regarding the laptop power options, I have the settings arranged so that in never goes on stand by, hybernation or turning off the hard disks whilst plugged in. I do not quite understand whta do you mean by "running in full speed" and as I explained there doesnt seem to be infected by viri or other crapware.

[niamh]

Those speeds might be a little bit slow for an Athlon 2000.
but whoever told you they encoded 3 times faster with the same cpu is a consumate liar anyway, it's impossible. I would say they use the fastest settings on a single pass with no filtering to obtain that, and the output couldn't look any good.
I have a sempron 2500+, which clocks a bit higher than yours, and is slightly overclocked to boot, and encoding on some similar source would take me 5 or 6 hours, not including audio transcoding, comp test and d2v making, like autogk log includes.
Azureus itself would be more than enough to explain the loss of speed though.Try and switch it off.

[len0x]

Originally posted by niamh
Azureus itself would be more than enough to explain the loss of speed though.Try and switch it off.

That's what I was thinking, because VDubMod is launched with IDLE status in the system and although it uses its own priority mechanism on some systems its doesn't work as expected... (especially when it comes to Java apps)

[default]

The azureus is just an example, I have mentioned it cause I have used it in my last encoding (with the posted log). Actually I have started using bittorrent the last month and before that I have used various other networks and clients (overnet,kazaalite,aresgalaxy etc). Unfortunatelly the encoding times were quite similar. If you believe that this is as good as it gets, then I have to accept it and get on with it, but if there is a solution I am willing to try it (either any kind of configuration, I even thought of having a go with the divx codec).

[Nematocyst]

You can always bring up task manager (secondary click your task bar), sort by CPU and check that VirtualDubMod is getting most of the CPU time. If it's not, then some of the previous suggestions may help. Otherwise, there isn't much you can do.

Remember also that movie length isn't the only factor. The chosen resolution will have a significant impact on the FPS you achieve. This means that the more compressibile the movie, the slower your encode will be.

I know that Athlon XP mobile processors are capable of adjusting their FSB, multipliers, and voltage on the fly. I don't know how this works really, but I would determine if this is the cause. You could bring up VDubMod's status window and note the FPS at the beginning of an encode, and then when it's done, compare that value with the AutoGK log for the first pass. If your noted value is much higher, then you can be certain that some type of power-saving mechanism is the culprit and then focus on that.

[rudeboymcc]

is there a way to tell vdubmod to have a normal cpu priority everytime it starts? at the moment i have to tell it everytime.

[BigDid]

Originally posted by rudeboymcc
is there a way to tell vdubmod to have a normal cpu priority everytime it starts? at the moment i have to tell it everytime.
Yep,

Options --> Preferences --> Main --> Process priority (both): normal or more --> save :)

Did