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Old 12th October 2017, 15:23   #1  |  Link
PHClouse
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Is encoding (staxrip) causing the problem?

Hey guys,

I am a total newbie so please go easy on me. I want to ask a couple of questions regarding my computer screen. Also excuse my english if there are any mistakes (it's not my first language).

I use staxrip to encode personal videos. I have been doing this quite a while now (almost a year) and since I haven't stopped recording, some weeks I could do many encodings (unfortunatelly I'm a perfectionist). The problem is that after 6 months my screen started having some kind of "waves" going up and down. I know encoding is a demanding process so here are the questions:

Is there any way the unformemtioned problem was caused by the encoding? (if so, can I fix it?). I intend to buy a new computer so what are the minimum requirements a computer should have to be able to handle encoding? (are there any?). So should I keep encoding or not?

I use a 7-year-old desktop: Intel Core i3 CPU 540@3.07GHz, RAM: 2 GB. The computer doesn't have a separate graphics card.
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Old 12th October 2017, 16:40   #2  |  Link
mariush
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The waves you see on the screen could be caused by several things.

A very unlikely reason could be caused by bad power in your area.

Waves on the screen can also happen if the connection between your monitor and the computer is analogue, or in other words if you use a VGA cable to connect your monitor to the PC. If the VGA cable is of low quality (usually thin and cheap, what normally comes with cheap monitors) electric noise from the computer's power supply and the video card and the processor can be picked up through the vga cable and that results in slightly worse image quality on the monitor.
Digital connections (DVI cable, HDMI cable) are digital, which are much less susceptible to noise... the video card sends a digital image and the monitor decodes the image perfectly and noise on the cable has basically no chance of affecting the image.

If this is the reason, if your monitor has a DVI or a HDMI connector, then you would benefit from using a digital cable instead of a vga cable.

If your monitor has only VGA and DVI connectors (typical for older monitors) but your motherboard has only HDMI and VGA connectors, you can buy adapters which convert DVI to HDMI female connector (you plug this adapter into the monitor and then you can plug a HDMI cable into the adapter and into your motherboard's HDMI port)

On older monitors with fluorescent backlight (very thin fluorescent tubes at top and bottom of screen producing light) instead of LED backlight (where monitors use thin strips of blue or white leds producing light), with age it's possible that the power supply of the monitor or the fluorescent tubes themselves degrade a bit, to the point where you'll see those fluctuations of brightness on the screen.
Weaker power supply can cause those waves (could be fixed by replacing degraded capacitors, but it's not something for a total amateur to do). Weak or degraded fluorescent tubes usually manifests as the backlight getting a bit cream , slightly yellowish, or in rarer cases it can be a bit pink-ish light. In other cases, the fluorescent tubes go a bit brown at the ends, so the luminosity on the corners of the monitor is a bit lower.


Oh... (back to if you use vga cable) ... and your computer and monitor should be plugged in an outlet that has functional earth (grounding)... your socket should have 3 or 4 pins, depending on your country, not just the main two. Some of the noise computers create can be eliminated through that earth/ground wire so it's very helpful if both your computer and monitor are properly grounded. Otherwise, the electrical noise could be picked up through the vga cable (as if the cable was an antenna) and affect the quality of the image.

Basically, it's unlikely that just the activity of encoding videos would affect the quality of your image you see on the screen.

Last edited by mariush; 12th October 2017 at 16:43.
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Old 12th October 2017, 18:26   #3  |  Link
PHClouse
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OK thanks but...

How can I know if it's VGA or HDMI? Also note that I use the pc many hours a day doing encodings. I mean I'm asking if the intesity (being a demanding process) and the long hours have damaged the graphics card or something (maybe because of overheating or something). I know I might be talking nonsense.
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Old 12th October 2017, 19:36   #4  |  Link
mariush
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The software most likely uses only the processor to encode the video, the video card would not be used. If it uses the video card, it doesn't use it as a video game would use it, but the software would most likely access a special part of the video card processor which is designed from the start only for encoding and decoding videos. Basically, you could even play games while some software would use that separate isolated part of the video card processor to encode videos, with minimal slowdown.

Also, any damage to the integrated graphics in the cpu would not result in waves on the screen.

As for how can you know if it's vga or hdmi ? Just look at the cable used.

HDMI cables look like this: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-...rds=hdmi+cable (flat, wide shape, small connectors )
VGA cables look like this : https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters...ords=vga+cable (often the connectors are blue but the shape is what's important, D shape with round pins)
DVI cables look like this : https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-...ords=dvi+cable (some have more pins inside, some may be gold plated, but again, the shape is important, rectangle-ish and big connectors, often larger than vga connectors)

DisplayPort looks like this : https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Rankie-...playport+cable (sort of like hdmi but more blocky and thicker)
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Old 13th October 2017, 03:10   #5  |  Link
PHClouse
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Yep, it's VGA.

It's not thin but probably this is the source of the problem. And, yes, the power supply does make some noise sometimes. I suppose new laptops don't have this kind of connection so this is unlikely to happen again. Right?
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