Postponed encoding with x264

[lennox]

Hi. Sometimes x264 takes too much time to encode and I have to stop encoding and turn off my computer. So, I need to start encoding from beginning. Is there any solutions?

[nurbs]

hibernate

[lennox]

What is it, hibernate and how it wokrs? I know one solution - virtual machine, but in this case I can't use GPU filters.

[nurbs]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibernation_(computing)

[asarian]

hibernate

Hibernation will only get you so far, in that you really can't use your machine for anything else in the meantime (like booting into a different partition). When I didn't have the extra render machine, as I do now, I did my x264 rendering in a Vmware box. Those machines can be easily suspended to allow you otherwise full access to your machine again.

[Dark Shikari]

Hibernation will only get you so far, in that you really can't use your machine for anything else in the meantime (like booting into a different partition). When I didn't have the extra render machine, as I do now, I did my x264 rendering in a Vmware box. Those machines can be easily suspended to allow you otherwise full access to your machine again.Or you could just press ctrl-S and pause encoding. Or use Process Explorer.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Or you could just press ctrl-S and pause encoding. Or use Process Explorer.

...or use a GUI with "Suspend" button (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=144140) :)

[Selur]

other GUIs name it PAUSE or RESUME ;)

[J_Darnley]

There is also that special key on your keyboard.

[Dogway]

So there is no way I can pause my encoding 1st or 2nd pass, shutdown computer, and next day resuming it? either in command line or GUI?
Its not the same splitting the video in 5 chunks (with 5 different stats file) than one large stats file.

[nm]

So there is no way I can pause my encoding 1st or 2nd pass, shutdown computer, and next day resuming it?

There are two ways that were already suggested above: hibernate the system or use a virtual machine.

[Dogway]

Its not exactly what I asked. I want to resume after shutdown/reboot my system.

[shroomM]

Hibernate shuts down your system.

When you power it back on, encoding resumes.

[Dogway]

notice I said "shutdown/reboot".

[nurbs]

That's what hibernate does.

[Dogway]

when I said shutdown/reboot I meant to clean ram, cache, use the CLI for other things in the meanwhile, and resume encoding next month maybe.

[Audionut]

notice I said "shutdown/reboot".

The second time. :rolleyes:

Run x264 in a VM.

[nurbs]

Well if your definition of shutdown/reboot is completely different from what everyone else means by it there is bound to be some confusion. Use a VM.
By the way there is nothing preventing you from using the CLI for other things while x264 is running or paused.

[Dogway]

VM is OS emulation? Do I need to install anything?

nurbs: you are right I can open different CLI

[Audionut]

VM is OS emulation? Do I need to install anything?

Nope. use the --VM option in x264.:devil:

If that doesn't work, try reading this Wiki,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine

[Dogway]

oh well, Id have liked it, but Im just trying to confirm because I have never used a VM. Too much hassle for just a "would be better" feature.

[Trahald]

Are there any worthwhile encoders that support a full stop/start (meaning the pc can be standard shut down)

also how bad does encoding in a VM hurt speed

[asarian]

As I outlined earlier in this thread, hibernation isn't really all that useful for pausing x264 (if your intention is to engage in other activities with your computer). In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's not useful at all, as all you can really do with it is shut down your machine and have it resume where you left off. It won't allow you to boot up on, say, another partition to go do something else.

Process Explorer and such, while they can effectively suspend the process, x264 (and associated processes) stil remain in memory. For instance, when I do a MCTemporalDenoise job, I can expect ca. 5G of memory to be occupied on full HD. Pausing x264 won't make that go away, of course.

Are there any worthwhile encoders that support a full stop/start (meaning the pc can be standard shut down)

It sure would be nice if x264, or any other encoder, could 'pause to disk', as it were, dumping its entire state to a file, to be picked up and resumed later. But, like I said, it's not just x264: other processes (like Avisynth and everything that goes along with it) are involved too. So, my point being, saving just the x264 state, even if it were possible, would be kinda pointless.

VMware is really the way to go. Only that way you'll get a true way of completely shutting down your x264 job (pausing a VM will cause its state to be swapped entirely to disk; like hibernation, actually; except that the VM is itself a process that can afterwards be completely shut down, allowing you the use of your machine for other purposes).

... also how bad does encoding in a VM hurt speed?

Surprisingly little, actually. The VM has direct access to the CPU, so the loss is minimal. Vmware, at least, assigns 1 vCPU to each available core. For an XP Professional install this means you can only assign 2x vCPU's to the OS (as the guest OS wil see them as 2 physical CPU's). But install a Windows 2008 Server or some such, and you could encode with, say, 4x vCPU's at the same time, if you'd like.