Can't get over 0.38 or so RT. What gives?

[Graevyn]

Ok... here's my setup:

AMD Athlon XP 1800+
256MB PC2100 DDR X 2 = 512MB TOTAL RAM
MSI KT333 Ultra Mainboard
80GB Western Digital "Special Edition" HD (has an 8MB cache)
Windows 2000 Pro
DVD2SVCD 1.0.9 build 3

I think those are the only significant factors, right?

Here's what I'm trying to encode using DVD2SVCD and CCE:

Anamorphic Widescreen or 4:3 (doesn't matter, either run about the same speed); haven't tried a "regular" widescreen (isn't anamorphic atypical?)
All my settings are at DVD2SVCD defaults except:
- BicubicResize (0, 0.6; put it below the other two filters)
- TemporalSmoother (default of 2, 1)
- 1 pass VBR
- Q. Factor: 1

With all these settings, I'm pulling on average under a 0.4 RT (usually around 0.38).

I'm pretty new to using CCE. I was using TMPG, but it's just WAY too slow. I just barely came up with these settings (thanks to this forum) for CCE to avoid some terrible motion blur that I was getting without TemporalSmoother & using Simple instead of BicubicResize.

In any case, the real issue now is the RT. From what I've seen other people getting, I feel like I should be up to at least 0.7 RT. Am I doing something wrong?

I used FuzzyLogic (an MSI Utility) to check my settings, and I'm only running at 1150mHz. Should I overclock this? Is that how everyone else is getting such great results, or am I doing something else wrong?

I'd really appreciate some help. Sorry if the problem is obvious, but I've just been unsuccessful at finding my own answers by searching the forum.

Hope I made some sense. It's three in the morning where I am. Thanks all. Have a great day!! :D

---Graevyn

Add: I just ran a test, with my CPU overclocked to 1350mHz, and it still only got up to around 0.5 RT. Am I being overly ambitious? I know that those settings are pretty processor intensive, but I imagine everyone else has similiar settings. Lemme know what you think. Thanks all!

[auenf]

your cpu is a Athlon XP 1800+ which *should* run on a 133 (266EV-6) fsb which gives a total of 1.53ghz. running on a 100 (200EV-6) fsb would bring 1150mhz (1.15ghz) as you mentioned earlier.

currently you are underclocking your CPU, it was meant to run at 1.53ghz (1530mhz) at 133fsb setting, so set it there and then lets see how fast you are.

(running at the higher fsb will give you bigger memory bandwidth too, which can be important for CCE encoding).

Enf...

[Graevyn]

Well, I changed my FSB to 133... didn't even realize it was running at 100. Thanks for the tip. I also made a few changes to my DDR settings in my BIOS. I finally RTFM for my motherboard. =) Plus, my MSI motherboard comes with a utility called FuzzyLogic4 that enables me to overclock automatically from Windows. I bumped up my FSB to 135, which gives me a few more MHz (something like 20), but once I got to 136, my system died.

Anyway, I was able to get it up to 0.660 max. That's excellent compared to the 0.38 I was getting, but I still feel like I should be getting a better RT. Once again, I ask, am I being unreasonable? I'd just like to be able to try 4 pass VBR, but my computer gets used all day (my wife is a transcriptionist), so I wouldn't have time at night to run it. Anyway, lemme know what you think... yet again. =) Thanks auenf! If anyone else has any ideas, I'd be more than willing to try them. Thanks all!

---Graevyn

[auenf]

when i get my win2k back up, ill check what im getting with 4 pass VBR (got 3 music vids waiting to get encoded).

Enf...

[Graevyn]

I hate to keep this thread alive, but I really think I should probably be getting a better RT than what I am (0.660 max). If anyone else can help me with this situation, I'd REALLY appreciate it!

---Graevyn

[auenf]

uhh, ill have to get back to you after monday at the earliest, cant really reinstall windows when im snow boarding...

Enf...

[Milkman Dan]

TemporalSmoother is a really slow filter. Adding it in is definitely taking a chunk out of your encoding times.

Using SimpleResize only, I get around .95-1.3 on my AMP @1520MHz. Every filter you add is going to reduce your encoding speed. Either ditch the filters, or buy a faster processor.

[Graevyn]

Hmmm... I think I figured out my problem. On the Misc tab, there are two setting: Process priority for all used programs & DVD2SVCD level. I set these both to High and Advanced respectively. My RT jumped from 0.6 to 0.9, even with Temporal Smoother on. Awesome!

Hey Milkman, do you use Temporal Smoother? I don't think I've tried an encode without it on. Doesn't it really help reduce "mosquitos" and make the picture look better? What settings do you typically use? And have you done any comparisons between Bicubic and Simple resizes? I'm just wondering if I'm wasting my time using Bicubic.

Well, thanks! I appreciate the help.

---Graevyn

[Graevyn]

Hmmm... I think I figured out my problem. On the Misc tab, there are two setting: Process priority for all used programs & DVD2SVCD level. I set these both to High and Advanced respectively. My RT jumped from 0.6 to 0.9, even with Temporal Smoother on. Awesome!

Hey Milkman, do you use Temporal Smoother? I don't think I've tried an encode without it on. Doesn't it really help reduce "mosquitos" and make the picture look better? What settings do you typically use? And have you done any comparisons between Bicubic and Simple resizes? I'm just wondering if I'm wasting my time using Bicubic.

Well, thanks! I appreciate the help.

---Graevyn

[Milkman Dan]

Well, I've never used DVD2SVCD before, so I have no idea what changing those settings did.

I ran a test to see what performance my machine gave at your settings and using TemporalSmoother and without.

Machine is a AthlonMP 1500+ (133x10) (I toned it down for some hardware I'm using. Usually, it's 145x10.5), 256MB ram, 7200rpm WD hard disk, Windows 2000 SP3. Avisynth is whatever version comes in the GordianKnot package (1.05b?)

Going from 720x480 video to 480x480 video using BicubicResize, no TemporalSmoother, I got 1.46-1.53x

With the TS, I got .9-.928, which is right in line with your results.

I think this puts the point on my earlier post. TemporalSmoother is SLOW. It improves compressibility, but not image quality so much (beyond the better distribution of bitrate). I think a better filter for the time spent is probably Convolution3D, at least in principle. I haven't used it yet myself.

SimpleResize should be a better filter for all types of downsizing. It's README says that it shouldn't be used for upsizing, as it's algorithm isn't very suited for the task.

What your DVD2SVCD settings tell me is that if you have to set CCE's process priority higher, that something else is using up your CPU time, and a significant portion of it, at that. Are you listening to music while you encode? Virus scanners? SOMETHING is using time while you encode.

BTW: That Image priority setting really shouldn't be at 1. Even the high-quality 1pass used in the "Getting the most of out CCE" method uses 5. Using the lower setting, it made it difficult to acquire an average X, because the speed of CCE was highly dependant on the complexity of the image it was processing, and drove me nuts. Nar.

[Graevyn]

Thanks for the info, Dan. I appreciate you taking the time to do that test. I do have Norton AV installed, but I have it disabled (still has the icon in systray). I wonder if I should totally shut it down. Plus, I have ZoneAlarm running. That probably is a small part of it too. Well, thanks again!

---Graevyn