Video Encoding Problem

Arc · 04 Jan 2010

Wishmaster said:

Arc said:

Hi Wishmaster. Thanks for your advice. Can u plz make me know how can I get a stress test?

What CPU do have? Are you overclocking?

Intel Burn test is likely the fastest and most accurate.
Run it for 5-10 passes at MAX stress. If there's is a instability causing your problems, it will find it.

Read the Notes about the program!!
IntelBurnTest v2.3 download from Guru3D.com

Also, watch your TEMPs closely!!! IBT will produce much higher Tempratures than you will ever see in any real world situation.
However, TEMPS should never reach the danger zone.
If they do... STOP IBT immediatly. Theres other issues that need to be addressed.

If your PC can survive IBT, then stabilty shouldn't be the problem.

My motherboard is Asus M2N MX SE PLUS, AMD Athlon 64X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.21GHz Processor And 2 GB of ram (1.87 gb usible). Would be I able to run intel burn test?

Arc · 04 Jan 2010

Sopolias Falst said:

Never use any encoders in High priority. Depending on the setup of your rips, the encoder itself will calculate the encoding speed and changing the priority won't speed up the rip, all that happens is needless stress on the RAM and CPU. You should realize that setting up an encoding of any video requires that the encoder has a lot of knowledge about the video, so setting the encoder to a lower priority is actually more efficient because it allows more time for the encoder to scan every aspect of the video and calculate exactly how it should be compressed: B-frames, reference frames, frame structure, motion prediction, motion estimation, color, amount of blocking and deblocking it should use, amount of noise and denoising it should use, and one of the most important things: are the frames interlaced and how, also which is the best way to deinterlace those frames.

Try free Format Factory for the conversions ( Format Factory - Free media file format converter ). It never gave me a problem and does an excellent job in terms of speed and quality.

Never use a software that doesn't allow you to set up at least some of these options no matter how free or cheap it is and no matter how much other people tell you it's good; the resulting quality of the video will never be as good as with programs that allow these settings to be tweaked and optimized to your liking.
Handbrake is my best choice, but I'm sidestepping the answer here. Just lower the priority of the encoder, you don't need and shouldn't change it... ever!

Hi Sopolias! Handbreak is also my choice. Under the same situation it worked fine when I used XP, But now this problem occurs. I cant think that I dont use it. I used a lot of converters including format factory, but handbreak gave me the best result

As per your suggestion, I am changing the priority from normal to lower.

Gornot · 04 Jan 2010

Please post back if the issue occurs again. I don't suppose I should advise to turn off any screensaver and power saver options (don't want the HDD to turn off in the middle of encoding XD), you already know it, right?

Arc · 04 Jan 2010

Ok . Let me see what happens next time with low priority

Wishmaster · 04 Jan 2010

yes IBT will run on a AMD.

This test will only tell you if the issues your having is because of a hardware fault, such as the CPU or RAM or other instabilities. It will NOT tell you if its due improper encoder settings.

I'm unfamiliar with handbrake, and not sure what options it gives, but i believe its based on the x264 encoder, correct?

On top of what Sopolias Falst has suggested, I would also add:
Do NOT change the number of threads either. This will not speed anything up, and will do more harm than good. leave it on auto and let x264 choose the appropriate settings. It will adjust itself accordingly.

If your attempting to speed the encoding process, there's sadly only 2 choices:
1. Lower encoder settings, (or fast encode type settings) which result in poorer quality video but faster encode times.
2. A CPU with alot more power adept at crunching numbers quickly, such as a quad core

Better off IMO, set the encoder to the target quality you want, and wait it out.

To help spped things up however, a couple tips i have learned if it interests you:

M.E. Algorithm = Multi-Hex (I have found this setting to be just right. Anything higher, significantly increases encoding time with no noticeable gain)
Subpixel refinement = 7 ( setting of 9 will yield the most noticeable result, however will also slow the encoding process significantly. 7 is a good balance between speed and quality)
M.E. range (16 or 24) Anything higher increases encode times for little to no gain in quality
No fast Pskip = slows encode time slightly but not drastically, and worth the trade IMO. helps reduce gradients in some scenes such as sky

Any other tips others have experienced Id love to hear as well :)
But im WAY off topic here :P

Gornot · 05 Jan 2010

Yes, Handbrake is a GUI for using solely with an h264 encoder, mainly targeted for Apple users, but is very popular among Win users as well...
I already listed some advanced video options that Handbrake let's you tweak, but here's a screenshot of the tab with the High Profile loaded (which I don't use obviously :P)

Arc · 05 Jan 2010

Hi Wishmaster!
Dont Know why, but the Intel Burn Test is not downloading for me.... I will try it again as early as possible and give you the feedback. Now, as per sopolias's guidance , I set everything to low priority, and encoding a movie using H264 codec. 1st pass completed, 2nd pass is about 45% done... and I am here in between. Let me see what happens, Ill inform you after completion.
+

Arc · 05 Jan 2010

Encoding completed without any trouble. Nice audio and video quality as usual... hope there would not be any further trouble.

Now I'll try to download and run the IBT and see what happens :)

**Capt.Jack Sparrow** · 05 Jan 2010

Hi Arc,

You could try AutoGK

Gornot · 06 Jan 2010

Arc said:

Encoding completed without any trouble. Nice audio and video quality as usual... hope there would not be any further trouble.

Now I'll try to download and run the IBT and see what happens :)

I am almost certain it won't ever happen again

Capt.Jack Sparrow said:

Hi Arc,

You could try AutoGK

Yuck!
What was the point of that post, lol