Early 2008 Mac Pro & 0.9.9 GA Release

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brakestands
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Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:13 pm

Early 2008 Mac Pro & 0.9.9 GA Release

Post by brakestands »

Now that 0.9.9 is out the door in full release, I wanted to show myself what I had thought to be true - ie, that 0.9.9 is faster to encode High Profile encodes than 0.9.8, all things being equal. I used to get an average of about 16fps on High Profile encodes from Bluray sources in 0.9.8. You'll notice now that the number is up to 22.70 fps. I have the highest end configuration possible of the Early 2008 Mac Pro, and I now have 32GB of RAM in it and a RAID0 configured SSD Boot and Apps Drive.

Machine Type: Early 2008 Mac Pro
CPU Details: 2 CPU's with 4 cores each, or 8 total cores (CPU Speed is 3.20 GHz)
Rip Format (MP4, AVI etc): MP4/M4V (this is a transcode from the .mkv, which was ripped directly from the BluRay that I own)
Encoder: x264
Video Size & settings: (640x480, anamorphic, deinterlace etc): Straight High Profile preset, no mods except Foreign Audio Search for Subtitle, Burned In, Forced.
Quality / Bit Rate: High Profile preset
Min/Max or Average Frames Per Second (FPS): Average FPS was 22.70
Movie: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Bluray rip to .mkv, then used HB to transcode from the mkv)

Any other comments you desire: I will keep testing, next time with a movie with no Subtitles to worry about, to see if I get slightly faster results. I'm interested in others' experiences, mostly with High Profile encodes like mine.
mduell
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Posts: 8187
Joined: Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:54 pm

Re: Early 2008 Mac Pro & 0.9.9 GA Release

Post by mduell »

The High Profile preset has changed, so the comparison is not apples to apples reflecting a real performance increase. You could apply the same settings in 0.9.8 and see a much smaller performance difference.
Deleted User 11865

Re: Early 2008 Mac Pro & 0.9.9 GA Release

Post by Deleted User 11865 »

x264 should be up to maybe 10% faster in this release, but no more. The High Profile preset is faster, however (now much closer to the AppleTV 3 preset).
brakestands
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Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:13 pm

Re: Early 2008 Mac Pro & 0.9.9 GA Release

Post by brakestands »

Interesting. Is there somewhere I could read more about what exactly changed in the High Profile preset? I'm hoping all my target devices and use cases will still be accomodated by the new High Profile - basically, I took your recommendations mduell a while back when targeting the AppleTV3, latest iPad 4 and iPhone 5 and other fully 1080p capable devices. I typically turn off all Decombing/Deinterlacing when using Bluray sources (vast majority of my encodes). Let me know if you could what has changed in High Profile. Thanks very much.
Deleted User 11865

Re: Early 2008 Mac Pro & 0.9.9 GA Release

Post by Deleted User 11865 »

Lookahead size is down to 40 (the x264 default), from 50 in 0.9.8.

The B-frame decision algorithm is now set to 1 (the x264 default), instead of 2. This accounts for most of the performance difference.

Device compatibility should be unaffected by the changes.
brakestands
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Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:13 pm

Re: Early 2008 Mac Pro & 0.9.9 GA Release

Post by brakestands »

Thanks Rodeo, interesting stuff. As long as the picture quality and playability for my sources doesn't change, I'm happy. I chose High Profile mostly because of the slight improvement in picture over the AppleTV3 preset, and wanting to squeeze the absolute best out of the transcoding process within reason, and given my current target devices, internal streaming quality to a very large Home theater environment, and with as much future-proof-ness as reasonably possible, given there will someday be more advanced hardware devices on the market.
Deleted User 11865

Re: Early 2008 Mac Pro & 0.9.9 GA Release

Post by Deleted User 11865 »

Well, High Profile improved compression efficiency more than quality (when compared with the AppleTV 3 preset). Compression efficiency will be slightly lower in the new preset, but not necessarily that much. You can also adjust speed vs. compression efficiency using the new x264 preset slider, BTW.
brakestands
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Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:13 pm

Re: Early 2008 Mac Pro & 0.9.9 GA Release

Post by brakestands »

Just tried another movie, this time a DVD rip instead of Bluray. It was the movie Amistad. It was ripped to .mkv with makemkv, then the Handbrake transcode with High Profile settings, with 2 changes - one to enable Detelecine for the 480i source (DVD), and one to dial up the resolution to RF=19 instead of the default of 20. With Subtitle scanning still enabled for Foreign Audio Search, Forced, Burned In, I am getting the following speed:

76.20 fps.
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