AMD Athlon 64 3200

[fall3n_j0ker]

Machine Type: Athlon 64 3200
CPU Speed: 2.0 ghz
Number of CPUs 1
OS: Server 2k3
Rip Format: MKV
Encoder: x264(main)
Video Size & settings: (720x358, anamorphic, AC3, autocrop)
Quality / Bit Rate: ABR:2000
1 or 2 Pass: 2 Pass
Min/Max or Average Frames Per Second (FPS): 1st: 30fps, 2nd: 7fps

Is there something I am doing wrong? It seems slow, though i know i'm ripping at very high quality h264/2000 and using autocrop. It is taking aprox 8 hours to rip a movie from start to finish. on my Powerbook g4, it takes as much as 20 hours or more. I'm looking to replace my dvd collection with a large rips on my large array, So quality is a must, but i would rather it not take 8 hours, and I just simply can not afford a 8-core mac pro yet

[rhester]

You're not doing anything wrong. H.264, especially at higher resolutions, bitrates, and profiles, really does take that much processing power. Welcome to the next generation of video. (Anyone remember when MPEG-2 encoding was slow? How about MP3? =)

Rodney

[fall3n_j0ker]

I was around when we were all still listening to mods, and other such formats.

[redraiderbum]

I guess you are going for a high quality encode? If that is true, it would probably be faster to use a constant quality CRF encode at around 60%; that will allow you to do only one pass. You will probably only get 7-10 fps still, but the file will be smaller for probably better quality (or equal, as this method uses large bitrates in places where the video really needs it, like fast motion, and small bitrates when possible) and shorter encode time. Just a suggestion.

[fall3n_j0ker]

Good idea, I was not sure on the exact way that the different methods of quality work, but yes I'm looking for dvd quality for archiving purposes.

[fall3n_j0ker]

I am curious though why do you only use a single pass when using Constant quality mode?

[redraiderbum]

Well in the Mac OS version the 2-pass goes away when you select constant quality. I know very little about why, but I suspect ABR needs 2-passes to help it predict what to keep and what to through away. Constant quality is simply retaining a percentage of the information per frame so planning ahead isn't necessary. Puzzler would have a much better explanation, I'm sure he has posted on it before; just search for his forum posts.

I have my encode line posted here if you would like to use it... it is quicktime compatible,but it is for CLI, you can find the equivalents in the wiki:

http://handbrake.m0k.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3331

Typically you don't want to go lower than 59% or higher than 70% and make sure you enable "-Q" after the quality percentage, if you don't then you will not be using the far superior CRF method and your files will be giant. If you go above 70% your output file will probably be bigger than the original. If you go below 59% quality will suffer. Also, you only need to use deinterlacing (that is the -d option) if the original was interlaced (typically only tv shows) all of this is in the wiki if you search. Definitely go with constant quality for best file size and best quality.

[fall3n_j0ker]

I will do further research, I am currently ripping the entire movie using windows (unfortunately using my mac to do the rip is just too slow) using the above mentioned 60%, and i checked the button bellow for the other option and turned off the 2 pass encoding (the windows version does not disable the 2 pass when using constant quality) I am curious about something, when i create a small rip using high quality , it plays fine, but when playback of the same rip of the whole movie @ the same quality is when i start to run into problems. Also something interesting i noticed tonight when trying it out under leopard, there seems to be more fluid playback, although perhaps that is because it is a fresh install and not running all the stuff that i normally do.