Hello
I am new to this and I did search the forums but I don’t think I understand enough to know if what I am reading about it helpful. The similar topics have details that don’t seem to match mine so here goes.
This is occurring on an older pc. It is by no means wonderful and I do understand that.
Processor: Intel(R) Core™2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz 3.00 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Video is Intel(r) Q33 Express Chipset Family (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM 1.0)
I would accept that my problem is the hardware and just move on because it is in my plans to build a different machine in the next few months. However, this issue only occurs sometimes.
First I was just using the paid version of MCE Buddy with free comskip and I
Converted I Dream of Jeanie S03 E21 in 26 minutes
Converted NCIS: LA S08 E24 in 61 minutes
but also
Converted Friends S08 E06 in 2 hours and 7 minutes
Converted The Roosevelts An Intimate History S01 E07 (a 2 Hour video) in 13 hours
I started converting my Seinfeld recordings and they were taking approximately 2 hours which I found unusual since most of my recent 30 minute episodes had take 30 minutes.
Seinfeld - s06e23 - The Face Painter in 2 hours 10 minutes
Seinfeld - s09e04 - The Blood in 2 hours 9 minutes
So I did some searching and got the donator version of comskip and directed MCE Buddy to use it but it did not help. Now all these episodes are taking twice as long.
Seinfeld - s04e13 - The Pick in 4 hours 21 minutes
Seinfeld - s09e23 - The Finale in 4 hours 14 minutes
The only other observation I’ve been able to make is that it does seem to be related to the show. All my Friends, Roosevelts, Seinfield episodes seem to take a really long time to convert but I Dream of Jeanie, Muade, Bewitched, McHale’s Navy seem to convert closer to their run time.
I just don’t know enough to be able to figure out what is causing the difference so if anyone can look at the logs and let me know I would appreciate it. Even if I can’t fix it, just understanding why would at least make me feel better.
Here is a link to my logs.
Thanks!
Based on a very quick scan of your logs conversion was done using software encoding and used your CPU for the task. So, there will be some variance in processing time based on what else the CPU might be tasked to do. Simply adding a video card that supports hardware encoding will dramatically decrease your processing time.
I Dream of Jeanie and NCIS source files have a bitrate of 1760, Friends has a bitrate of 3200 and Roosevelts a bitrate of 4800 which could explain the difference in processing time.
The only recommendation I can give is that you play around with other profiles. It’s a lot of time and effort especially when only software encoding but so much of video conversion is what works best for you and what quality output is expectable to you. The files I output maybe look completely terrible to someone else. If you can add a video card to your current setup, do that. It doesn’t have to be the latest and greatest card just something that supports hardware encoding of x264 or x265.
BTW, great job posting your question and providing the details and logs. Make it so much easier to help. Good luck!
Thank you very much. This is a very old computer and I was just testing what I want to do to see if it works, then I planned to put together a better computer if everything worked which it does seem to be doing. I still need to get a couple of things and I will be able to do that.
The bitrate being different does help explain why it seems to be based on show so that at least makes me feel like I am not crazy.
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I have used a first gen i-7 and a third gen i-5 with 8GB of memory and a inexpensive video card with no problem with the free version and donator comskip.
If your processor is running nearly at 100% then you need a video card and my times were reasonable even though it was slower with some files because of the restriction with some types of files because of the free version. So you don’t need to go crazy when you upgrade your computer.
Also Don’t get fancy with the profiles. Use standard like MP4 Fast or TS Unprocessed or anything else that says fast. Use that as a starting point and see what you get
Actually I figured out that all I wanted to do was get rid of the commercials so I didn’t really need all of the other processing. I would up just getting PlayOn which has AdSkip and recording from On Demand.
I didn’t mind getting the donator version, I just tried it since it was easy. As for upgrades, I’m not really upgrading this pc. I will just be pulling the hard drive from this pc to put with other scraps. I just upgraded my computer (not the one I use MCE Buddy on) and so now my old motherboard, CPU, and RAM will go live in an old case that is in the same location as the MCE Buddy pc. That old case has a video card in it but I don’t recall what it is at all and I can’t check as I am not there. I don’t need a video card for this to work so I am ok if it doesn’t but I might eventually buy one if I am frustrated by the conversion times. So when I said I was upgrading I more or less meant I am upgrading my gaming pc and I will build a new media pc with the left overs but I will need to buy a new power supply… I don’t have one of those just laying around. I was just wanting to figure out why some episodes took a crazy long time and others took what seemed like a more reasonable time. I do think the bit rate is the reason why, and even if it isn’t it has helped me to accept the status quo for now until I order a PSU and drive to my media pc location and build a new media pc.
My inexpensive video card took almost 50% off the processor. NVIDIA GeForce GT 720 (GT 710 on my other computer) which is available on Ebay for $25 to $35.
The donator version usually means the ad skipping. The paid version of MCE Buddy will speed up the conversions themselves. As I said, I was using the free version and the times were much better than yours with similar video recordings with over the air at 1080p and the rest at 720p. i5 3570 and an i-7 870 CPU with 8 GB memory (memory should make a big difference). Both the video card and the memory will most likely speed up the conversions. Good luck with the different system that you will start using