Slow conversions randomly

Yesterday (2/22/2018) I recorded the Olympics on NBC - 2 hours in the afternoon and 3 hours in the evening.

I manually converted the afternoon episode and it took just under an hour. I let MCEBuddy start the evening conversion according to the Start/Stop time setting in MCEBuddy. It took 10 hours to complete. In fact, the timer shut the conversion down at the 7 AM set time and I resumed it around 8 AM.

Everything was the same hardware wise for both conversions and the logs aren’t any help to me.

Can someone enlighten me as to what the problem might be?

Wayne

Attach your conversion log it’ll show what’s going on

Goose,

How to I attach the log? If I just copy and paste it is very long.

Wayne

You attach files to your posts (don’t copy paste), if the file it too big, zip and attach it. Just drag the file onto your post.

Goose,
I dragged the log in question into this reply. I don’t know if this is what it is supposed t look like.

When I dragged a smaller log into an email to myself I was able to open it.

Wayne

2018 Winter Olympics 20180222 [20180223-0100].mpg-Converted TV-2018-02-23T00-02-28.4594393-05-00.log (5.4 MB)

1 Like

So it starts out great using your intel quicksync hardware encoding cruising along at a decent 70fps with a ETA of about 1 hour for completion.

2018-02-23T00:45:53 MCEBuddy.AppWrapper.Handbrake → Encoding: task 1 of 1, 12.26 % (67.28 fps, avg 69.19 fps, ETA 01h11m30s)

Then your graphics driver throws an error and terminates the conversion:

2018-02-23T00:45:54 MCEBuddy.AppWrapper.Handbrake → Encoding: task 1 of 1, 12.30 % (67.91 fps, avg 69.19 fps, ETA 01h11m29s)Error code -21, hb_qsv_wait_on_sync 602
2018-02-23T00:45:54 MCEBuddy.AppWrapper.Handbrake → ERROR: encqsv: MFXVideoENCODE_EncodeFrameAsync failed (-21)

So then as a fail safe MCEBuddy falls back to software encoding which craws at about 10 fps

2018-02-23T00:48:06 MCEBuddy.AppWrapper.Handbrake → Encoding: task 1 of 1, 0.42 % (11.69 fps, avg 11.56 fps, ETA 08h05m37s)

The issue your graphics driver which is unstable or become unstable at certain times depending on what your computer is doing, maybe the screen saver comes on making it unstable or maybe it goes into power save mode, can’t say.

Try this page to update your driver to a stable version and see if that helps otherwise you may need to turn off any power saving stuff you have going on.

Thanx, Goose.

I don’t have any power saving features on except for monitor shotdown after 10 minutes ans I don’t use a screen saver. There is a new Intel graphics driver that I’ve downloaded and will install later. In the meantime I’ve attached the log from the 2 hour afternoon recording which completed in in just under an hour. Could you, please, look at it and compare it to the previous log?

Wayne

2018 Winter Olympics 20180222 [20180222-2000].mpg-Converted TV-2018-02-22T17-13-57.4152742-05-00.log (1.4 MB)

Identical, it’s using hardware but this time the driver didn’t error out:

2018-02-22T17:33:00 MCEBuddy.AppWrapper.Handbrake → Encoding: task 1 of 1, 0.26 % (69.28 fps, avg 70.12 fps, ETA 00h35m33s)

It’s a graphics driver issue - very common with intel drivers

Thanx again, Goose.

These were done on a backup machine because my I5 primary machine went down a couple of days ago and I’m waiting on a part.

I have gotten some excessively long conversions using the I5 but nothing like 10 hours. Although the previously long conversions were likely with 1 hour scripted TV programs.

If I have future problems, I may get a graphics card. I’ll look at the graphics link you provided and see what graphics acceration is supported in MCEBuddy.

Again, thanx for your assistance.

Wayne

1 Like

Your card is fine, just the driver is unstable - try installing a more stable version from the link above.

I actually had the same issue with the same program. Like you, I also had outdated Intel drivers. Hopefully updating them will fix the issue!

firefox 15,

I updated drivers on the Celeron machine to the latest on the Intel site but random slow conversion happened again Sat. A Sat afternoon show converted normally but an evening show converted very slowly.

I put the I5 back in service Sun with the drivers that were originally installed about 18 months ago and the same thing happened - a afternoon show converted normally but then an evening show converted slowly. Not as slow as the Celeron since the I5 is a more capable processor.

I haven’t tried the drive suggested in Goose’s link because it states that it is for Win 7, 8 and 8.1 and both of my machines are Win 10 and I’m afraid an older driver would cause other issues.

The issue has only come up lately, on a semi regular basis, that I’m aware of but I’ve been recording/converting the same show for the past couple of weeks - the Olympics becausethere’s nothing else we want to record.

It’s nuisance that I can live with short term. If I can’t get it straightened out, I’ll use a different convert and forgo auto commercial cutting.

Wayne

General rule of thumb for Intel, Latest != Greatest

Olders drivers are often a lot more stable (and more efficient) than newer drivers.

This is even more relevant when you have old hardware, the newer drivers are geared to newer hardware (not necessarily operating systems, windows 7/8.1 drivers by far work great with Windows 10). Their QA/testing is abysmal so we tend to recommend drivers that are proven stable by the community at large.

Goose,

Okay, I finally got around to trying the drivers in the link you provided because I got slow conversions again yesterday.

The driver will not install - “This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software”.

This is a Win 10 machine with an I5-6500 and no discreet graphics card.

Wayne

Try the bottom of the page there are some newer Win10 driver links available

Sorry, Goose. I should have gotten back.

I let Windows 10 update the Intel drivers available from MS about a week ago and my conversions have been going well without a single failure and I’ve not seen a single conversion revert to CPU encoding either.

I’ve been getting 265 fps converting Fox shows (1280x720P) and 65 - 70 fps on NBC and CBS (1920x1080i).
I don’t know enough about this stuff to begin to understand why the huge difference in conversion fps.

Before letting MS update the Intel drivers, I tried a couple of other encoders that were supposed to be able to use Quick Sync but I was getting close to 100% CPU usage. I thought Quick Sync was off loading the encoding so the CPU was available for other activity. But,maybe, I just didn’t activate Quick Sync in the other encoders. One of the packages I tried was Freemake and it has very minimal customization.

According to my Intel graphics settings, I’m using driver version 21.20.16.4839.

Wayne

1 Like