Is it the hardware, the software.....or the user -__-

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by adrian2055, Mar 2, 2013.

  1. adrian2055

    adrian2055 MDL Member

    Apr 21, 2010
    191
    15
    10
    Hello everyone,

    I was wondering if you all could clear something up for me. My current laptop seems to be underperforming when it comes to video editing/converting imo. When trying to edit videos my software uses all of my system resources and seems like it takes forever to save the file after I'm done editing it. I've tried different programs and windows vista, seven and eight (OMG what the hell was the people at MS smoking when they made this os?) and my conversion speeds are still slow. Now I was considerng putting a bluray burner in my laptop, but before I do that I wanted to get some opinions about my setup. It already takes a long time to convert/burn things to a dvd. I can't imaging how long it would take to convert/burn a movie to a bluray disc. Even coverting files to a different format (like from an mkv file to a flv) takes too long. What do you all think....do I need a new system, new software....both....or is the user just wanting things to be completed too quickly?




    Hardware:

    Compaq Presario CQ56-115DX
    Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate Edition SP2 64-Bit
    AMD Phenom II N870 2.3Ghz Triple-Core Processor
    ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    8GB DDR3 Ram
    HP GT30L 8X Lightscribe DVD Burner
    250GB Internal Hard Drive
    250GB External Hard Drive


    Software:

    Aimersoft Video Converter 4
    AVS Video Converter 8
    AVS Video Editor 6
    CyberLink ColorDirector 1
    CyberLink PowerDirector 8
    Handbrake
    Pinnacle Studio 16 Ultimate Edition
    Sony Vegas Pro 11
    TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4
    TMPGEnc Video Mastering Works 5
    TMPGEnc XPress 4
    TX264
    VirtualDub-1.9.11
    VirtualDub-MPEG2 1.6.15
    vReveal Premium 3
    XMedia Recode 3


    User:
    ..................................
     
  2. thatguychuck

    thatguychuck MDL Member

    Feb 6, 2011
    100
    34
    10
    It seems when people build high end systems, it's usually either for gaming or encoding. It's my understanding that video encoding can max out ANY system if the software is optimized, so I would vote for hardware. I don't think you will find a software solution that will speed things up. You may get some more responses if you throw some numbers out, as "slow" is subjective.

    I only do some limited encoding, so these numbers are just off the top of my head. Handbrake gives me anywhere form 55-110 fps depending on my source video. ConvertXtoDVD takes about 50 minutes per pass to encode mp4 to VIDEO_TS. That's on a PhenomIIx6 [email protected] with a few 7200rpm drives. A desktop PC would give you a lot more flexibility.
     
  3. adrian2055

    adrian2055 MDL Member

    Apr 21, 2010
    191
    15
    10
    I get about 3-5 fps with handbrake and TX264. It takes about 3-4 hours to convert a 2 hour movie to any other format. I was gonna get a quad core desktop asap, but is that enough? Do I need more cores?
     
  4. Michaela Joy

    Michaela Joy MDL Crazy Lady

    Jul 26, 2012
    4,068
    4,649
    150
    Quad Core I7 -is- enough, but it needs to be coupled with lots of RAM and a SSD for maximum performance.
    I run Cubase 6 on my studio machine. I have an I7 3.5 GHZ quad core CPU, 32GB of RAM and a SSD.


    With regards to your laptop...Is the main HD 5400 RPM? If so, that will slow things down a bit.
     
    Stop hovering to collapse... Click to collapse... Hover to expand... Click to expand...
  5. adrian2055

    adrian2055 MDL Member

    Apr 21, 2010
    191
    15
    10
    My main drive is 5400rpm. I didn't know that made a difference.