Graphics Card/Encoding help...

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Graphics Card/Encoding help...

ping182nz

188 posts

Master Geek

#102013 14-May-2012 13:51

Hi,

I have a large amout of DVD's to convert to mp4 files... (I am adding the dvd's I own to my HTPC)

Can anyone tell me if buying a new graphics card will help with the speed of endcoding to h.264?

What graphics card do you recommend?

I hope I am not asking a stupid question?

Ragnor

8219 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#624950 14-May-2012 16:05

Unlike for CD audio, format shifting retail DVD to digital files is technically not yet legal in NZ.

So lets assume this is an entirely theoretical disscussion or that you are converting home video!

Depends on the software you are using whether it can make use of Nvidia or AMD gpu features like CUDA or OpenCL.

How old is your PC, does it have PCI-E slot or older AGP slot for video cards?

Mark

1653 posts

Uber Geek

#624968 14-May-2012 16:34

Quality is a bit hit n miss when doing GPU encoding rather than software encoding.

Tom's Hardware has a nice article:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/video-transcoding-amd-app-nvidia-cuda-intel-quicksync,2839.html

Ragnor

8219 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#624986 14-May-2012 17:12

Buying a SSD might be a better investment, can get a decent 60GB for $150 these days.

ping182nz

188 posts

Master Geek

#625067 14-May-2012 19:38

Ragnor: Unlike for CD audio, format shifting retail DVD to digital files is technically not yet legal in NZ.

So lets assume this is an entirely theoretical disscussion or that you are converting home video!

Depends on the software you are using whether it can make use of Nvidia or AMD gpu features like CUDA or OpenCL.

How old is your PC, does it have PCI-E slot or older AGP slot for video cards?

Yes, I mean DVD home videos..

Good Quad core CPU, 16GB RAM, PCI-E

KevinL

656 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#625088 14-May-2012 20:27

There was quite a good article published a few days ago on the state of consumer GPU transcoding - the bottom line is it's better to use CPU-based solutions i.e. handbrake.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/128681-the-wretched-state-of-gpu-transcoding

ping182nz

188 posts

Master Geek

#625144 14-May-2012 22:28

Ragnor: Buying a SSD might be a better investment, can get a decent 60GB for $150 these days.

Would the source drive and destination drive be the SSD? I am guessing this is the most logical way to do it?

Ragnor

8219 posts

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#625154 14-May-2012 22:45

Disc to SSD then from SSD to SSD.

A good SSD can to 400MB/s so yeah way faster SSD to SSD than involving any HDD's.

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Mark

1653 posts

Uber Geek

#625299 15-May-2012 09:46

Transcoding is going to be far more about CPU grunt than disk transfer, especially as it's only a sequential workload anyway which a spinning disk can handle very well.

A big arse multi-core CPU (or multi-socket motherboard with multi-core CPUs :-) with a stack of fast RAM is going to be of far more benefit to a program like Handbrake than an SSD.

ping182nz

188 posts

Master Geek

#625335 15-May-2012 10:29

Thanks,

Can anyone comment on any seetings in Handbreak to get very good quality? or do I just select the "hi" prfile and run with that...

Mark

1653 posts

Uber Geek

#625350 15-May-2012 10:44

Just be sure that the devices you intend the encoded files to run on support all the options in the profile.

For my DVD backups I tend to use the AppleTV2 profile, and scale the video down to a width of 640, results in pretty good looking files that aren't too huge and that play back on most devices. Checking the if the source is or is not interlaced and choosing to de-interlace if required also helps.

The Handbrake developers are pretty good at what they do and the presets are good for most mere mortals .. just tread carefully if you ask questions on their forum as they do bite if they deem your question has been asked and answered before ;-) Must be the french thing ;-) hehehe

ping182nz

188 posts

Master Geek

#625354 15-May-2012 10:51

Thanks Mark,

I will be encoding for a 55inch Samsung LED TV, and playing them through a XBMC box...

What is the simplist way of checking interlacing? and are there any tips on what deinterlacing settings to use...

Mark

1653 posts

Uber Geek

#625368 15-May-2012 11:13

Hmmm ... if you have a large screen then maybe don't downscale the video to 640 horitzonal resolution for DVDs, go for the 720wide and suffer the slightly larger files .

To find out if it's interlaced or notI tend to fire up the DVD player in OSX and then pause the video,, interlaced is obvious then .. I'm sure there is a more technical way to check though :-)