Video Coding / Recoding with Nero, Virtual Dub, etc.
Hello to all!
I am new to the forums here, which I found after searching for a good place to find knowledge and view experiences with Vista 64.
I would like your opinions, suggestions or raspberries on the following......
After reading through the various forums, I found some interesting items on various hardware and software issues which prompted me to tell you about my comparison study. I bought a brand new system a few days ago with the hopes of vastly speeding up my daily tasks, which consist of the normal mundane things we all use our systems for, to one of my most performed tasks, which is recoding videos of one ilk or another.
I have a media streaming system in my home, consisting of 5 D-Link DSM-320RD players, being fed by a Gateway 610XL, 3.06gHz system with 1GB of RAM and a 500GB Ultra ATA Seagate HD. It also has 1.5TB of extra drives attached via USB that house more videos for our viewing pleasure. This system routinely serves 3 systems at a time, and sometimes has served all 5, with no hiccups at all. These are hardwired on a 1GB network.
My daily routine is to recode various TV Shows & Movies from DVD to AVI format for use on the system and on my laptop. My average encoding rate is between 800kbps to 1.25Mbps depending on content and how important it is to me quality wise. I also do Off Air TV shows gleaned from various sources and recode them depending on audio or video issues that may be present.
I also do some videos for a couple of local businesses who have videos of their machines or products and want them in various formats to present to clients.
I daily use:
Nero Recode (Nero Ver 7.8.5.0)
VirtualDub
MP4Cam2AVI
I have compared various tasks between these two machines:
Dell XPS 600
Intel 965 EE running @ 4gHz
2GB RAM 667mHz
Seagate 750GB SATA 16MB Cache Main Drive
XP Pro with SP3
NVidia 7900GTX 512MB Video
Creative X-Fi Sound
***********************
Dell T5400
Dual Intel XEON E5405 Quad Core Processors running @ 2gHz
2GB RAM 667 mHz
Hitachi 500GB SATA 16MB Cache Main Drive
Vista 64 Ultimate with SP1
NVidia 7900GTX 512MB Video
Creative X-Fi Sound
Vista Experience Score is 5.9 across the board EXCEPT for the HD which is 5.3 for some reason.
I tried to keep the hardware at a level which would lend itself to comparison as much as possible. The 965EE on the XPS 600 is a HT processor which shows 4 cores @ 4gHz, the Dual Quad Core XEON E5405's show 8 cores @ 2gHz, both systems have identical amounts of RAM, same cards, etc.
Now for the rest of the story......
Initially, due to what I read here in the forums, I upgraded to Nero 8.0 (Ver 8.3.2.1) and recoded a DVD to AVI format. This was my very first task after installing updates to Vista and making sure all drivers and various other items were the latest & greatest.
I was flabbergasted at the amount of time it took. 108 Minutes. I cannot amply express my dissappointment.
I then uninstalled Nero 8 and went back to Nero 7.8.5.0. This is the very same version running on the XPS 600, and includes the Telecine Stutter fix that you are all probably aware of.
The very same movie, on both systems, using the same software:
T5400 = 17:47 <--- Yeah, that's right.
XPS 600 = 24.45
Both were encoded @ 1.25mbps and the resulting file sizes were within a few bytes of each other. The source files were the same, copied from one machine to the other. About 30% faster on the T5400, but lightyears ahead software wise between Nero 7 & 8.
As a side note, I also tried XP 64 on the T5400 with similar results. Nero 7's Recode was almost identical between the XPS 600 and T5400, but VirtualDub 32bit on BOTH machines resulted in about a 30% faster result on the T5400. VirtualDub's 64bit didn't have the codecs available to do what I wanted. I have not yet tried the Codec Pack talked about and available from this forum as of yet. I usually use the K-Lite Codec Pack.
Now, all that being said, what suggestions might any of you have for what I install on the Vista 64 machine? I am interested in various programs you have used for video coding, music playback, DVD playback, Desktop Publishing, etc. My main concern is to use items that make better use of the OS and hardware as opposed to 32bit XP.
Thanks to all for any replies!
Hello to all!
I am new to the forums here, which I found after searching for a good place to find knowledge and view experiences with Vista 64.
I would like your opinions, suggestions or raspberries on the following......
After reading through the various forums, I found some interesting items on various hardware and software issues which prompted me to tell you about my comparison study. I bought a brand new system a few days ago with the hopes of vastly speeding up my daily tasks, which consist of the normal mundane things we all use our systems for, to one of my most performed tasks, which is recoding videos of one ilk or another.
I have a media streaming system in my home, consisting of 5 D-Link DSM-320RD players, being fed by a Gateway 610XL, 3.06gHz system with 1GB of RAM and a 500GB Ultra ATA Seagate HD. It also has 1.5TB of extra drives attached via USB that house more videos for our viewing pleasure. This system routinely serves 3 systems at a time, and sometimes has served all 5, with no hiccups at all. These are hardwired on a 1GB network.
My daily routine is to recode various TV Shows & Movies from DVD to AVI format for use on the system and on my laptop. My average encoding rate is between 800kbps to 1.25Mbps depending on content and how important it is to me quality wise. I also do Off Air TV shows gleaned from various sources and recode them depending on audio or video issues that may be present.
I also do some videos for a couple of local businesses who have videos of their machines or products and want them in various formats to present to clients.
I daily use:
Nero Recode (Nero Ver 7.8.5.0)
VirtualDub
MP4Cam2AVI
I have compared various tasks between these two machines:
Dell XPS 600
Intel 965 EE running @ 4gHz
2GB RAM 667mHz
Seagate 750GB SATA 16MB Cache Main Drive
XP Pro with SP3
NVidia 7900GTX 512MB Video
Creative X-Fi Sound
***********************
Dell T5400
Dual Intel XEON E5405 Quad Core Processors running @ 2gHz
2GB RAM 667 mHz
Hitachi 500GB SATA 16MB Cache Main Drive
Vista 64 Ultimate with SP1
NVidia 7900GTX 512MB Video
Creative X-Fi Sound
Vista Experience Score is 5.9 across the board EXCEPT for the HD which is 5.3 for some reason.
I tried to keep the hardware at a level which would lend itself to comparison as much as possible. The 965EE on the XPS 600 is a HT processor which shows 4 cores @ 4gHz, the Dual Quad Core XEON E5405's show 8 cores @ 2gHz, both systems have identical amounts of RAM, same cards, etc.
Now for the rest of the story......
Initially, due to what I read here in the forums, I upgraded to Nero 8.0 (Ver 8.3.2.1) and recoded a DVD to AVI format. This was my very first task after installing updates to Vista and making sure all drivers and various other items were the latest & greatest.
I was flabbergasted at the amount of time it took. 108 Minutes. I cannot amply express my dissappointment.
I then uninstalled Nero 8 and went back to Nero 7.8.5.0. This is the very same version running on the XPS 600, and includes the Telecine Stutter fix that you are all probably aware of.
The very same movie, on both systems, using the same software:
T5400 = 17:47 <--- Yeah, that's right.
XPS 600 = 24.45
Both were encoded @ 1.25mbps and the resulting file sizes were within a few bytes of each other. The source files were the same, copied from one machine to the other. About 30% faster on the T5400, but lightyears ahead software wise between Nero 7 & 8.
As a side note, I also tried XP 64 on the T5400 with similar results. Nero 7's Recode was almost identical between the XPS 600 and T5400, but VirtualDub 32bit on BOTH machines resulted in about a 30% faster result on the T5400. VirtualDub's 64bit didn't have the codecs available to do what I wanted. I have not yet tried the Codec Pack talked about and available from this forum as of yet. I usually use the K-Lite Codec Pack.
Now, all that being said, what suggestions might any of you have for what I install on the Vista 64 machine? I am interested in various programs you have used for video coding, music playback, DVD playback, Desktop Publishing, etc. My main concern is to use items that make better use of the OS and hardware as opposed to 32bit XP.
Thanks to all for any replies!
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