Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

[grendpeppy]

Hi, I used DBPowerAmp a while back, around a year or so I think. I remembered conversion was pretty fast, and on-the-fly conversion worked great.
Recently I downloaded this app again and tried to convert from ogg to mp3. The process took about 45 seconds to get 1% and so I realized something wasn't right. I decided maybe converting from ogg to wav and then from wav to mp3 would be faster, so I gave that a go and realized that the bottleneck in speed is solely in mp3 conversion from any format.

I have a bunch of codecs installed on my computer (k++ klcodec pack) and I also installed the codecs from dbpoweramp's website for ogg, aac, and a bunch of others. I think maybe my system is using the wrong codec?

Has anyone else had this problem? REALLY EXCESSIVELY SLOW CONVERSION for mp3???

Please let me know, I'm a crazy audio enthusiast and DBPowerAmp is an app I can't do without in my arsenal.

Thanks for your time folks!

Sincerely,
Ron

[ChristinaS]

Re: Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

Did you buy the registered version? Otherwise you cannot encode to mp3 at all, as a license is required now.

You need either a registered version or an unexpired 30-day trial version. You cannot re-instate a trial version again if you've already had dMC installed before, as it would have expired in the meanwhile.

[grendpeppy]

Re: Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

It's the trial version. I bought the program before (version 10 I think) but I'm too lazy to fish through my hotmail to find my serial... So I want to reorder the powerpack again... I actually tried doing it right away once I got the program, but my verified by visa account screwed up, so I couldn't go through with the transaction... after that I actually tested the program and found mp3 conversion crazy slow. I'm thinking something must be wrong with the software or my system... im thinking maybe the codec, but I have no idea...

Browsing the rest of this forum, I also uninstalled dbpoweramp, removed the keys from the registry, and reinstalled the program without installing any additional codecs...

I only have the bare program now, and going from wav -> mp3 is VERY VERY SLOW :(


Here are my program specs incase this helps anyone...

Version Information
dBpowerAMP Music Converter: Release 11.5
Power Pack & Mp3 License: [ Registered: No 30 Days Trial Remaining ]
dBpowerAMP Audio Player: Not Installed 'music Player like no other'
dBpowerAMP CD Writer: Not Installed 'easy way to burn audio cds'
Sveta Portable Audio: Not Installed 'enhance your portable player'

Contact Information
Web Site: http://www.dbpoweramp.com
Support: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/support.htm
Support Forum: http://forum.dbpoweramp.com
Codec Central: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central.htm
Add extra [en/de]coding abilities such as m4a, wma, etc.

Smart Install Codecs
Windows Media Audio: .wma
Ogg Vorbis: .ogg
Musepack: .mpc
Mp4 (AAC): .mp4
Flac: .flac
Monkeys Audio: .ape
OptimFROG: .ofr
Shorten: .shn
WavPack: .wv
Advanced Audio Compression: .aac


===Shell Integration===
Convert To (right click): Off
Edit Tag (right click): Off
Popup information Tips: Off
Explorer ID Tag Property Page: Off
Explorer Columns: Off


===Codecs===
Installed Compression Codecs (Write)
Mp3 (Lame): Lame Version 3.96.1 [ .mp3 ]
Test Conversion (No Write)
Wave: [ .wav ]


Installed Input Codecs (Read)
Auxiliary Input Decoder: .aux
CD Input Decoder: .cda
Mp3 Input Decoder: .mp3; .mp2; .mpga; .mpa; .mpx; .mpg; .mp1
Wave Input Decoder: .wav


===Options===
dBpowerAMP Reference Options
Pro. Frequency Conversion: Off (faster but less quality)

Mp3 Input Decoder
CRC Errors: Ignore
Decode To: 16 bit (dithered)

Wave Compression Codec
More than 16 bit or 2 Channels: Write WaveFormatEx Header



===ID Tag Options===
Mp3
Tag Creation: ID3v2
Write ID3v1 Version: v1.1
ID3v1 UTF8 Read: Yes
ID3v1 UTF8 Write: No
Write ID3v2 Unicode: No
Write ID3v2 Version: v2.3

[LtData]

Re: Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

See here: http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/announce...nouncementid=8
Specifically, the bottom part about requesting a manual link. That way, you get the registered version you already paid for.

[ChristinaS]

Re: Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

Can't see much reason why it should be slow. Make sure you're using Below Normal priority of conversion, this actually makes it run faster.

Also make sure no dsp effects are being applied, they can slow things down a lot. Sometimes some dsp effect ends up being on by default after a fresh installation.

You may want to turn on these things (unrelated to yuor problem, but good featuree to have on):

===Shell Integration===
Convert To (right click): Off
Edit Tag (right click): Off
Popup information Tips: Off
Explorer ID Tag Property Page: Off
Explorer Columns: Off

[grendpeppy]

Re: Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

Yeah, I honestly don't get it...

I just want my music! :(

*cries*

[ChristinaS]

Re: Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

Well did you check those things?

Priority of conversion shoud be below normal.
No dsp effects.

Are you logged in as administrator?

[grendpeppy]

Re: Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

No DSP effects are set...

also, I don't understand why Priority would make a difference... I just don't get it... the older version worked fine, why is it like this now?

I'm getting 1.0x encoding

I think it may have something to do with privileges... I recently installed disk defragmentation software (perfeckdisk 7.0) and just now I tried to boot up SnagIt to take a snapshot of the performance of dBPowerAmp and it said I was lacking priviledges for something...

Where can I change this?
I want to Users in the settings and I am administrator...

Does anyone know anything about this? Thanks

[grendpeppy]

Re: Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

OK, some monkey business is going on...

I made sure I was administrator, I removed and re-added myself to the administrator group to be sure. I then started the 'server' service and rebooted.

On reboot, I ran snagit immediately and I did not have any errors on boot (no "you need more priviliges" error)... convinced that I found the solution, I then fired up dbpoweramp and tried converting... again, conversion was slow.... then I fired up snagit and I got the error again (that i need more priviliges)...

I think dbpoweramp may be doing something to make this happen...

anyhoo.... is there a chance I can get my hands on an earlier version of dbpoweramp and see if the same problem is there? am I the only one this is happening to?

ARGH, I want this problem solved :S

Peace


edit: ok, I got the problem fixed... it's nothing to do with administrator groups or anything like that... somehow, the PrintSpooler service was set to manual and it didn't start when it needed to. Setting it to automatic clears everything up...

[xoas]

Re: Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

Your dMC Configuration setting for registration suggests that you do not have a registered version of dMC installed and that you do not have an active trial version of Power Pack installed either. The dMC entry for a registered version should read "Registered: Yes."

If you have had a registered version of dBpowerAMP Music Converter any time in the past, you should not neeed to register again. Just follow LtData's instructions on getting a manual link (if you don't have the registration information for your previous version).

I would also ask whether you currently have any options for Power Pack options and whether you have tried conversions to some other format (such as ogg vorbis or .wma) to see whther conversion speeds are similarly slow for other codecs (you will need to install the appropriate codec(s) from Codec Central). If the Power Pack is not registered, you should not see any options for dsp effects, and you will not be able to change conversion priority (which is a Power Pack feature set in the window that displays the priority of your conversion).

I hope these ideas can help you along the process of resolving your problems.

Best wishes,
Bill

[ChristinaS]

Re: Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

also, I don't understand why Priority would make a difference... I just don't get it... the older version worked fine, why is it like this now?

I'm getting 1.0x encoding

Pritority of conversion may have been set to below normal way back when you had the original installation, whereas now it may have defaulted or been set to above normal. ABove Normal or Normal means dMC pretty much takes over teh CPU and you may have other processes which also want take over, so they fight over it. Check what's running at the same time in Task Manager.

Check what other software you have running simultanaeously, something may be interfering. Also if you have installed any kind of other conversion or player software it may be interfering.

Assuming you did actually remove all traces of your old installation, the new one now ought to be considered a trial version - and the configuration suggests as much.

Go through your powerpack settings (rocket in dMC window) to make sure the temp path is correct and accessible and you have write priviledges to it. Also to the destination folder for your conversion. Is it on your hd or is it on an external storage of sorts?

Are you using Win 2000 or XP or is it W98 or W ME? if 98 or ME there is additional software to install.

[grendpeppy]

Re: Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

Thanks everyone for your help. I more or less got my mp3 encoding speeds up to par (17-19x realtime when Pro frequency conversion is OFF, 14-15x realtime encoding when Pro frequency conversion is ON). I should note that I got these speeds when I set my Preset quality to Normal. Before I put it on Very High, which is when my encoding speed was crazy slow: 0.9-1.0x realtime (even tho Pro frequency conversion was set to OFF).

I used CDex to rip my music and it too has a kbps setting and a quality setting which I also set to Very High Quality q=0. CDex is still quite a bit faster converting wav -> mp3 compared to dBPowerAMP, however it uses a different (older) version of the LAME codec, and I'm using CDParanoia libraries aswell. I can't really compare these settings because I'm not sure what Very High quality in dBPowerAMP is and if that's similar to the setting in CDex.

Anyhow, I'm hoping my current speeds are the norm... they seem acceptable to me for now. I'm still wandering why conversion from ogg -> wav happened at 97x real-time speed. Maybe it's not the same uncompressing from a lossy format to wav, vs compressing wav to a lossy format...

What are your guys average real-time speeds for mp3 encoding via LAME??
Also, how can I tweak or improve the performance of dBPowerAMP? I saw somewhere that I could set the amount of RAM to be used by dBPowerAMP in on the fly conversion (it's default was set to [Auto] but you could set it manually), but I forgot where I saw the setting... I think more than anything that the next upgrade of dBPowerAMP needs a new interface to make finding all the settings and explaining what they are in one place. Other than that, I love this program...

[LtData]

Re: Mp3 conversion is EXTREMELY slow...

In CDGrab (Audio CD Input), click the rocket Icon and adjust the RAM size then.

Also, Professional Frequency Conversion is only used when the sample rate is changed. The difference in encoding speeds is probably due to other factors if the sample rate is the same on the input and output file. And yes, encoding to a WAV file is always faster than encoding to a compressed file, whether lossy or lossless. 17x-19x sounds normal for most conversions.

I do admit the PowerPack settings are in two different place, but that is because one group of settings is for dMC itself and one is only for Audio CD Input. dMC Configuration is a little odd to get to, I will admit.

Also, the higher compression rate used on any format (mp3, FLAC, etc.), the longer it takes to compress it and the more CPU it uses to decode and encode it.