Setting up Nero for m4a codec

[JulianL]

I'm following the m4a codec setup instructions (from file /Program Files/Illustrate/dBpoweramp/Help/Codec/mp4/help.htm after you install the codec). It's all perfectly clear and I've set this up before successfully but if you go into the Nero zip archive there are actually two executables, neroAacEnc.exe and neroAacEnc_SSE.exe.

It seems pretty obvious to me that the _SSE version is the encoder optimised to use SSE instructions wherever possible and so I would expect this to give a huge performance benefit for any SSE-capable CPU (and that's definitely all the modern desktop Intel and AMD CPUs).

Has anyone successfully used the _SSE version? Is the advice in the instructions to use the non SSE version just erring on the side of caution and is there any reason not to use the _SSE version (for me this would be with an AMD 5200+ CPU)?

- Julian

[LtData]

Re: Setting up Nero for m4a codec

I think with the last version I tried to use the SSE version, there was a bug where it did not work with AMD CPUs. You can try the SSE decoder, but the normal decoder is pretty fast itself.

[JulianL]

Re: Setting up Nero for m4a codec

I think with the last version I tried to use the SSE version, there was a bug where it did not work with AMD CPUs. You can try the SSE decoder, but the normal decoder is pretty fast itself.

Thanks. I have an AMD CPU so that would catch me out too. Just so I know what to look for if/when I try myself with the latest version, can you remember how the bug manifested itself when you tried with the previous version? Was it pretty obvious that it was failing (error message? lockup?) or did it appear to work but generate corrupted or no output?

As you say, the normal decoder is pretty fast so it's no big deal, partly I'm just curious and also thinking that if it does work then I might as well use it.

I have other stuff I need to get done in the next couple of days so I think I'll let this thread run for another 24 hours or so and then, as long as no one comes out and confirms that this definitely won't work with the latest version, then I'll give it a try.

- Julian

[LtData]

Re: Setting up Nero for m4a codec

It refused to encode anything when I tried to use the version with the bug, so it was very obvious.

[stube]

Re: Setting up Nero for m4a codec

AMD added support for SSE2 with the introduction of their Opteron and Athlon 64 ranges of AMD64 64-bit CPUs in 2003.

Well, that's what Wikipedia says.

[LtData]

Re: Setting up Nero for m4a codec

Yes, but there was a bug with the encoder that prevented it from working on AMD machines for some reason.