Encoding Issue - taking forever on a 8CPU

[smcpoland]

Hi there...

Encoding Issue, taking forever...

This is my first rip with R15...

As you will see in the first image - the first two encoded very quickly, the next 8 sat there for a long time, and in the second image it finally did complete.

Not sure what I was expecting but I don't think the intention was for a single album rip to take 13 minutes with 8 cores being held but not seemingly doing anything...

It is also noted that size of course matters...but on this album the tracks they are all relatively the same size.

Nothing else is running on the system...

I've done the same album again with hand written results as follows:

Start rip @ t=00:00
t01 complete t=00:40
t02 complete t=01:08

8 cores now in use - CPU = 0% from task manager
tracks 3-10 are sitting at "CPU Encoding at 99%"

This is where the problem starts - 8 full minutes before the next encode finishes...

t03 complete t=10:05
t04 complete t=13:05
t05 complete t=13:06
t06 complete t=13:15
t07 complete t=13:07
t08 complete t=13:05
t09 complete t=13:06
t10 complete t=12:50
t11 complete t=13:06



My system:
Intel 8 core
16GB RAM
SSD hard drives
NAS storage
Win 8.1 x64





Happy to help/debug to resolve this issue...

Another question, is is possible to turn off MultiCPU encoding to test this? I can't find this option anywhere...

Thanks and regards
Seán

[Spoon]

Re: Encoding Issue - taking forever on a 8CPU

>NAS storage

This will be the issue, set the output folder as a local drive and it will not have issues.

[smcpoland]

Re: Encoding Issue - taking forever on a 8CPU

OK...

though it would be nice to have some explanation for everyone. My computer, switch and NAS are all operating at 1Gb/s.

Why does this happen when using NAS storage rather than local storage? Who even uses local storage for their music rips?

If this is an impossible solution to fix, rather than clogging up the forums with people likely to ask the same question, why not add a MsgBox that says - storing on NAS will severely slow down encoding...

Nothing else on my system seems to have this issue...

Sorry for being a pain, but it would be nice to know.

Thanks and best regards
Seán

PS. Back to a previous question, is it possible to turn OFF Multi CPU encoding - it would be faster in a NAS environment.

Thanks again

[Spoon]

Re: Encoding Issue - taking forever on a 8CPU

>why does this happen when using NAS storage rather than local storage?

I believe the nas share is stalling, why it does this I not know, all I know is a nas share should operate 100% the same as a local HDD. We do not have specific code for writing to a network share, it is the same simple code to write to local hdds, it is this call (a system call) which is stalling, so the issue is deep in the system, not at application level.

There is a DSP effect 'CPU Force' which might help, but CD ripper will always use multi cpus as it is designed not to halt ripping whilst encoding.

>why not add a MsgBox that says - storing on NAS will severely slow down encoding...

Most people do not have this incompatibility. Network shares are based a protocol SMB, it is a Microsoft protocol, all linux based nases use something like SAMBA to emulate it, well, when running audiosafe and working with millions of files, then holes in SAMBA become apparent, it is not 100%, unlike it would be if you had one Windows machine doing a network share to a 2nd Windows machine.

[Dat Ei]

Re: Encoding Issue - taking forever on a 8CPU

Hey smcpoland,

I think there are several reasons for this loss of performance:

- Even though you have an 1GBit network and 1GBit network components, this does not mean that all your devices are capable to deliver or to handle 1Gbit of data. Especially low cost NAS Systems often have CPUs with low performance, what will lead to a smaller transfer rate than theoretically possible. This is especially the case if you have a RAID5 or RAID6 configuration implemented in software.

- The next point is SMB/samba. This protocol has alot of overhead and does not like too small data packages.

My experience is to rip on a local drive and then to copy/move the data to my NAS. If you copy by ftp instead of smb you might see a better Performance.


Dat Ei

[smcpoland]

Re: Encoding Issue - taking forever on a 8CPU

Many thanks Spoon,

Appreciate the clarity of the explanation.

Following on from Dat Ei has said below, what about the possibility of adding Post Rip Commands to the ripper?

For example:

rip to Local - as current
Post Rip Command - Move to NAS
Post Rip Command - Copy to NAS 2 (secure backup)

Yes I could use a batch file or FTP, but much nicer if I could run a single workflow which worked every time. These batched commands could be executed (by checkbox) either Sync or Async to the ripping process.

Just a thought for an addition to the product to make my (and possibly others) life easier.

Again many thanks
regards
Seán

[Spoon]

Re: Encoding Issue - taking forever on a 8CPU

There is a DSP effect 'Run External'.

[Dat Ei]

Re: Encoding Issue - taking forever on a 8CPU

Hey Seán,

I keep one copy of my data on my local hdd and one on my NAS. I use the Windows immanent copy tool "robocopy" to synchronize my local folders with the ones on the NAS. Therefor I have written a small batch, which I start by a double click on a icon on my desktop.

This approach gives me the possibilty, to edit and postprocess the ID3 tags locally and to synchronize the data again after finishing the postporcessing successfully.


Dat Ei