Conversions slower than they used to be

[Cuzoe]

I play wma files on a portable music player, primarily ripping from a cd to wav and then converting to wma before synching with my player. In the past my encoding from wav to wma was steady between about 28-33x real time encoding, with cpu usage at 100%. Now it is steady between 6-9x real time encoding, still with 100% cpu usage. Can anybody tell me why my speed seems to be throttled now but still uses all of the cpu?

These are my relevant system specs:

Athlon 64 3500+
1gb PC-4000 DDR
WD Raptor 74gb

(no background processes, computer not connected to internet for paranoia of spy/adware, i download on my laptop and transfer to it using external firewire hard drive)

[LtData]

Re: Conversions slower than they used to be

1. Do you still have the powerpack installed or has it expired?
2. Have you changed any important system settings since this happened? When you look at the CPU usage in Task Manager, is dMC almost always getting around 100% or is something else stealing some?

[ChristinaS]

Re: Conversions slower than they used to be

Try setting the conversion priority to below normal. Otherwise it may both be slower and use up all the CPU.

[Cuzoe]

Re: Conversions slower than they used to be

I never had the power pack installed, or at least I didn't know about it. Is it installed initially for a trial period? If so then I guess that's the problem eh? In task manager dMC is getting all of the cpu. I've tried below normal and it still behaves the same. Generally I don't do anything else while it is running but when I have in the past and now, the decrease in speed was minimal, say from 30x to 28x (before) or 9x to 8x (currently). What exactly does the powerpack do?

[ChristinaS]

Re: Conversions slower than they used to be

I never had the power pack installed, or at least I didn't know about it. Is it installed initially for a trial period? If so then I guess that's the problem eh? In task manager dMC is getting all of the cpu. I've tried below normal and it still behaves the same. Generally I don't do anything else while it is running but when I have in the past and now, the decrease in speed was minimal, say from 30x to 28x (before) or 9x to 8x (currently). What exactly does the powerpack do?

It's not the PowerPack that allows the prority of conversions to be set.

The PowerPAck has many extra features like Professional Conversion, ID Tag editting and extra DSP effects, and now it also contains the mp3 codec and license to use it for encoding purposes.

I don't know why your conversions are slower now than before. Could it be your'e converting different files types from before? or to different file types? Depending on what you're doing speed will differ.

[neilthecellist]

Re: Conversions slower than they used to be

spyware/adware?

[ChristinaS]

Re: Conversions slower than they used to be

You may also be due for a defragmentation of your hard disk.

[Spoon]

Re: Conversions slower than they used to be

Check you are converting to the same frequency as the source audio, changing frequencies can be slower. Look out for an action: 'rendering for DSP effects' if you see this then more work is being does.