Another Slow Conversion

[B_Dub]

I read another thread about slow conversions using the 11.X DMC. I read it all and tried their solutions and it didn't work. I went back and used 10.X and I don't have the problem. The most I get is realtime .3x. If I do a straight rip I can sometime get .4x. I've tried a series of other things as in converting to different drive than source, altering all settings in DMC/Power Pack, increased/decreased virtual memory as well as ram, overclocked/underclocked. Unfortunetly nothing I do increases speed it only decreases. Anyone got any gruvey ideas? I am totally all ears dudes and dudettes!

[ChristinaS]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

Did you reboot at all?

Is it slow when using dMC Audio CD Input only or also for regular conversions?

And do you have Slow ripping in dMC Audio CD Input > big button Options ? What ripping speed shows?

Priority of Conversion set to Below Normal?

And what format are you ripping to? Any DSP effects?

[B_Dub]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

yes I have rebooted each time for each version I tried.

The 11.X versions are slow for both file conversion from HDD or CD. I never use DSP effects. The ripping speed varies from 1-26.8 despite me setting it to 40x or maximum. For options I have been doing VBR 32-320 no presets CRC and original, not sure what bit resevoire is so I don't fiddle with it... yet :teufel8: .

if I set the priority below normal it pretty much quits on me. I have to set it to normal to get the slow speed I get,

I rip/convert it to MP3

[Wayne]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

Do you have Rip to RAM selected? What sort of speed do you get if you perform a test conversion or rip to wav?

[B_Dub]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

Yes I do rip to ram and for the amount of ram I tried incremental increases in the sizes but found that auto works the best.

and for test I haven't gotten around to that yet, this is the fourth system I've hand to construct in 2 weeks, I'm out in the booneys and and some how despite the surge protector working I've lost a couple of systems and drives. So right now I only have 2 albums to listen to...... not enough by far LOL! so I'm more concerned with getting another couple of albums before I start to refiddle.

[xoas]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

What formats are you converting from and at what settings (bits, bitrate, frequency, channels)? What Windows version are you using? What are your system specs (processor, speed, ram, available hard drive space)?

I think you should start with a complete uninstall/re-install as described here:

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=6828

This has been reported to help and it will give us a designated well understood starting spot and will safeguard against any side-effects of your previous efforts.

Then do some test conversions of various files, checking different formats. These times will be faster than your conversion times but they will give you an idea about how fast dMC is reading your files (the first step in the conversion process). A test conversion of a wave file should take place in well over 100x real time. Test conversions of other formats will be slower but should still be quick (usually 40-60x real time). If your test conversion times seem at all slow, please report your results for wave and for any other formats you have tried. You can also try a test conversion from cd.

To do a Test Conversion, proceed as if you were converting to mp3 but where you designate mp3 as the format for your output file select "Test Conversion (No Write)".
This does not produce an output file. If the test conversion is successful, the window that displays the progress of your conversion will display "Finished" and you will see an indication of the conversion speed in the lower left hand corner of that window (displayed in multiples of real time).

After noting the speed of these test conversions, if test conversion speeds seem ok, try converting a few files to standard (16 bit, 44.1 kHz, 2 channel) PCM wave and note the converting speeds. Try ripping a few tracks to wave and try converting from a few different formats to wave (unless you only deal in a single format).

If any of these still seem slow, report on the test conversions you tried and the conversions/rips you tried and the speeds of each, identifying each source format you tried. Also be sure to respond to the questions raised in the first paragraph.

Edit: Your last post occurred while I was working on this. What is frying your systems/drives? Are you sure your systems have enough power to support the devices you are using? Are you sure your system is adequately cooled? It seems to me that these issues could be responsible for your problems. In that case, you might see similar performance issues in other progrgams that use much operating capacity.

Best wishes,
Bill

[B_Dub]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

I've tried all of this already, numerous times, minus the testing converting

[xoas]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

OK.
First, do you think any of the considerations posted in the Edit I added apply? If they do, you should see slow performance in other programs placing moderate to heavy demands on your processor. These might include graphics, photo editing programs or computer games.

Assuming the problem is not with your system, then how sure are you that you have dMC restored to initial settings? If you are sure that you have not made changes which might have added to performance problems, then go ahead and do the test conversions and, if called for, other trial conversions, and report the results.

If you have any doubt about whether your efforts to solve your problem might have had a negative effect, I would advise that you try the complte uninstall/re-install process that I suggested. Assuming you have tried this before and it didn't fix anything, it will still insure that we are starting from a designated spot. This is important for trying to diagnose the source for your problem.

Best wishes,
Bill

[Spoon]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

Try converting the same .wav file - try both dMC r11.5 and R10, then compare the mp3 files (from using dmc r11.5), it will tell if there are any differences.

[B_Dub]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

I tried a test rip and conversion of one my all-time favourite albums, since I've ripped it alot now and I'm used to the time it takes. and the tests on 11.x start at 26x RTE and work their way up to 39x RTE. same as 10. When I do an actual rip and convert on 10, it's a little higher but when I do the same process for 11.X it always goes at the .3x-.4x RTE.

When I uninstall it I both use JV16 1.5 and manually go through the registry making sure everything is out using snapshots as a roadmap, to get every last bit out. Still get the same prob.

I'm using an AMD Thunderbird 900, 384MB of ram, SB Audigy Platinum EX (the first one). I don't have anything else running and just for fun I tried running certain other programs that I run cnostantly to see if it does cause a negative effect (antivirus, firewall, diskeeper, solitaire and web surfing all at once) and even while I have them all going and eating up the processor it doesn't slow it down much, teeters between .2x RTE-.3xRTE.

Is it possible that the 11.X versions are moer dependant upon SSE1-2 and 3D Now! registers from the CPU if that's the case than that would solve my problem as this is one of the first gen Thunderbird's and there is no SSE2 and the 3D Now! isn't as efficent as in the XP or 64Bit lines.

[xoas]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

I wouldn't know about the question you raise about the different versions being more dependent upon the registers you mention. If Spoon responds, trust him on this implicitly. (My curent hunch is that this is not the case, read on).

This thread talks about some ways of testing for overheating (which may not be the source of your problem, but I am bothered (conceptually only) by your mention of your recent losses of systems and drives):

http://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?t=8104

(I am now a bit more skeptical that your issue lies here, read on).

Have you tried ripping to standard wave on both systems? What conversion speeds do you get (on both dMC 10 and 11.5)?

Are your mp3 settings still vbr 32-320 kbs? Have you tried a more sedate setting (alt-preset extreme, cbr 192 kbs, or such)?

Your test conversion rips do not seem to be slow. If they were test conversions of wave files from your hard drive they would be. So this tends to suggest that either DSP effects or your mp3 settings might be issues. You might want to check these possibilities out.

Best wishes,
Bill

[LtData]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

It might not hurt to double-check your IDE settings. Go into Control Panel --> System --> Hardware --> Device Manager. Locate your primary and secondary IDE/ATAPI controllers, and make sure both the master and slave are both set to "DMA if available". If they are set to "PIO Only" and the culprit drive is on the secondary channel, cancel out of the properties dialog, right-click on the secondary channel, uninstall it, and then click Action --> "Scan for Hardware Changes". This should redetect the secondary channel and then auto-set the drive to "DMA if available".

If you were wondering why I mention this, or if it happened to you, its due to a "feature" in Windows XP. If a CD is read that has a lot of errors, the drive's setting is dropped to "PIO Only".

Also, I don't believe dMC uses SSE1/SSE2/3D Now! in any form. There are some Ogg Vobis encoders that use these features, but I am pretty sure dMC itself doesn't use them.

[B_Dub]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

well my other system doesn't power up anymore, looks like the MB fried, took a HD with it. On this system all UDMA and and IDE settings are at 5/100MBps, nothing is overheating... I'm a thermal freak, since I've moved up here I've been monitoring lots of my stuff for thermal anomolies, discrepencies as well as idle temps. true everything is running a smidge higher (1-2 C) but everything is running cooler than factory standard.

[xoas]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

For what its worth, I've run some tests.
I took 2 separate tracks from a cd. The first was a little over a minute in length. The second was 2 minutes in length. Here are the procedures and the real time encong for each operation for file1 (first) and file 2 (second):

Test convert (test rip) from cd 16x 17x
Convert (rip) to wave 16x 14x
Convert (rip) to mp3 (192 cbr) 6x 5x
Convert (rip) to mp3 (32-320 vbr) 3x 3.1x

Test convert wave file (from 2nd step) 861x 806x
convert wave to mp3 (cbr 192 kbs) 8x 8x
convert wave to mp3 (32-320 kbs vbr) 3.6x 3.8x

When I first started last night, with an open graphics program and during my periodical virus scan, test rip speeds from cd were on the order of 13-14x real time encoding, and mp3 encoding speeds were often 1/2 (sometimes less) than the speeds reported above with occasional mp3 conversions getting down to 0.4 to 0.5x real time encoding.
Conversion to wave was not as impaired as was conversion to mp3.

For the record, I am running a 1.3 mHz Celeron Windows XP home edition SP2 with 384 MB ram. All conversions were done with dMC 11.5.

Perhaps these results may give you a basis for looking at your issue.

Best wishes,
Bill

[B_Dub]

Re: Another Slow Conversion

yeah I'm getting to the point to where I think it's my powersupply, didn't bother to look but I've got one that's way under rated for this system, not much choice in the matter though, but in a month I'll have my server back up and going and I'll just rip it from there and download it to my client, that oughta work out much better.


defenitly though, thanks for the effort and time, much appreciated!