ShowSqueeze Post Processing

[wayne1935]

I have recorded several 3 hr movies from HD TV. These files are around 25 GB and I compress them to about a 2.5 GB DIVX file. This takes about 6 hours on my AMD 64 3000+ with a GB of the fastest DDR RAM.

I do this compression in off hours but I've noticed that the process is using 100% of my CPU and I think I turned off everything that might be running in the background. However, there are times when I'd prefer to do the recoding during normal hours. I was debating going to an x2 processor so I could do the compression while doing other things.

I guess I'm asking what is my best approach for speeding up the recoding? Max the MSI Neo2 board with a single core processor or go for the dual core? I've seen in this board that ShowSqueeze takes over both cores anyway. I also have room for 2 GB more of RAM on the board without sacrificing my current RAM.

TIA,

Wayne

[cmcquistion]

I think you might be under the impression that the Showsqueeze process is sucking all your CPU power. While this is correct, it is running at low CPU priority, so other programs running at normal priority should be able to run just fine, so it isn't as though you can't use your computer, duing this time.

One thing you can do to speed up compression is to Streamsnip the files, first. If you have Streamsnip enabled, it will always run before compression jobs.

The Showsqueeze process has been written to utilize multiple CPU's, if available, so it will run faster on a dual-core machine, and it will use most or all available CPU power to do it. Again, however, this is running at low CPU priority, so it isn't as though you can't do other things with your computer, while it is running.

I've had 1 GB of RAM in my server and when I upgraded to 2 GB, I saw no improvement in BTV, even in Showsqueezing. I would say that if you have 1 GB of RAM, already, there isn't much need to upgrade for BTV's sake.

The Athlon X2's are dropping in price, so if you want more CPU power, that is a not-too-expensive option.

[HomeyFour]

I've just purchased a Core 2 Duo processor, although I am typically an AMD fan. It looks like in the short-term, the Intel chips are blasting the AMD's out of the water when it comes to multimedia applications. I'll know more pretty soon with some HD->DivX conversions.