Hardware rendering of AVI/DVD in PicturesToExe Deluxe 5.1

[Igor]

Since PicturesToExe Deluxe 5.1 we use hardware rendering of video card for AVI and DVD-Video on all steps of preparing video:

- Rendering/composing of picture of a slide (version 5.0 and later).

- Post-processing of video (since new version 5.1).

Probably PicturesToExe is a first slideshow maker program on Windows which uses hardware acceleration of video card for video post-processing in DVD creation.

Additionally VideoBuilder in version 5.1 uses benefits of dual-core CPUs for speeding up encoding of DVD-Video disc. It gives 40% speedup.

Overall benefit: VideoBuilder in version 5.1 encodes DVD-Video disc in 3-4 times faster than previous version on same PC.

As a result, encoding of 60 second's slideshow takes only 30 seconds on Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz (E6750) CPU and NVIDIA Geforce 8600GT 512 MB video card.

[wideangle]

Just extending the topic a bit when talking about processors and graphics cards :

I've seen adverts for computers with dual graphics cards.

EG a current advert has one machine with TWO 256Mb 8600GT cards and another machine with a single 320Mb 8800GTS card.

I guess this is 'gamers' territory but it made we wonder which of the two approaches best suits P2E for speed of processing.

[Conflow]

Tom and Wideangle,

The following may be interest to you both:-

Laptp Computers (Rerun),

I see that the subject of Laptop Computers and PCs has raised its head again ~

The 'Links' below may be of interest to many Forum Members as they were derived

from the recent "Digital Life Expo~New York 2007" which was the Showcase for all

New Laptops and PC's and other exotic devices.

I hope you have time to 'drill-down' through the many Links and in particular the

Voodoo Site has all the Reviews on the new Laptops and the HP Site shows off the

new Blackbird PC ~ thats some animal of a PC.

Brian.Conflow.

Note: These Links need Full Screen Display.

Note: Recommend you look at the CNet Blackbird Video in Link.

Link:-

http://laptoping.com/voodoo-envy-m152.html

Link:-

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/hp-blackb...ag=nefdprod.rev

Attached thumbnail(s) Reduced 71% 338 x 343 (52.27k)//

[felix1]

Since PicturesToExe Deluxe 5.1 we use hardware rendering of video card for AVI and DVD-Video on all steps of preparing video:

- Rendering/composing of picture of a slide (version 5.0 and later).

- Post-processing of video (since new version 5.1).

Probably PicturesToExe is a first slideshow maker program on Windows which uses hardware acceleration of video card for video post-processing in DVD creation.

Additionally VideoBuilder in version 5.1 uses benefits of dual-core CPUs for speeding up encoding of DVD-Video disc. It gives 40% speedup.

Overall benefit: VideoBuilder in version 5.1 encodes DVD-Video disc in 3-4 times faster than previous version on same PC.

As a result, encoding of 60 second's slideshow takes only 30 seconds on Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz (E6750) CPU and NVIDIA Geforce 8600GT 512 MB video card.

--------------

I absolutely agree with what Igor has said here. I just purchased a new computer with Dual Core Duo and a NVIDIA 512 MB graphics card and the first time I rendered and burned a two-show DVD, I was utterly amazed to watch the slides fly by on the screen while being rendered. The two shows were about 17 minutes each, and the total DVD burning process took slightly less than 30 minutes. That's almost a 1-1 correspondence between shows time and burn time. Wonderful!

[Igor]

VideoBuilder in PicturesToExe 5.1 utilizies up to two cores of CPU. Quad core CPUs will be used in future versions when VideoBuilder will create HD-DVD/Blu-Ray discs.

Tom,

As I've understood you used integrated video card and fast dual-core CPU? In this case CPU waits video card. If you use fast CPU, you need to use enough fast video card to load fast CPU. For very fast CPU, as Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66 GHz, it should be at least Geforce 8600GT 256 MB.

I think no real need to use SLI video cards for PicturesToExe. This video system extremally fast and will wait work of CPU. But there are no 4 GHz dual-core CPUs at this moment and SLI video cards will not work in full power.

[potwnc]

Quad core CPUs will be used in future versions when VideoBuilder will create HD-DVD/Blu-Ray discs.

Igor, can you give any prediction of the time when this will happen?

Ray

[Igor]

Ray,

I plan in late 2008.

[Igor]

Tom,

I would like to suggest use PteShow as benchmark:

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/show/PteShow_sources.zip (8 MB, sources)

PteShow (1:26)

VideoBuilder in PicturesToExe 5.1

Choose "Create MPEG2 files" only option and DVD menu disabled.

- Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (2.66 GHz), 2 GB RAM, NVIDIA Geforce 8600GT 512 MB, Windows XP SP2

TV System: PAL

0:46

- AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 1 GB RAM, NVIDIA Geforce 6800 128 MB, Windows XP SP2

TV System: PAL

2:06

- AMD Athlon 1600+, 512 MB RAM, ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128 MB, Windows XP SP2

TV System: PAL

3:56

[Carol Steele]

Tom,

I would like to suggest use PteShow as benchmark:

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/show/PteShow_sources.zip (8 MB, sources)

PteShow (1:26)

VideoBuilder in PicturesToExe 5.1

Choose "Create MPEG2 files" only option and DVD menu disabled.

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.67mHtz/nVidia GeForce 6700GT with 256Mb RAM/Windows XP x64 Pro [sP2]/8Gb RAM

Time to complete 43 secs

[cjdnzl]

Benchmark program run on a Dell 1520 laptop, Intel Duo 1.8 GHz, 3 GB ram, Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT and XP SP2 took 1m:13s.

Time-adjusted for a faster processor at 2.66 GHz (1m 13 s *1.8/2.66) yields 49.4 seconds, which suggests that the speed is CPU-dependent. I guess the 3.4 seconds difference with Igor's figure is due to either the 64-bit XP or maybe this 8600 M GT chip being the mobile version.

[Lin Evans]

I tested with two of our systems. Apparently the processor makes a great deal of difference because even with my very fast development system it took 4 minutes 28 seconds to do both render and burn.

(1) Intel pentium 4 running at 3.20 Ghz with two megs RAM and ATI Radeon Pro 9800 with 128 meg RAM

4 minutes 28 sseconds with 12x burn

133 seconds make mpeg II

(2) Intel Pentium 4 running at 3.00 Ghz with two megs Ram and overclocked Invidia 8600 GT with 512 meg RAM.

4 minutes 23 seconds with 4x burn on RW media

88 seconds make mpeg II

So having a dual core processor make an amazing amount of difference in the speed I think.

Best regards,

Lin

[frets3]

Hi, Lin,

The times reported above appear to be for mpeg-2 rendering only (menu disabled and no burn). Your Pentium 4's should do quite well.

Regards,

David

[Lin Evans]

Hi Tom, David,

Yes I included the burn time so I could get a feel for the overall time necessary without actually doing a test with a larger file. The actual MPEG II creation times I've included on the original post in bold.

Even though my 3.2 Ghz system is faster and has a much faster hard disk than my Gateway Pentium 4 running at 3.0 Ghz it's still much slower because of the difference between the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 meg and the overclocked Nvidia 512 Meg 8600 GT. But that 40% boost from dual core processors is a major factor it seems.

The dual core processors make a great deal of difference apparently since the Pentium 4's running at 3 Ghz and 3.2 Ghz take considerably longer than systems running the modern processors. The Overclocked 512 Meg Nvidia 8600 GT is very fast and even with the video card speed the actual time compared to the fastest benchmarks so far is about double (43 seconds versus 88 seconds) so Igor's benchmark of a 40% increase in speed with dual core on his system sounds very reasonable.

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin,

I think maybe you are including DVD burn time, which the benchmark doesn't include. Pentium 4 is an older processor though, and Core 2 Duo processors are the standard these days.

MPEG-2 Encoding Benchmark Test

"PteShow (1:26)

VideoBuilder in PicturesToExe 5.1

Choose "Create MPEG2 files" only option and DVD menu disabled."

I also think the benchmark include default project settings with interlaced* video.

*If I remember correctly interlaced takes longer because of the split field/even odd calculations.

Tom

[nobeefstu]

Lin,

(2) Intel Pentium 4 running at 3.00 Ghz with two megs Ram and overclocked Invidia 8600 GT with 512 meg RAM.

4 minutes 23 seconds with 4x burn on RW media

88 seconds make mpeg II

I have a almost similar PC configuration as yours ... so I thought for a comparison check.

The Mpeg2 compilation time is basically comparable with yours ... but your burn time with '4x burn on RW media' is way out of character with my burn durations using the same RW media/4X.

* XP/32 bit Intel Pentium 4 @ 2.8Ghz with 512mb Ram - XFX/nVidia 7600GT w/ 256 mb Ram

* 2 minutes 14 seconds with 4x burn on RW media

* 96 seconds - mpeg2

Just thought you would like to know ... and check to see whats causing your extended burn time as compared to mine.

[Lin Evans]

Hi NBS,

I tried it again this time with a RW which had already been formatted and had the original slideshow already burned once and the total time was 2 minutes 32 seconds. Go figure! I've long since stopped trying to figure out why computers sometimes respond differently to identical situations. I'll try it again with my 3.2 Ghz systems and 128 meg Radeon 9800 Pro and see if it changes. It seemed to hang at the 99 percent level for an extended period last time.

This time with the ATI Radeon Pro and 3.2 Ghz system (which has a faster hard disk) it only took 2 min 24 seconds including the burn. Last time with this system I used a 16x Sony media and this time I used the same 4x RW media as with the Nvidia system. Again - go figure. It appears that the last time the system must have not have liked the media and perhaps spent an inordinate amount of time with analysis before actually doing the burn. Very strange but obviously having nothing to do with PTE but rather system and media variables.

Best regards,

Lin