DVD Compilation Time

[cjdnzl]

I have just bought the De Luxe DVD option for 7.5.4, and compiled my first DVD show. I normally only compile exe's so this is a first for me!

But, it took around three hours or more to produce the DVD, which surprised me somewhat, considering the speed at which exe's compile, a few seconds in this instance.

Ok, the computer is older, but is a 3.3GHz P4 Pentium cpu, still pretty fast even today; memory is 4 GB, and when I checked the cpu usage it was around 50 - 60%, so not bottlenecked there. GPU is an nVidia Geforce 6600GT, again older, but not too slow, it will run everything I throw at it.

So, is this 3-hour compile normal, or is there something I have overlooked? I changed nothing in the setup options, just altered the title on the menu page.

The show is comprised of 99 images, all sized to 1080 x 1920 or narrower depending on the image, no zoom/pan/rotate, slide duration 9 seconds, 3 seconds dissolve, and the exe file size was about 61 MB.

Any comments gratefully received.

Colin

[Lin Evans]

Hi Colin,

It would be exceedingly difficult to "guess" about this. Perhaps the "best" way to compare times would be for several of us to use the identical file and each compile the same way. That "seems" exceedingly long to me, but rather than "guesstimate" why don't we pick a file which is a bit shorter and perhaps post the PTE file and several of us can perform the same operation then we can compare notes. I do know that the "speed" of the DVD and type of media play into the overall compile/burn time so we would need to all agree on a "type" for comparison.

What you might do meanwhile is twofold, first check the write speed of your DVD (so many "X") and then compare to the speed of the media you are using. I suspect that the answer will be perhaps a combination of the actual media speed and the DVD writer speed, but we may not know until we can test with several operators. I know that I have widely different write times depending on whether I'm using one of my internal DVD drives or an external USB drive and also whether it's a "portable" combination burner such as my combo BluRay, DVD, CD writer (very, very slow) or one of my conventional CD/DVD internal writers. If there is a bottleneck, it's more likely to be there than with either your video card or your PC. Both appear more than adequate for optimal speed.

What is the differential between "write time" to the MP4 and "burn time" for the DVD?

If you have a PTE file which is somewhat smaller that you could post, perhaps several of us could burn a DVD and then post both the total time, and differentiate the MP4 write time from the actual burn time.

Best regards,

Lin

[cjdnzl]

Hi Colin,

It would be exceedingly difficult to "guess" about this. Perhaps the "best" way to compare times would be for several of us to use the identical file and each compile the same way. That "seems" exceedingly long to me, but rather than "guesstimate" why don't we pick a file which is a bit shorter and perhaps post the PTE file and several of us can perform the same operation then we can compare notes. I do know that the "speed" of the DVD and type of media play into the overall compile/burn time so we would need to all agree on a "type" for comparison.

What you might do meanwhile is twofold, first check the write speed of your DVD (so many "X") and then compare to the speed of the media you are using. I suspect that the answer will be perhaps a combination of the actual media speed and the DVD writer speed, but we may not know until we can test with several operators. I know that I have widely different write times depending on whether I'm using one of my internal DVD drives or an external USB drive and also whether it's a "portable" combination burner such as my combo BluRay, DVD, CD writer (very, very slow) or one of my conventional CD/DVD internal writers. If there is a bottleneck, it's more likely to be there than with either your video card or your PC. Both appear more than adequate for optimal speed.

What is the differential between "write time" to the MP4 and "burn time" for the DVD?

If you have a PTE file which is somewhat smaller that you could post, perhaps several of us could burn a DVD and then post both the total time, and differentiate the MP4 write time from the actual burn time.

Best regards,

Lin

Hello Lin,

Thanks for the quick reply there. Perhaps it's a little overkill for several members to burn DVDs as a comparison, I did think that a time versus size ratio might be possible, if a few members gave their times and sizes for their compilations.

I don't think it's my DVD drive, a Liteon of fairly recent vintage, as when I burn copies of the program from the ISO file, it takes only 4 or 5 minutes to write the disk, at the 8x speed limit of the DVD blanks.

A few more replies might prove helpful, my thanks to any who do reply.

Regards,

Colin

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Colin

An old chestnut springs to mind. was your anti virus running when you were burning? What operating system are you using? What were the parameters set in video burners Project Options, I know you said you didn't change anything, but depending what you set PO to initially when you compliled the show can affect the default for PO in video burner. On my system W7 64bit PTE 7.07, I would expect a maximum of 30 minutes for a 60MB sized exe. Dawn a new member has been having problems with 7.5 but this could have been narrowed down to her OS, W8, with which support have confirmed a problem with VB. A few screen shots showing how your burn procedure progresses would help.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[davegee]

Colin,

Lin's suggestion of a standard test is IMHO the best way forward. If just two alternating standard HD images are used and repeated say 50 times with a standard Dissolve that might form the basis of a test? I would advocate splitting the test into two parts - ISO and BURN. Both of these can be done from PTE's Video Builder.In your case I would respectfully suggest that you system is somewhat "dated"?

DG

[coopernatural]

Colin,

Might be time for a PC upgrade.Have a peep at your CPU benchmark.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Mobile+Intel+Pentium+4+3.33GHz&id=1378

Rather than give the old machine a Tangi funeral, it does have a Liteon burner.

A useful utility and only for liteon burners is 'KProbe'. A neat util that will let you find the best dvd media for your setup.

http://club.myce.com/f96/big-kprobe2-thread-93944/

Slow burn time might be down to machine being setup in pio mode and should be set to dma mode.

Max burn speed will be restricted by the use of 40 as opposed to 80 pin ide lead to the drive.

It sounds like you can burn other things fine,so it's probably down to your old world PC.

Davy

[davegee]

Hi Colin,

Further to the above, I have created a Standard Template which anyone can try and get a comparative set of timings for creating an ISO File and Burning the ISO File to DVD.

The details are as follows:

Project Size - 1920x1080 (16:9)

128 Slides - 2 Images (2112x1405) repeated with Pan, Zoom, Rotate and 3D Turnover. That's 8 Slides - repeated 16 times to make the 128 slides.

Total time of show - just over 10 Minutes.

A 1 Minute audio file was added in Loop Mode to keep the file size down.

The resulting EXE is 4.39Mb.

The ISO File is 558Mb and took 3m 15s to complete.

Burning the ISO file using PTE Video Builder took 1m 15s.

Burning a HD 1920x1080 MPEG4 for TV using the 1920x1080 Preset at High Quality took 22m and its file size is 1.730Gb.

I am pretty sure that there are many systems out there which are faster than mine.

I have PM'ed you a link to download a "Backup in ZIP" of the STANDARD TEMPLATE.

Anyone else wanting to download it can PM me and I'll do the same.

DG

[cjdnzl]

Hi Colin

An old chestnut springs to mind. was your anti virus running when you were burning? What operating system are you using? What were the parameters set in video burners Project Options, I know you said you didn't change anything, but depending what you set PO to initially when you compliled the show can affect the default for PO in video burner. On my system W7 64bit PTE 7.07, I would expect a maximum of 30 minutes for a 60MB sized exe. Dawn a new member has been having problems with 7.5 but this could have been narrowed down to her OS, W8, with which support have confirmed a problem with VB. A few screen shots showing how your burn procedure progresses would help.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

Hello Eric,

Thanks for your reply,

Anti-virus was turned off, as always when I burn a DC/DVD. OS is XP SP3. Project Options were all default, except aspect ratio 16:9 and images all sized to that format at 1920 x 1080.

I should point out that it was PTE's compilation that took the time, the disc write was only a couple of minutes, file size about 700 MB.

Paradoxically, publishing to .exe took less than 4 seconds.

Regards,

Colin

[cjdnzl]

Hi Colin,

Further to the above, I have created a Standard Template which anyone can try and get a comparative set of timings for creating an ISO File and Burning the ISO File to DVD.

The details are as follows:

Project Size - 1920x1080 (16:9)

128 Slides - 2 Images (2112x1405) repeated with Pan, Zoom, Rotate and 3D Turnover. That's 8 Slides - repeated 16 times to make the 128 slides.

Totally time of show - just over 10 Minutes.

A 1 Minute audio file was added in Loop Mode to keep the file size down.

The resulting EXE is 4.39Mb.

The ISO File is 558Mb and took 3m 15s to complete.

Burning the ISO file using PTE Video Builder took 1m 15s.

Burning a HD 1920x1080 MPEG4 for TV using the 1920x1080 Preset at High Quality took 22m and its file size is 1.730Gb.

I am pretty sure that there are many systems out there which are faster than mine.

I have PM'ed you a link to download a "Backup in ZIP" of the STANDARD TEMPLATE.

Anyone else wanting to download it can PM me and I'll do the same.

DG

Gobsmacked I am! I thought my pentium was reasonably fast! I downloaded your template Dave, and it's running on my machine now, has been for about 10 minutes. Your comp compiled it in under 4 minutes - mine is predicting EIGHT HOURS!!! That can't be right, there has to be a problem somewhere, surely?

What are the specs of your computer Dave?

Chagrined regards,

Colin

[Barry Beckham]

Colin

These things are annoying arn't they. I am far from a technical wizard, but something to try. A long shot perhaps. In the Project options of VideoBuilder, look at the program settings and try a DVD with Temp folder set to another location other than whats attached. I don't do many DVD's but in the past when ever I had a hic up it always seemed to be in this location

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hello Eric,

Thanks for your reply,

Anti-virus was turned off, as always when I burn a DC/DVD. OS is XP SP3. Project Options were all default, except aspect ratio 16:9 and images all sized to that format at 1920 x 1080.

I should point out that it was PTE's compilation that took the time, the disc write was only a couple of minutes, file size about 700 MB.

Paradoxically, publishing to .exe took less than 4 seconds.

Regards,

Colin

"about 700 MB." is that the exe, the folder with all the project elements, or the projected completed DVD. The two screen shots show my largest show to date, the exe was 178MB, but the DVD 3.7GB, it just fitted on a standard 4.7 GB DVD. if your exe is 700 MB you are well over the limit for a 4.7GB DVD disc..

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[cjdnzl]

"about 700 MB." is that the exe, the folder with all the project elements, or the projected completed DVD. The two screen shots show my largest show to date, the exe was 178MB, but the DVD 3.7GB, it just fitted on a standard 4.7 GB DVD. if your exe is 700 MB you are well over the limit for a 4.7GB DVD disc..

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

Sorry Eric, my exe is only about 61 MB, and the video disc is 700 MB.

However, I ran Dave's standard template, and it projected the time to be 8 hours for a video DVD, but it was much quicker for an AVI file, about 50 minutes - which is still slow I reckon.

Maybe the old girl is slower than I realised. Might have to look at an upgrade after all. Money, money, ...

Regards,

Colin

[cjdnzl]

Colin

These things are annoying arn't they. I am far from a technical wizard, but something to try. A long shot perhaps. In the Project options of VideoBuilder, look at the program settings and try a DVD with Temp folder set to another location other than whats attached. I don't do many DVD's but in the past when ever I had a hic up it always seemed to be in this location

Thanks Barry, I'll give it a shot on the weekend. I'm off tomorrow for another stent in my coronary artery, pretty routine now, a day job these days.

[davegee]

Hi Colin,

My System is this one - bought off the shelf a year ago.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-envy-h8-1485ea-desktop-pc-17392849-pdt.html

A year ago it was selling at the same price with W7, 8Gb of RAM and a slightly different Video Card. People say that it is possible to get better/cheaper but I prefer to buy off the shelf and know that it will do as it says on the tin without my intervention.

I still have a HP Pentium which must now be around 8-10 years old with specs similar to yours which I have kept for all things musical. A DVD compilation of the sort we are talking about would take about the same time as yours.

DG

[Limey]

Gobsmacked I am! I thought my pentium was reasonably fast! I downloaded your template Dave, and it's running on my machine now, has been for about 10 minutes. Your comp compiled it in under 4 minutes - mine is predicting EIGHT HOURS!!! That can't be right, there has to be a problem somewhere, surely?

What are the specs of your computer Dave?

Chagrined regards,

Colin

Colin,

Just to add another benchmark. I'm running with Windsows XP, Intel Pentium D 2.8Ghz, Nvidia GeForce 7300LE. This is probably an inferior spec to your system.

Using PTE 7.0. Video Builder compilation of 12 minute, 112MB, 130 slides takes 30 minutes.

I suggest you review your Videobuilder Project Options settings, perhaps show us a screenshot.

Regards,

Limey

[Igor]

Colin,

On my 5 year old PC (Intel Core 2 Duo) compilation of DVD takes around 1 minute for 1 minute of project. In other words, I wait 20 minutes to encode 20 minute show. Additionally I wait 2 minutes to burn DVD disc.

Of course, If I encode FullHD video (output) I have to wait more time.

[cjdnzl]

Ok, back from having another stent inserted into my diagonal (branches off the Left Anterior Descending artery) very successful, so pleased about that.

I've been cogitating on CPU speeds etc, and have come to the conclusion that the once-fast P4 pentium chip is no longer so. These i7 and Xeon chips are so blindingly fast it's beyond belief.

I tried Dave's Standard Test compilation on my laptop, sporting a 1.8 GHz Core2 Duo cpu, and it's much faster than the P4, so there's my problem, which isn't really a problem at all as it turns out.

My thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. I have been dragged into the current state of computing, shaken out of my complacency, and am considering depleting the nest egg for a new machine.

Regards to all,

Colin.