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Handbrake converting times

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Pedgie06

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 20, 2005
43
0
I got an :apple:tv about a week ago. A few days ago I decided that I wanted to convert all my dvds into mp4 so I can watch them on my :apple:tv. I was amazed at how long it took to convert a dvd to the preset :apple:tv setting on handbrake. It took between 10 and 14 hours depending on the length of the movie. American Gangster took 16!

I have a powerbook g4 1.5 ghz, with 1 gig of ram. Is it normal that it should take this long or am I doing something wrong?

Any response would be greatly appreciated.
 
Pedgie06 said:
...I have a powerbook g4 1.5 ghz, with 1 gig of ram. Is it normal that it should take this long or am I doing something wrong?

Any response would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Seems a little high, but close to what it was taking me with older versions of HB and a G4 with nearly the same specs. Your computer's pushing what? ...almost a decade?

Now on the upside, you wont belieeeve what's possible once you upgrade that G4 to a Mac Pro. ;)


EDIT: BTW... I normally rip with MTR and follow that with using HB to convert to .mp4. Each process takes less than 30 minutes on average, with my 2 x 2.66 Dual-Core Mac Pro. (last year's model)
 
Pedgie06 said:
I got an :apple:tv about a week ago. A few days ago I decided that I wanted to convert all my dvds into mp4 so I can watch them on my :apple:tv. I was amazed at how long it took to convert a dvd to the preset :apple:tv setting on handbrake. It took between 10 and 14 hours depending on the length of the movie. American Gangster took 16!

I have a powerbook g4 1.5 ghz, with 1 gig of ram. Is it normal that it should take this long or am I doing something wrong?

Any response would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Takes about 2 hours for me to rip a 2 hour movie. You're being held back by that old computer.
 
More specifically, the CPU - that's what's really doing all the encoding work. There are quad CPU folks here that have gotten 70 fps when encoding on the 2nd pass, and with a little overclocking, it is possible to get over 200 fps encoding on a turbo pass with a core 2 duo processor.

Unless you plan on upgrading, make sure you're not running anything else at the same time to save all those CPU cycles for Handbrake.

G'luck!
 
ugggh I didn't want t have to buy a new comp, but this may push me over the edge. It's 4 years old, but it cost me $3000!

If I were to rip the dvd to my comp first and then run handbreak, would that be any faster?
 
Pedgie06 said:
ugggh I didn't want t have to buy a new comp, but this may push me over the edge. It's 4 years old, but it cost me $3000!
Click to expand...

3000!!? Ouch. The Pro set me back $2050.

Wanna buy a watch? It has an LED display!

For you... $4000. But just today. ;)

Pedgie06 said:
If I were to rip the dvd to my comp first and then run handbreak, would that be any faster?
Click to expand...

Some others may be able to share their experience, but I think it may.
 
A G4 powerbook will take forever to convert your movies. I have done it on mine and it takes all night. The Intels are much faster, a Core 2 Duo 2.0gHz will take about 4 hours (at 100% on both cores) and a new 2.8 gHz 8 core Mac Pro will take about 20 minutes (at about 75% on all 8 cores). If you are serious about converting movies, you need a new computer.

If you click on Help under Handbrake, then click Handbrake Forums and find Benchmarks, you can see what other people are getting for conversion speeds. Here is the link:
http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewforum.phpf=9&sid=3592c9174d9065d6d03e9af87b69ed7c

Video is very processor intensive. I think I cooked my Mac Mini doing conversions, it now acts funny whenever it gets hot, hence the Mac Pro. If you like your Powerbook, find something else to do your conversions, Dual core Mac Mini at a minimum.

Good luck.
 
If I were to rip the dvd to my comp first and then run handbreak, would that be any faster?[/QUOTE]

No.

All it will do is save run time on your DVD drive.
 
I get about 35fps on 2nd pass with my 2.8 iMac and about 160fps second pass on my octo 3.2 MP.
 
I use a modified version of the Apple TV preset to rip movies to include the AC3 pass thru and AAC audio but lower my avg. bitrate to 1500 b/c I find that is more than adequate for watching on a 46" Samsung DLP. I also use 2-pass encoding with Turbo First Pass.

I encode on a 24" iMac 2.8Ghz with 4GB RAM. I have my movies extracted to the HDD first and they tend to take about 1.5-2 hrs on avg. A lot are 2+ hr movies. At night I will set it to encode in a queue which you can do from extracted folders (no disc) and I can easily run 3-4 overnight and they are done in the morning.

Is anyone really using the 2500 bitrate setting? Do you find it necessary. When I rip at 1500 avg. I usually get 1700-2000. My DLP Samsung is 720p/1080i. Will I notice a difference later if I upgrade to a 1080p tv. I don't imagine going over 53".
 
roland.g said:
Is anyone really using the 2500 bitrate setting? Do you find it necessary. When I rip at 1500 avg. I usually get 1700-2000. My DLP Samsung is 720p/1080i. Will I notice a difference later if I upgrade to a 1080p tv. I don't imagine going over 53".
Click to expand...

I am. For no other reason than it's the default AppleTV setting. I add 2nd pass, turbo, and now the 5.1 settings. This setting takes the amount of time previously mentioned, between 20-30 minutes from a ripped folder on my HD. (which, incidentally, takes about the same time)
 
A 42min episode of Stargate SG-1 takes 4 hours to convert on my PowerBook. A movie takes about 12... All takes longer when your using the computer, that's why I can't get my PB specs.

Hopefully if Apple release a new MacBook Pro tomorrow the converting time will be reduced.
 
i have a macbook pro 2.33 2gb ram, it does a little better than 1 to 1 for encoding using atv preset on handbrake with 2 pass enabled, so roughly 32 fps (dvds usually at 24) so maybe 105 mins for a 120 min movie running almost 100% both cores .... thays running the new 9.2 handbrake update ...
 
HP Pavilion m8100 running Windows Vista Ultimate,
Intel Core 2 Quad CPU - Q6600 @ 2.40GHz,
3GB RAM,
NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT w/ 512MB graphics memory

Using Handbrake - ATV present, 2 pass enabled, averages 50-55 fps

Takes around 60 minutes for a 2 hour movie...

-----------
Got PC? ;)
 
Pedgie06 said:
ugggh I didn't want t have to buy a new comp, but this may push me over the edge. It's 4 years old, but it cost me $3000!

If I were to rip the dvd to my comp first and then run handbreak, would that be any faster?
Click to expand...

It won't be much faster, but it has two big advantages: It keeps the wear on your DVD drive down, and you can queue up a few movies. (I myself have done quite a few DVDs on an old 733 MHz Quicksilver Mac. It usually doesn't do much except being a printer server. Rip 10 DVDs, queue them up, and two weeks later they are done :) )
 
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