How long would an iMac quad-core take to...?

[Jimmy Guphanti]

Hello,
I need to get another computer for working with TV shows. One of the things that I have to do is export them to .mp4 or quicktime formats. My question is, if a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook would take 1 hour to export a 22 minute TV show that is in HD, and a 3.2 GHz Intel Core i3 (Core 2 Duo) iMac would take 30 minutes to do the same task, then how long would a 2.8 GHz quad-core i5 iMac take to export it? I have only tested the MacBook and the 3.2 i3 iMac, and I am contemplating whether or not the quad-core iMac is worth it. Thanks

 

[300D]

For encoding, get the top i7.

 

[TMRaven]

Give me the sample material you're using and I could tell you.
My estimation is that a hyperthreaded lynnfield would be around 2.4x faster than the i3 clarkdale's benchmark.

 

[PeteyV]

Don't mean to hijack your thread but I am encoding a .mkv file to dvd to burn using Toast and its taking a while. A 1% increase has taken about 15 minutes. I have a 2.93 ghz i7 with 12 GB of ram. It just seems like it should be a little faster than this. Any input on this?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Don't mean to hijack your thread but I am encoding a .mkv file to dvd to burn using Toast and its taking a while. A 1% increase has taken about 15 minutes. I have a 2.93 ghz i7 with 12 GB of ram. It just seems like it should be a little faster than this. Any input on this?

Have you taken a look at Activity Monitor if all cores are used?
Btw, you transcode from a highly compressive codec (MPEG-4) to another highly compressive codec (MPEG-2), that is taking time. Btw, how long is the movie?

 

[PeteyV]

Where exactly in activity monitor can I check if all my processors are being used? Sorry I'm pretty new to the Mac world. The movie is 4.7 GB I think about an hour and a half long. Its a foreign film that I had on a windows pc from a while ago.

 

[TMRaven]

Where exactly in activity monitor can I check if all my processors are being used? Sorry I'm pretty new to the Mac world. The movie is 4.7 GB I think about an hour and a half long. Its a foreign film that I had on a windows pc from a while ago.

When in activity monitor, you can just go to window> cpu usage, and it will give a bar for all of your virtual cores.

Also not all filters/codecs of a video transcode are designed to take as much resources as they can get. It is a good chance you are using one of those.

 

[Jimmy Guphanti]

Give me the sample material you're using and I could tell you.
My estimation is that a hyperthreaded lynnfield would be around 2.4x faster than the i3 clarkdale's benchmark.

It is a 1080p HD 22 minute H.264 video being converted or encoded to a .mp4 or .mov file.

 

[TMRaven]

Well to get exact measurements I'd have to know exactly which file it is (scene complexity in a movie can drastically affect encoding time) as well as what program used (different programs use different versions of a specific codec) and the type of configuration of that codec (reference frames, bitrate, 1pass, 2pass adaptive b-frames etc)

thread might be very interesting to you, you can compare the results other owners of iMacs got with your own iMac.

 

[PeteyV]

Well I just came home from work after about 8 hours of leaving this encode on and it is only at 60%. I'd like to know if there are any programs any of you recommend to maybe get the job fast or use more resources to encode. I'd like a program that can encode any format into a dvd and also have burning capabilities. I don't mind if it is a paid for software or application.

 

[galarneau]

Get a Turbo H264 from El Gato

 

[PeteyV]

Get a Turbo H264 from El Gato

Just looked up some info on the Turbo H264. It seems that it only coverts videos to mac format and not dvd format. Unless I'm missing something here that isnt what I exactly need even though it does seem pretty cool. I would need software to be able to convert mkv's, avi's, ect. to DVD 5 files.

 

[TMRaven]

http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html

 

[PeteyV]

Well my encoding just finished and there is no audio... YAY! ....

 

[Kendo]

Bumping a thread instead of creating a new one. I am expecting my iMac next week with a 3.1GHz Core i5 processor. How long would it roughly take to convert a DVD movie to MP4? I plan on using my iMac as a media center and want to convert all of my DVD movies onto it.

 

[mrfoof82]

Well my encoding just finished and there is no audio... YAY! ....

Have you considered using Handbrake instead? Quicktime X also works as long as you have the necessary codecs installed (i.e. Perian).

For a frame of reference, when transcoding a 1 hour 1080p TS to AppleTV/iPhone4-compatible 720p, on a 2.0GHz 2011 MacBook Pro, it takes 40 minutes. I'm guessing that a top-tier 3.4GHz i7 iMac will take somewhere between 20 and 25 minutes (I'll know when my decked out one shows up).