Finish Gknot/VDub jobs 25% faster

I just found out a way to increase the performance of a Gknot (VDub) job by 25%. That is to say, have the job finish 25% quicker. This advise is only available for Win2000 users, as I can not vouch for Win98 and WinXP users. Here's how the performance increase works: > Once a 'job' in Gknot starts the first-pass thru VDub minimize all windows. Again, a 'job' must currently be running. > Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and the WINDOWS SECURITY window will pop-up. > Click on the TASK MANAGER button. Now click on the PROCESSES tab. > Go to the very bottom of the list and find the virtualdub.exe listed under Image Name. > Right-click on the virtualdub.exe and then set the priority from LOW to HIGH. Then close all the TASK MANAGER windows. > !IMPORTANT! DO NOT set the priority to REALTIME. This will completely LOCK-UP your Win2000 until the VDub job is finished. You'll have no mouse-pointer, no way of moving within Win2000 if REALTIME is set. ********************************************************************* Your Win2000 Oper System will now seem very very SLUGGISH. Thats because most of the resources to run Win2000 (processor & memory) is now DEDICATED to processing your VDub job. I've found using this technique gets my Vdub jobs done 25% faster than before. You may want to consider NOT DOING THIS if you need to continue using Win2000 while the 'job' is processing. The performance of Windows2000 will dramatically nose-dive. **********************************************************************

Thanks cornetet, good advice Speeding up such long jobs is important :) Just one question, is not the same as setting the priority in VDub? I mean the "Processing thread priority" popup You can also set it as the program default I am not using W2000, I just would like to understand since I am using it too...

when you change it in virtualdub it's set for all future virtualdub sessions, when you set it in the task manager it's only set for the current session. Personally I prefer low priority since I want to use the PC while it's encoding and I don't mind waiting a tad longer (btw.. the 25% imho is an exaggeration.. if you don't touch your PC during the encoding session the priority hardly matters)

Just like Doom9 says, if you don't use your computer for gaming och watching movies you're not likely to save any bit time wether you use idle or highest, if you don't touch the computer the encoding time should be the same within a few minutes perhaps. I personally have mine set at idle as default since I like to be able to listen to music and watch movies while encoding.

Hey cornetet, wait, don't get upset Saying that "it's over estimated" I didn't ment to insult you or boubt about your words Sorry if I did that :)

@cornetet Perhaps you have some background program lying around that takes up 20-25 % of your CPU power? That would explain that big speed increase you get. If you're running 2000/XP you can check your CPU load by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC.

Also when you encode, tunf off the audio in Virtual dub. This sometimes may help speed up the process

Thanks for all the advise.. I'll continue to look for any processor jobs that are draining things away from VDub. No feelings were hurt... One man's epiphany is another man's discrepancy. SECOND QUESTION= since an avg Gknot job for me takes about 12-16 hours to complete with my P2-450MHz.... if I were to consider getting a new computer at around 1.6GHz... what time saving am I to expect?? An avg Gknot job for me is a 2CD filesize yielding about 1200kBits/sec to 1800kBits/sec (I shoot for a Bits/Pixel*Frame of right around 0.30 but nothing less than 0.27)

roughly 4 times faster. wef.

Changing CPU priority doesn't have the described effect. Thank you for the well-intentioned advice, but taking it won't make the encode go any faster, it'll just make your system less responsive and less fluid. For a true speed increase we have to wait a few weeks or longer for YV12 support to be fully tested and certified in VirtualDub/Avisynth.