MEP 2022 encoding times tested

me_again wrote on 10/23/2021, 8:53 AM

Greetings all,

Today I've been editing and encoding some recent camera files (1920x1080) into a single 59 minute MP4 with MEP 2022. There were no fancy effects just sharpening, crossfades and audio normalising with slight compression for voice.

Bearing in mind that I only have an Nvidia RTX 2060 and no Intel GPU, this video took 30 minutes 54 seconds to encode. Normally I leave MEP open on full screen while encoding to see the progress as it was in this case.

For reasons I won't go into but was sheer stupidity on my part, I had to re-encode it and this time I reduced it to the taskbar for the re-encoding which took 16 minutes 10 seconds. The computer had been shut down between the encodes.

I've repeated it successfully 3 times now, each time closing down the computer in between tests and each time getting the same result.

I also repeated the tests 3 times using only a 4 minute video (again gamma, crossfades and audio cleaning) and turning hardware acceleration OFF. With MEP in full screen encoding took around 7 minutes 30 seconds, minimised to the taskbar it took around 6 minute 30 - a reduction in time of around 13%.

The Gurus and Higher Beings within the forum can probably explain why this is but to me it's a revelation, that by merely reducing MEP 2022 to the taskbar reduces encoding time with my RTX 2060 with no Intel GPU by getting on for 50%.

It may not work for everyone. I only mention so that other mortals can try it and see if it does work for them, especially those that have no hardware acceleration.

AndyW

Comments

CubeAce wrote on 10/23/2021, 12:32 PM

@me_again

Hi Andy.

There are certainly some surprises with MEP 2022. My latest one is sometimes on a complex project I get less than smooth playback in the preview monitor. If I expand the monitor to full screen the playback is smooth. I didn't expect that.

I have run and do run MEP a lot reduced to the task bar but have never noticed an appreciable decrease in export times. I will test further.

You say 'Only an RTX 2060' but that is for this program, quite a powerful graphics card.

Ray.

johnebaker wrote on 10/23/2021, 1:46 PM

@me_again

Hi Andy

. . . . it's a revelation, that by merely reducing MEP 2022 to the taskbar reduces encoding time with my RTX 2060 with no Intel GPU by getting on for 50% . . . .

If you have the video preview while rendering option on, an educated guess is the GPU and program are not having to uodate the screen during the render process.

John EB

me_again wrote on 10/23/2021, 4:28 PM

@johnebaker

Greetings John. No, video preview is not on while rendering, that does indeed slow everything down dramatically.

Further trials seems to show it's an MEP thing as when I encode something with Avidemux it makes no difference to time taken if the program is full screen or minimised. Mind you, I can't understand that either.

I'm not complaining about it though, just mentioning it to advise it may help somebody with a similar setup.

Maybe it's unique to systems without an Intel GPU.

AndyW

AAProds wrote on 10/23/2021, 6:31 PM

Did a quickey: 3:20 with MEP full screen, 2:45 with MEP minimised. Great!

me_again wrote on 10/24/2021, 2:53 AM

@AAProds

Greetings Al,

If memory serves me well you're still with MEP 2021 which means that the increase in encoding speed is not confined to 2022. Also, if memory serves, you don't use hardware acceleration (hmm, not so sure now I've written it) and so you're increase in speed of 13% is the same as I found without HW.

Good news all round I think(?) - AndyW

me_again wrote on 10/24/2021, 10:50 AM

@johnebaker

Greetings John,

Further testing shows that with MEP at full screen while encoding, clicking on video preview makes no difference to the encoding time.

Having video preview ON then minimising to the task bar gives the same encoding time as without the video preview.

So to sum up, If MEP is NOT minimised to the taskbar encoding is slower by varying degress no matter if video preview is on or off.

I've been thinknig about this over a strong cup of tea and I suspect it may be a non-Intel thing as my cpu %age does not alter whether MEP is up or down but my GPU %age drops by up to 50%. I only have the one graphics card (as Ray pointed out is adequate for MEP) which MEP seems to like to hog. Funnily enough other video encoders do not exhibit this phenomenom (is that the right word and more to the point is it spelled correctly and should that be spelt?).

AndyW

AAProds wrote on 10/24/2021, 8:06 PM

@me_again

Funnily enough other video encoders do not exhibit this phenomenom (is that the right word and more to the point is it spelled correctly and should that be spelt?).

"n" on the end. 😉

Phenomenon is good. Susie says other words could be 5 letters: "trait", "quirk", 14 letters "characteristic". 😉😉

Did another torture test (2min HD MP4): 7:30 MEP "up", 7:15 MEP "down". In typical MEP fashion, the CPU wasn't going full pelt at all. Videredo and others run the CPU at 100% when encoding; not MEP.

me_again wrote on 10/25/2021, 12:56 AM

@AAProds

"n" on the end. 😉

😱 Thanks for that. I'll put it down to fat fingers - well, the n and m are next to each other

AndyW

phew, I think I got away with that one

CubeAce wrote on 10/25/2021, 2:06 AM

@AAProds @me_again

Hi Al.

Video editing packages are normally doing much more more than just re-encoding video files so I think an amount of processing power is always left in reserve to help prevent the program from crashing. It is not just Magix programs that do that.

Hi Andy.

When the program is reduced to the task bar, does the amount of ram in use also fall? I have noticed the new version of MEP is more dynamic in its use of ram.

Ray.

me_again wrote on 10/25/2021, 4:36 AM

@CubeAce

Mornin' Ray; the Ram use doesn't seem to alter.

This is with MEP "UP"

and this is with MEP minimised - it's obvious when I changed from up to Minimised

AndyW

CubeAce wrote on 10/25/2021, 5:10 AM

@me_again

Hi Andy.

As well as the increase in the NVIDIA's abilities with the program reduced to the task bar, there is also a 4% increase in the C: drives activity as well as a drop of the amount of vram in use. I think that could mean there is a more efficient use of the various pathways of data transfer.

Ray.