More Performance Questions

[malacca73]

Hi all,

 

I know slow encode times have been addressed before, but I was hoping to get some feedback from people with different machines. I have a 2.0Ghz Core2Duo Macbook with 3GB of RAM, and watching the progress bar crawl across the screen during an encode is mind-numbing. It took me 4 hours to encode a 13 minute hi-def file for an HD-DVD. That's not acceptable, so I'm thinking of upgrading to a Mac Pro.

 

I heard from a support guy that while Toast is multi-threaded, it probably wouldn't be able to use all 8 cores of a current Mac Pro to their full potential. I was wondering if someone who had such a beast could let me know how true that is, and also if a simple quad-core system would be as efficient, as perhaps 4 cores could be utilized more fully and so work as well as 8 under-utilized cores.

 

Of course with "Grand Central" coming in the next OS iteration, I wonder if all 8 cores would then be better utilized, suggesting an 8-core system would be the best idea. (Obviously an 8-core system would be better, but it'd be nice to save some $$$.)

 

Thanks.

[malacca73]

Hmm. I'll have to try that. I remember seeing some discussions on here regarding what settings to use to allow Toast to burn with no re-encoding.

 

What do you use?

 

[richard_briscoe]

Hi all,

 

I know slow encode times have been addressed before, but I was hoping to get some feedback from people with different machines. I have a 2.0Ghz Core2Duo Macbook with 3GB of RAM, and watching the progress bar crawl across the screen during an encode is mind-numbing. It took me 4 hours to encode a 13 minute hi-def file for an HD-DVD. That's not acceptable, so I'm thinking of upgrading to a Mac Pro.

 

I heard from a support guy that while Toast is multi-threaded, it probably wouldn't be able to use all 8 cores of a current Mac Pro to their full potential. I was wondering if someone who had such a beast could let me know how true that is, and also if a simple quad-core system would be as efficient, as perhaps 4 cores could be utilized more fully and so work as well as 8 under-utilized cores.

 

Of course with "Grand Central" coming in the next OS iteration, I wonder if all 8 cores would then be better utilized, suggesting an 8-core system would be the best idea. (Obviously an 8-core system would be better, but it'd be nice to save some $$$.)

 

Thanks.

 

You did not specify your OS or Toast versions. There may be some differences depending upon those answers. If you are using Toast 9.x, does it say "Multiplexing" or "Encoding" while this is going on?

 

I have not been doing HiDef, but with SD recordings on my system with EyeTV files as the source Toast 9.x routinely reverts to "Encoding" from "Multiplexing" and will take hours to complete, if it does at all. Using Toast 8.x with OS 10.5.4 I am able to complete many, if not most, of these recordings. For very troublesome combinations, I find it necessary to boot into OS 10.4.11 and try either Toast 8.x or Toast 7.x.

 

I have a dual processor G4 and so there is no direct comparison with your Mac, but, when it works properly, Toast appears to be multi-processor aware. You can take a look in Activity monitor to see if it is making use of all of your resources or not.

 

Good luck

 

[Mean GXP]

All,

I have one of those "Beast" machines you were referring to (dual quad-core at 3.2 GHz with 8 GB RAM and 4 TB disk storage). My "Encoding" bar is chugging along at a snail's pace. I will try a different encoder to see what results I get. I have informed the good folks at Roxio of my willingness to try beta versions that can better exploit the hardware under the hood.

 

 

[malacca73]

I'm using 9.02 (this is the Toast 9 forum, right? 10.5.4 on the OS. It says "Encoding" while it's churning away, and, yes, both cores are maxing out, according to good ole Activity Monitor.

 

Still wondering how much of a bump an octo-core beast would provide...

[richard_briscoe]

I'm using 9.02 (this is the Toast 9 forum, right? 10.5.4 on the OS. It says "Encoding" while it's churning away, and, yes, both cores are maxing out, according to good ole Activity Monitor.

 

Still wondering how much of a bump an octo-core beast would provide...

 

I believe you are experiencing the same Toast failure mode that I am experiencing with my EyeTV/SD files. The clue is that Toast shows "Encoding" and may well use a lot of resources in an unproductive manner. You would probably experience very much the same problem no matter what hardware you ran it on.

 

Do you have access to Toast 7 or 8? I normally run only Toast 8 to make my EyeTV burns. It ties up the machine pretty badly as the windowserver and dock processes when running Toast 8 make excessive, in my opinion, use of CPU cycles, but it works.

 

I will revert to Toast 7 if the particular file does not work in Toast 8. My final alternatives involve booting into OS 10.4.11 and using Toast 7 either in conjunction with EyeTV 3.x or 2.5.2.

 

The long and short of it is that I do not believe buying a new Mac would resolve your problem.

 

I would suggest opening a ticket with Roxio support to formally let them know of the problem.

 

Good Luck

 

[malacca73]

Can Toast 7 or 8 do Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, though? I've been communicating a bit with the support folks, and they say my encode times are "typical" for my configuration. Yikes.

 

I have an older version of Toast lurking around somewhere, but I think it might be 6 - I'll have to go check.

 

But the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray question - can 7 or 8 do it?

 

Thanks.

[richard_briscoe]

Can Toast 7 or 8 do Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, though? I've been communicating a bit with the support folks, and they say my encode times are "typical" for my configuration. Yikes.

 

I have an older version of Toast lurking around somewhere, but I think it might be 6 - I'll have to go check.

 

But the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray question - can 7 or 8 do it?

 

Thanks.

 

Now that you mention it, I am not sure about their compatibility with the Blu-ray plug-in. It slipped my mind. You might give them a call and see what they have to say.

 

About the only other things that come to mind are to trash the preferences (there are two files) and try to run things from a clean user profile/account. There are two KB Articles about Toast files you may want to keep track of.

 

Preferences

Uninstall

 

 

[brettmb]

I use ffmpegX (not sure if it does HD, but there are probably other options too) to encode my video and then use Toast to burn it without re-encoding. Much faster than Toast. Unfortunately, Toast crashes on my Core2Duo iMac when it multiplexes the files, so I have to use my G4 for the actual burn

 

The point: Toast is just slow.