SpiceWare's Blog

Just a few seconds faster this morning:

 

 

I did notice that not all cores are active:

 

 

So wondered if I could make Handbrake convert multiple videos at once. Found this setting, which can be increased to 2, 3, or 4:

 

 

Have a test running with it set to 2.

 

Runtime increased to 17:51 but during that time 2 videos were converted, not 1.

 

 

 

Cores were noticeably busier.

 

 

Test going with it set to 3.

 

Runtime increased to 22:04, but 3 were converted.

 

 

 

 

Cores were busier.

 

 

Test going with 4.

 

 

Runtime increased to 28:00 for 4 at once.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All but 1 core was pegged:

 

 

So I can now convert 8+ episodes in the time I used to do 1.  

 

Of course I never tried that setting on the Pro, so I currently have a test with 2 running on it right now. About 17 minutes remain.

For the Pro it was initially 58:27 to convert 1 video.   Briefly converted 1 again to get the CPU activity:

 

 

So there is some unused capacity.  The Pro has a 6 core CPU with hyperthreading.  

 

Cancelled the 1, then fired off 2 concurrent conversions which took 1:27:51

 

 

 

CPU activity:

 

Test with 3 underway.

3 concurrent took 2:02:55 on the Pro

 

 

 

 

CPU activity is pegged

 

 

Test with 4 underway.

4 concurrent took 2:39:57 on the Pro

 

 

 

 

 

 

CPU was pegged

 

Looking at the statistics I realized that using the average speed in fps would be a good way to review the results:

 

 

Being able to run 4 concurrent conversions improved throughput by on the Mac Pro by 45% and 126% on the Mac Studio.

 

I was surprised to see that the size of the resulting file was not consistent as every test run was done using episode 1 of season 7.  There must be some randomization in the compression process.