Set encoder thread priority

[MJW]

Developers, thanx for the great software! I've been using MusicBee for almost a year right now, and it is probably one of the best software packages I've ever used and will use in the future. During the past year I haven't found a feature that I dearly miss, and even when I did, it was the simple task of updating to the latest Beta and it was already implemented!  Paired with iZotope Ozone, it gives one of the best listening experiences possible.

However, since my music collection has been steadily growing, while my hard disk capacity remained equal (laptop), I decided to convert my database to Vorbis. And now would it be very handy if there was a possibility to set encoder thread priority. If I could set the priority to "Lower then normal", my computer would remain more usable.

thanx again!

M

[Steven]

thats been available in MB since last year! perhaps you are using a very old version?

[MJW]

Damn it! I was so concentrated on the Tools/Convert Format page that I overlooked it... So the message remains true, just update and your wish is fullfilled . Thanx again.

Bye the way, for people that are wondering where to find it, it's in the top right of the Edit/Preferences/File Converters page.

Edit: Steve, maybe you can include a link from the Convert Format to the Preferences File Converters page? In this way you don't have to close the convert page to check the file converter settings. At least, if it is implementable without bloating the interface to much.

[VX]

You could update the oggEnc to achieve better compression results in a shorter time for output ogg files.

You can find more detailed instructions in this topic  
The version of ogg Encoder currently distributed with MB installer is more than two years old. The updated versions take full advantage of modern multi-thread CPUs and new SSE instructions, especially on 64 bit systems.

When it comes to oggEnc2, here you are the download link:
http://www.rarewares.org/ogg-oggenc.php

For more detailed info go to Hydrogenaudio forum:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showforum=57

And especially:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?s=61a6ba5edcb50c0d511260172bd7323a&showtopic=88342&st=0

[MJW]

Thanx, interesting reads. I was using the venc.exe encoder (6.03) from aoTuv, but maybe you can explain me the difference between the OggEnc2 and the Venc encoder. Is it the SSE2 optimalization? But i will give it a try, and if I find a difference i will report back.

[VX]

Thanx, interesting reads. I was using the venc.exe encoder (6.03) from aoTuv, but maybe you can explain me the difference between the OggEnc2 and the Venc encoder. Is it the SSE2 optimalization?

When it comes to SSE instructions, updating encoder to a newer version of the compilation is not always recommended. Generally, you should use a compilation optimized to the highest SSE instructions supported with your CPU.

If you have a very old single core processor, you shouldn't expect significant speed increase and much better quality after using a compilation of the encoder optimized for newer SSE instructions. Furthermore, using SSE4 optimized builds when the processor supports SSE2 instruction could even decrease the encoding speed as it was reported by a Hydrogenaudio forum user.

For an old processor that supports SSE2 only, the Blacksword (Lancer) builds were recommended, but some audible distortions have been reported recently.

Here is the info form the above mentioned Blacksword website, that could be helpful if you are not sure about SSE instructions supported with your CPU:

Lancer 20061110(Based on aotuv-b5_20061024) readme_j
SSE: AthlonXP (Barton core and older), Pentium III
SSE2: Athlon64, Opteron, Pentium IV, Pentium M
SSE2MT: Multi-threading version of SSE2
SSE3: Athlon64 Rev E (Venice & San Diego core), Pentium IV (Prescott core), Core Duo(Solo)
SSE3MT: Multi-threading version of SSE3 for Athlon64X2, Pentium D, Core Duo(Dual), Core2 Duo(Conroe & Merom core)

At the Hydrogenaudio forum you can find the opinion that SSE3 optimized builds can give better results for SSE2 compatible processors (and the above mentioned sound distortion is missing when proper SSE3 compilation is used).
For your SSE2 compatible processor, have a look at this topic.

Recommended settings for OggEnc by Hydrogenaudio forum members are always posted here.
I guess MusicBee predefined settings should be updated accordingly when an updated version of OggEnc is finally distributed with the installer.

I prefer aoTuV (Aoyumi's Tuned Vorbis) as it's continuously updated, and gives better quality results, especially when encoded to a lower bitrate level. You can find more detailed info at the proper section the Hydrogenaudio forum or maybe you should try it out in person to hear the difference . The tunings done by Aoyumi are usually implemented to the next stable version of Xiphophorus libVorbis.

As you can read at the forum:

Venc doesn't support adding vorbis tags!

but if you should embed a very big Artwork into an ogg file some old portable devices won't read the file properly due to lack of memory.

But if you encode your audio files for portable listening at lower bitrate, the Ogg Encoding gives significantly better quality than mp3 (LAME). Have a look[/u].

I don't need to mention that properly encoded ogg files are much smaller than the same tracks encoded with mp3 (lame).

But i will give it a try, and if I find a difference i will report back.

Please, report your results. It could be helpful for others