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[UmberGryphon]

I've decided to rip my CD collection to Ogg Vorbis files, and things are going great, except that when I try to use the computer while ripping is going on in the background, some operations take far longer than seems reasonable to me.

Is there a way to control what task priority is given to the oggenc.exe process spawned by Media Jukebox?  It seems like it would be a useful option to have, but I can't find it.

I'd like to give ripping an absolute minimum priority of "only if no one else wants the CPU", especially since I'm not doing many CPU-intensive things and it would still get plenty of CPU under those circumstances.

All replies appreciated.

[xen-uno]

You can not easily (if at all) change an executables thread level priority. You can somewhat depending on whether the app is current (has focus) or is running in the background. That oggenc.exe has a high thread level priority is a good thing, for it prevents errors in the encoded files. I run many an app (ie: rendering/hidden line removal in AutoCAD 2000i and Rhino) that are cpu intensive, and haven't seen any drastic slowdown while oggenc is encoding. What's your OS and how much RAM?

10^-27

PS: I am running W2k (which multi-tasks beautifully) and have a ton of memory.

[UmberGryphon]

You can not easily (if at all) change an executables thread level priority.

Sure I can... even on running tasks.  I just hit control-alt-delete to bring up the Windows Task Manager of Windows XP, find oggenc.exe, right-click on it, and change its priority.  The problem with that technique is that Media Jukebox starts a new oggenc.exe for every track.

That oggenc.exe has a high thread level priority is a good thing, for it prevents errors in the encoded files.

Um, what?  We're not talking about burning a CD, where you have a spinning object that needs data written to it right now or there will be a gap in the information.  We're talking about reading data that's on the hard-drive in the form of a .wav file, number-crunching it, and writing it to the hard-drive in the form of a .ogg file.  That's fundamentally no different than doing raytracing or any other kind of non-time-critical number-crunching.

Even pulling the .wav file off the CD isn't vulnerable to skips, as the CD isn't being read in real-time (in fact, is almost always being read faster than real-time), and the process will just go back and try again if it missed some data due to a hiccup.  Or am I missing something?

I haven't seen any drastic slowdown while oggenc is encoding. What's your OS and how much RAM?

I'm running Windows XP, and I have 256 megs of PC100 RAM on a 650 MHz Athlon.  So I am more sensitive to slowdowns than the average user, 'cause my computer isn't exactly speedy by today's standards.  (Hopefully the Barton flavor of Athlon CPU will actually come out soon, so I can upgrade without feeling silly....)

At the moment, I'm getting around the problem by using the Windows Task Manager to find the app I'm running in the foreground, and then increasing its priority slightly.  That helps a lot.  But then every time I change my foreground app, I need to do that again.  I'd rather lower the priority of oggenc.exe, but I need Media Jukebox's help to do that in a way that lasts more than a minute or three.

[xen-uno]

There is no way to permanently set thread level priority on a certain executable short of tinkering with the source code and recompiling. The code for oggenc.exe is open source...so get to work . Since oggenc is dynamic (runs then quits) vs static (like MJ), your options are extremely limited.

> That's fundamentally no different than doing raytracing....

You got me there, but the possibility of corruption still exists on a heavily loaded system (which is my whole point...you want the peace of mind knowing that the files are as good as they can get, don't you?)

Encoding on my machine (700 MHz PIII) is pretty quick. What might help is to strip down XP to the bare necessities (ie: jettison the animation). Get a faster Athlon providing your MoBo can support it.

10^-27

[UmberGryphon]

There is no way to permanently set thread level priority on a certain executable short of tinkering with the source code and recompiling.

I'm very surprised that a process doesn't have any API to control the priority of its sub-processes under Windows XP, but the user can control priorities using the task manager.  That seems extremely odd to me.  But then again, I'm not a Windows programmer, so I don't exactly have the experience to argue otherwise.

The code for oggenc.exe is open source...so get to work .

Very good point.  Let's hope it isn't too hard to compile oggenc under the Cygwin package....

UmberGryphon
(who thinks Cygwin is the best thing since sliced bread for Unix programmers on Windows boxes)

[mlmitton]

That's right--you can't lower the priority of oggenc since Jukebox restarts it for each file.

However, you can *raise* the priority of whatever applications you want to use.  Most applications have a priority of normal assigned, but you can raise it by right clicking on the appropriate task manager.  These things are relative, so you'll see better results.

Not exactly what you wanted, but somewhat close.