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[wmleler]

In an earlier version of MJ, when you ripped a CD, it would
first copy the CD to disk, and then it would encode to MP3
simultaneously while it copied the next track.  Sometime
around the switch to version 8, this went away.  Now you
have two choices:

1) if you pick the "Rip and encode simultaneously" option,
then it encodes to MP3 as it reads the track from the CD.
This significantly slows down the read from the CD (to about
1x! horribly slow!)

2) if you uncheck that option, then it copies the CD to disk
as fast as the CD player can go, but then it stops reading the
CD while it encodes the track (again, very slow).

Is there any way to get back the option where it would continue
on to read the next track, while simultaneously doing the encode?
The encode could be spawned off as a separate thread, so it
happens in the background.

This would significantly speed up ripping and encoding, especially
for high bit rates that encode quite slowly.  Yeah, I know, I
could get a faster machine (this one is 733 MHz) but this would
still speed things up for a 2GHz CPU.

[RemyJ]

This would be my number 1 feature request for version 9.

I thought I added it to the wish list a while back but i can't find it now.  I guess I'll add it again.

Remy

[Vlad]

Hooray!!!  And here I was thinking it's just the universe conspiring against me (again).  The change happened just under 2 weeks ago.  I posted about it and several other problems on the "Media Jukebox 8.0.314 available" thread but got no response.  here are the relevant details again:

"I'm having ripping performance problems. Given the constant stream of version updates, I can't say with any certainty which version they were introduced by. Up until last weekend, I was consistently ripping to the server with simultaneous encoding at 7-8X. Then, on Sunday I got a sudden improvement to 12-13X. On Monday it took a turn for the worse which continues till now. Whereas previously, the drive would spin fairly consistently throughout the whole process it is now constantly stopping and starting. It momentarilly hits 7-9X then everything stops and MJ hangs. Then it starts again and after doing this a few times eventually settles down at about 1-3X but still continuing to stop and start. I've tried different drives both SCSI and IDE as well as doing it all locally but the problem persists. I even uninstalled and deleted all traces of MJ and reinstalled afresh. The only clue is that the ripping window now seems to indicate that encoding is happening trully simultaneously. IE. there used to be a brief "Encoding.." message against a track as the next one starts ripping. This no longer appears."

Since that post, the performance has got even worse.  To it's credit, MJ doesn't seem to interfere with the OS or other applications but it is now virtually disabled while ripping.  Task manager shows it as "not responding" most of the time and using no CPU.  Generally CPU usage rarely rises above 10%.  Playing music is out of the question and if you persist and try to do something in MJ (while ripping) you risk it hanging all together (I mean REALLY hanging, like overnight).

Are we the only 3 people experiencing this?  

Please respond.  I NEED to get to the bottom of this.  I absolutely love the (potential) functionality of MJ but in its current form, it's just not usaeable for me.

[RemyJ]

Vlad, I don't think your problem is related to the "simultaneous" issue.  It sounds like there's a pure ripping issue.

Try ripping to uncompressed wave in both Digital Large Buffer and Digital Secure modes and watch the speeds.  I'm not sure what you meant by "local" but make sure that the destination of te ripped files is NOT a networked drive.

Remy

[Vlad]

Remy, ripping is fine.  It's an encoding issue.  Ripping without encoding to a local drive runs at 15-20X, a little slower to a network drive.  I had thought that it was just an issue with the APE encoder (the only one that I am interested in) ut yesterday I had to rip a track for someone in MP3 and the behaviour was very similar except that the CPU usage was quite high.

Just like "wmleler", I have also tried switching off the simultaneous option with the same results as he had.  A fast rip followed by MJ totally stalling during encoding which takes forever.  All the while the CPU usage never goes above 10% (for APE encoding).

[Lucy]

My CDRW is just 8X. When Mj rips, the displayed speed has never exceed 5.6X . I need two minutes to rip a song (long classical music needs more). But this happens the same when I use Creative Nomad software to rip CDs. I guess my CDRW speed is too slow.

How fast is your CDRW?

[RemyJ]

OK Vlad, here's an encoding test for MP3s (Sorry, I can't help you with APE, but maybe this will help diagnose the problem.)...

Set your Encoder options as "External Encoder" and find the lame.exe in the "Media Jukebox\Plugins" directory.  For the parameter string use "-ms --cbr -b256 -q2 %IN %OUT".  This is the equivalent of Constant Bit Rate, 256kb rate, high quality (change as appropriate).

This runs the same encoder as the "MP3 Encoder" but a new window will open and show you the running statistics of the encoding process.  Maybe the stats can tell you something.

Remy

[Vlad]

Lucy, I use a Sony 16X DVD drive for ripping.  Its stated CD read speed is 40X.  I also have a SCSI CDRW but it rips a little slower (same encoding performance problem, though).

I'd be quite happy with a consistent 5.6x ripping/encoding speed as long as I could listen to music and do Library maintenance at the same time. The 12-13X performance I was getting a week and a half ago was outstanding but only lasted for a day.

P.S. I've enjoyed reading the "Lucy, what do you see?" thread over the last few days.

[Vlad]

Thanks Remy, I'll try that when I get home tonight (I'm at work now) and let you know.

[phelt]

Feh. I just use Exact Audio Copy for ripping - it lets you specify the number of simultaneous encoder instances, rips while the encodes are being done, and it's free. Downside is that it uses FreeDB instead of CDDB - not as complete.

[Vlad]

Hi Remy, I managed to do a bit of testing since your reply and have found that the performance problems originated when ripping to a network drive.  Meanwhile my PC started playing up big time (spontaneous reboots or blue screens of death).  After several days trying to isolate the source (and being off the air), I finally tracked it down to a bad RAM chip.

I've just about rebuilt the thing now and hope to start working with MJ again tonight. Just one question...  In your post you mentioned testing the ripping speed, but NOT to a network drive.  Are there known problems regarding ripping/encoding across a network?  Even at 15X speed, uncompressed CD audio is under 20 mbps.  Surely this should be fine for a 100 mbps LAN, or am I missing something?

[RemyJ]

>> Even at 15X speed, uncompressed CD audio is under 20 mbps. Surely this should be fine for a 100 mbps LAN, or am I missing something?

Nope.  I was only suggesting ripping locally as a troubleshooting method to help eliminate any unintended side effects.  On a 100mbs lan there should be enough bandwidth as long as there isn't anything else competing for it.

Remy