CPU/GPU 9.0.4.5 GPU Encoding/Decoding Won't Work, Catalyst Crashing

[TheaterNut]

I purchased DVDFab All-in-one Lifetime about 3 weeks ago and am using it to port my 400+ Blu-ray collection into a smaller, portable format (4TB HDD) as I travel a lot. I've been quite impressed with the results - most movies end up between 4-6GB, and the quality is very nice for such a high compression ratio. However, I have run into some rather bothersome problems with the how DVDFab is utilizing my graphics cards (or not) to do this.

Here's the info on my 4 computers that I've tried this on:

- A desktop that I built about 4 years back with a Core i7 920 and ATI 4890 graphics card, 6GB RAM (3GB avail since I'm running Win7 32-bit)
- My wife's HP laptop with a Core i7 2670 and integrated graphics, 4GB RAM, Win7Pro 64-bit
- My old Acer laptop with a Core i7 Q720 with an NVidia GTS 250M graphics card, 4GB RAM, Win7HP 64-bit
- My new Alienware M18x M2 laptop with a Core i7 3840QM and an AMD HD7970m graphics card, 16GB RAM, Win8 64-bit

All drivers/graphics software are the most current non-beta software from their respective mfrs.

I have tried to use the graphics cards on all three computers for decoding (non-software encoding is only available on the Acer with NVidia card) with mixed results. On my Alienware, I can get DVDFab to use the graphics card for one movie, and then Catalyst crashes. The crashes only occur when using DVDFab - prior to the crash, I have no issues when playing movies (either from disc or my HDD). Usually un-installing and re-installing both DVDFab and Catalyst and then restarting fixes the problem, but then the problem re-appears after I process the next movie. Once the problem appears, when I go into options -> General -> codec, none of the codecs my 7970m supports appear anymore, and I have to use all software.

My desktop has behaved in a similar manner, although that one is currently running Win7 32-bit and 3GB RAM available (6GB installed), so I have Win7 64-bit, 24GB RAM, and a NVidia GeForce 660ti arriving today. After the install I'll report back as to its behavior.

I've had similar issues with my Acer laptop (NVidia graphics). After several un-install/re-install cycles and restarts, I was able to get it to continue to use the graphics card for the decoding and encoding. So far it's remained stable after processing several movies through it, but previously this problem re-appeared frequently as it did with my ATI/AMD graphics cards.

I didn't have this problem on any computer until I moved from DVDFab 9.0.4.2 to 9.0.4.5. I'd go back to 4.2, but unfortunately 4.5 fixed a problem I was having with encoding forced subtitles, which is something I have to have for many of my movies. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[signals]

You have discovered empirically some of the truths about GPUs. Generally, nvidia CUDA works much better with DVDFab than the AMD stuff. Most of your PCs are not well suited for high performance, high speed conversions with the exception of the Alienware if set to Software Only (no GPU). The only thing better than CUDA is Intel QuickSync HD Graphics if your CPU and motherboard support it. Any problems with CUDA are usually related to the driver version either being too old or too new for DVDFab. I have an MSI laptop similar to the Alienware but with an nvidia discrete GPU but I still use only the CPU for conversions, it is just more stable and the results are better. This is especially true for the "decode" part of the conversion, let DVDFab and your CPU handle it.

[martythebrit]

You didn't have to buy Win 7 x64, you should have borrowed it for the install. Your original Win 7 x86 install number is good for either version.

You should also investigate the use of Intel Quick Sync on the Alienware laptop, it will be quicker than a GPU encode.

[TheaterNut]

You have discovered empirically some of the truths about GPUs. Generally, nvidia CUDA works much better with DVDFab than the AMD stuff. Most of your PCs are not well suited for high performance, high speed conversions with the exception of the Alienware if set to Software Only (no GPU). The only thing better than CUDA is Intel QuickSync HD Graphics if your CPU and motherboard support it. Any problems with CUDA are usually related to the driver version either being too old or too new for DVDFab. I have an MSI laptop similar to the Alienware but with an nvidia discrete GPU but I still use only the CPU for conversions, it is just more stable and the results are better. This is especially true for the "decode" part of the conversion, let DVDFab and your CPU handle it.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I'm aware that most of those computers are using older hardware and aren't suited for fast conversion, but they're what I have and I'm just trying to maximize their performance.

That being said, if CPU/software conversion is generally faster, I'm confused as to why GPU processing is an option in DVDFab? My previous understanding was that GPU-based encoding would be faster than CPU/software-only per your user manual:

"DVDFab adopts NVIDIA CUDA technology which can largely improve the performance of app’s computation and video encoding/decoding, in particular for HD video’s processing. For happier user experience of customers, DVDFab keeps improving and has been updated with the newest NVIDIA CUDA. Now, with a computer running on CUDA-enabled GPU, you can use DVDFab products to copy/rip your DVD/Blu-ray movies or convert videos in a speed much faster than ever before."

Is it to allow people to offload a portion of the processing to a machine's GPU in the background so that you can still do other stuff on the computer while that is going on? Also, when you say that the only thing better than CUDA is NVidia HD Graphics, what exactly do you mean - how would I set the codec preferences in DVDFab to utilize one vs the other? I'm not understanding the distinction between the two - the way I understand it (and I could be completley wrong) is that CUDA is simply a feature of some NVidia graphics cards that allows CPU processes to be offloaded to the GPU.

Bottom line is that I didn't have any of these problems with 9.0.4.2 with any of my AMD stuff, it's only ocurred with 9.0.4.5, and it's happening with both AMD and NVidia (albiet more with the former than the latter) on multiple machines. The AMD drivers are new as of May this year, so I can understand if DVDFab hasn't caught up with them yet, but hopefully it will in a future software update.

You didn't have to buy Win 7 x64, you should have borrowed it for the install. Your original Win 7 x86 install number is good for either version.

Funny story about that. I originally used a copy of WinXP when I built the desktop, and later upgraded to Win7 x86 using a copy I purchased from eBay due to the significantly lower price. The seller had solid feedback and claimed it was OEM software, and the packaging (including seals and holograms) certainly appeared authentic. However when I entered the code during the install, I was informed that it was not genuine. MS customer service said that, although the software and code were originally genuine, it had been flagged in their system because it was part of a stolen batch that was being re-sold through various channels online. Of course the eBay user was nowhere to be found when I tried to get my money back - lesson learned on trying to acquire such things "on the cheap" and on eBay. This new copy is just to get an authentic code so I can get rid of the annoying "Your copy of Windows is not genuine" messages that constantly pop up.

You should also investigate the use of Intel Quick Sync on the Alienware laptop, it will be quicker than a GPU encode.

I'll definitely look into that - is there anything I'll have to install or do to be able to use it, or do I just have to switch from my discreet GPU over to the integrated video processing? Also, is there any kind of quality difference between Quick Sync and CPU/software? Based on the numbers in the DVDFab manual, it seems that upgrading my CPU to (as an example) an i7 4470K would yield quicker decoding/encoding than would the upgraded NVidia graphics card that I ordered.

[martythebrit]

The same applies though, your install number is good for either the x86 or the x64 version of whatever Windows you have.

Your laptop has and ATI video card, so you'll need to install Virtu. If it's available it will be downloadable at your computer manufacturers website, assuming of course it isn't installed already. After this you need to select Quick Sync under video codecs in DVDFab.

[martythebrit]

To give you an idea of the speed of a Quick Sync recode I have an i7-3770K with 16 GB's of ram, to recode a 50GB Blu-ray to 25GB main movie only is in the ball park of 30 - 40 minutes, depending on the actual size of the movie.

Quality wise, I don't see a difference between Quick Sync and software only, your results may vary.

[TheaterNut]

The same applies though, your install number is good for either the x86 or the x64 version of whatever Windows you have.

The last good verification code that I have is for WinXP - this code will not be accepted for Win7, as there is no "upgrade" path from XP to 7 (a clean install was the only option). If I'd started with Vista, I'd have been good.

Your laptop has and ATI video card, so you'll need to install Virtu. If it's available it will be downloadable at your computer manufacturers website, assuming of course it isn't installed already. After this you need to select Quick Sync under video codecs in DVDFab.

I just checked, and it looks like Virtu is not free on the Lucidlogix website, it wasn't included on my M18x R2, and it isn't available for download at the Dell website. Is this the only method I have for taking advantage of Quick Sync? It seems odd that I'd have to download extra software to access a feature that's built-in to my CPU.

[martythebrit]

I would just download and install the Virtu first to see if it works, I believe the software has a 14 day trial period.

I would download this version;


The license for the software is contained within your computer Bios if you're able to use it. Once installed the program will state it's licensed or a trial version, if it states trial you'll need to buy it if you want it.

The version in the link is the version normally bundled with hardware and systems and can't be bought. The MVP 2.0 version is the version you can buy and is being bundled with some of the newer Haswell/i7 4th generation motherboards.

[martythebrit]

Your Wife's i7 laptop has Quick Sync too.

[TheaterNut]

I would just download and install the Virtu first to see if it works, I believe the software has a 14 day trial period.

I would download this version;


The license for the software is contained within your computer Bios if you're able to use it. Once installed the program will state it's licensed or a trial version, if it states trial you'll need to buy it if you want it.

The version in the link is the version normally bundled with hardware and systems and can't be bought. The MVP 2.0 version is the version you can buy and is being bundled with some of the newer Haswell/i7 4th generation motherboards.

Thanks. Unfortunately that link only contains the desktop version of their Virtu Universal MVP software (couldn't find the mobile version anywhere, wouldn't let me install the desktop version). I tried the Virtu Universal (non-MVP) mobile version, but got an immediate error stating that I didn't have a license for the software and the install aborted. Any other suggestions?

Your Wife's i7 laptop has Quick Sync too.

Thanks, after your first post I switched over to Quick Sync for H.264, MPEG-2, and encoding on that laptop. Neither my desktop nor the Acer laptop have it since they contain 1st gen i7 processors.

After doing some more reading, I'm strongly considering returning the new graphics card that I ordered for my desktop and instead ordering a new motherboard and i7 4770K processor since it seems that Quick Sync will yield faster and higher-quality results than will using a GPU.

[martythebrit]

Take a look here;

http://www.originpc.com/landing/lucidmvp.aspx

I would give MVP 2.0 a shot, it has a trial period too.

I think your on the right track, I think you'll get much better results from a 4th generation i7 upgrade.

[TheaterNut]

Take a look here;

http://www.originpc.com/landing/lucidmvp.aspx

I would give MVP 2.0 a shot, it has a trial period too.

I think your on the right track, I think you'll get much better results from a 4th generation i7 upgrade.

Ok, I'll give MVP 2.0 a shot.

From all that I've read about Quick Sync, I shouldn't have to turn it on or download extra software to enable it. It's simply part of the integrated graphics in the Core i7 G2 and beyond. On my wife's laptop, I didn't have to do anything extra for it to show as one of my options in DVDFab in the codec section. I'm curious why, on my M18x, with the integrated graphics enabled and my 7970m disabled, it's still not showing as a choice in DVDFab.

[martythebrit]

Virtu is only required if you have a discrete graphics card. If you're using the integrated graphics you're good to go.

Could be something in the way the Bios is coded on your laptop which is stopping the QS from working.

[martythebrit]

Actually, the QS code to make it work is part of the video driver software, do you have HD 4000 graphics on your laptop or something else?

[TheaterNut]

My 3840QM i7 has the HD4000, and according to the Intel website QS is included on this chip. I can manually toggle between the HD4000 and the 7970m, and right now I'm using the HD4000.