Modified for DVD Catalyst 4 (02-20-2011)
DEVICE PROFILE CHOICE
If you are new to DVD Catalyst 4, and there are multiple profiles listed for your device, start with the standard profile (the one without anything behind it).
The #1 reason why people experience slow DVD rips or Video conversions is because of the selected device profile in DVD Catalyst 4. For many devices, DVD Catalyst 4 includes a collection of quality profiles, and almost everyone goes for the HQ/HQ2 or HD profiles first, with the mindset that these produce the best possible quality. Of course, the higher the quality settings, the better the results, but this is ofcourse directly connected to the conversion speed as well. Higher quality means that the conversion engine spends more time for the conversion. The thing is, in most cases people have a hard time telling the difference, especially when you view the videos on a smaller screen. When you play the video on a TV or full-screen on your computer, you will probably be able to notice a difference in quality, but if you just want your videos on your phone/eReader or portable media player, the standard profiles provide excelent quality at a reasonable filesize and conversion speed.
VIDEO LOCATION AND OUTPUT FOLDER LOCATION
NEVER convert directly to a device, and if possible use your internal drives rather than external/network drives.
The #2 reason why people experience slow conversions is due to the location of where the original videos (dvds) are located and where the conversion is setup to put the created files (output folder location). If you convert from an internal DVD drive, and the output folder is set to store the created files on your internal computer harddrive (c-drive), the conversion engine will be able to convert a lot quicker than if you convert from a USB external DVD drive to a USB external harddrive. Using a NAS for storage, or even converting directly to a memorycard will affect the conversion speed negatively as well, depending on the connection used (for a NAS, 10mbit, 100mbit, 1000mbit, for a memorycard, the USB speed, as well as the read/write speeds of the memorycard/connected device). DVD and Video conversion works best with a consistent speed, and when using USB or Network attached drives, the speed fluctuates continuously.
CPU / PROCESSOR
DVD and Video conversion speed relies greatly on the processor in your computer. Many people don’t realize what it takes to change a video from one format to another. The reason why you use DVD Catalyst (or any other conversion tool) is because the device you want to use for video playback doesn’t support the original video you have. Phones do not have a DVD drive, and iPods don’t play AVI files, so in order to turn a movie from DVD or AVI into something that does work, it needs to be converted. A normal conversion performs the following steps: 1. the video/dvd gets accessed by the conversion engine. The conversion engine “plays” the video and audio using the codecs needed. During “playback” it adjusts the size of the video to make it compatible with your device, it applies things like volume, brightness, contrast to it if selected. Then it compresses the video and audio to turn it into the proper format for your device. DVD Catalyst 4 does all this in 1 single step. All these steps are done using the processor in your computer. The faster the processor, the faster the conversion processes can be completed, and thus the faster your conversions. DVD Catalyst 4 is multi-core enabled, which means that if your computer has a DualCore processor, conversions will roughly go twice as fast. If you are lucky enough to have a QuadCore, or even a 6Core processor, conversions will go even faster. While the quality of the created files will be identical (using the same settings) you can convert a 2 hour movie in about 20 minutes if you use a new Intel Core i7 system, but if you use an Asus eeePC with a Celeron processor, the same movie will take about 3 hours to convert. If you are using a single-core processor, I would recommend selecting the fast profile.
DVDs
DVD Catalyst 4 is capable of accessing DVDs using multiple methods. By default, it always tries to use a”fast” access mode, however, depending on how the DVD was created, some do not work this way. When it detects this, it automatically restarts the conversion using a safer access mode, which unfortunately is a bit slower. In most cases, a program such as AnyDVD, DVDfab Passkey or DVD43 can help, however, sometimes these programs also cause complications with the conversion. If you use any of these programs, and run into complications, try turning it off and see if that fixes the problem.
VIDEO FILES
If you convert video files, using 1 harddrive for the original files and another harddrive as the output location, conversion speed will benefit greatly, but the resolution as well as the format of your video files affect the conversion speed as well. As mentioned, the video files are “played”, resized and then converted, so if your video files are in a format that requires a lot of processing power (h264 for example) and/or your video files have a high resolution (1080p) the conversion speed will be affected.
