CPU Not Good Enough?

[redone632]

I recently set up my file server/media server and it's running an AMD 64 X2 5000 OC'd @ 3.4 Ghz. I've noticed that playback on the PS3 for 1080p videos will stutter at times, I've ruled out bandwidth because I'm on a Gigabit connection and I've noticed on the status bar on the PS3 Media Server the buffer bar can barely keep up. So I'm positive it's the CPU. Now I need to figure out a solution without having to buy a new CPU.

Does the quality options affect the processing power needed? Like would the Lossless quality option (high bitrate) require less CPU power then the rest?
Is there anyway to give more CPU power to the encoder? I tried setting the mencoder.exe priority to Real Time but that didn't seem to make a difference, the max load it was doing was around 60%.
Are there any other options I can change? I heard that tsMuxer (sp?) requires less CPU power then Mencoder. How would I do this?

Thank you for your help

[shagrath]

try the "enhanced multicore" option, in mencoder config panel

[redone632]

I should also add that it play 720p videos fine.

[tholeth]

a new multicore cpu about 2.6 should do it for you when transcoding from Mencoder in 1080p over gig net lan,,
it does for me anyways,

[redone632]

a new multicore cpu about 2.6 should do it for you when transcoding from Mencoder in 1080p over gig net lan,,
it does for me anyways,

What settings from default do you have?

[redone632]

Ok, so I've tried multiple videos all on 1080p with h264 AC3 around 9500 kbps. Pineapple Express and Transformers all do fine. I look at the buffer bar and it keeps up. However it seems only with the movie 300 that it has a hard time keeping up. I even paused it and let it fill the buffer bar up (600 MB) and it's still going down, it eventually runs out after 10 minutes. Is it just the effect that 300 has? It has a grainy sort of effect to the video that may make it harder to transcode. How would I go about just converting it to something that the PS3 can read instead of transcoding it, without losing much quality.

[enzeder]

You might find the issue is that 300 is encoded with VC-1 whilst the other two are AVC and therefore are either being transcoded or just remuxed depending on your set-up.
I have a slower CPU than yours and any AVC and H264 work beuatifully but any VC-1 is a no go. Hopefully Sony will one day put VC-1 decoding into the firmware.

[ExSport]

Already it is there but not in .m2ts container but in .wmv only.

[redone632]

Is there a quick and easy tool to find out what exactly a video is encoded with?

[Irvysan]

Is there a quick and easy tool to find out what exactly a video is encoded with?

Yes :

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

Hope that does what you want