How can I make VLC use both threads on my CPU?

Question

I'd like to make VLC encode a video. I know how to do that. But when it does the job it only uses half of the processor. I don't have a multi core processor, I have a Pentium 4 with HyperThreading technology. Is there a way to use both?

Answer 1

HT is a FAKE cpu, not a real one. If the cpu is running at 100% trying to divide the work between the 100% used cpu is useless. You need a REAL dual cpu in order to take advantage of it.

Answer 2

If the programmers encoded hyperthreading into VLC it is already working, unless you changed some settings. If they didn't, watch for a newer version of VLC.

If you have a fast CPU, try bumping your RAM to 2GB, if needed.

You could also try to google for other video encoders to see which one is faster. www.tomshardware.com and www.snapfiles.com may have some good reviews.

TIP: For programs to take advantage of dual core processors, they must be designed to do so, and most aren't yet.

Answer 3

VLC is multi-threaded but most decoders aren't so you will likely not see much benefit on a dual core CPU or with hyperthreading.

For encoding you need to enable multiple threads using the Stream Output/Sout Stream/Transcode/Number of Threads option.

How much benefit you will see when transcoding on a hyperthreaded CPU I don't know but I suspect probably not much as the single physical CPU is likely already saturated but you will probably see some nominal improvement.