Reducing resource usage in handbrake?

[Seth L]

Pretty much title. I'm trying to rip my DVD's to my PC to set up for my Plex server, and it takes up all of my resources to do so. Is there a way to reduce the usage on my CPU that handbrake uses? Obviously it would slow down how fast I'm encoding the movies, but I don't care. I have a mountain of these movies to dig through, and I'd like to be able to rip multiples at once and do other things with my PC while ripping. Which, obviously, is not possible if one instance of Handbrake is using 100% of my CPU.

Anybody know how to do this?

 

[ThatVietGuy]

You can change Handbrake's affinity - https://www.howtogeek.com/121775/how-to-force-windows-applications-to-use-a-specific-cpu/

Just set it to use 2 or 3 cores (assuming you're using a quad core processor).

 

[Seth L]

You can change Handbrake's affinity - https://www.howtogeek.com/121775/how-to-force-windows-applications-to-use-a-specific-cpu/

Just set it to use 2 or 3 cores (assuming you're using a quad core processor).

I seriously feel like an idiot right now. Why I never thought about setting the affinity is beyond me.
However, that guide doesn't work for Windows 10. Affinity can be set, but it's a different method.

Thank you for reminding me of this. I seriously do feel stupid right now :lol:

 

[randomizer]

You can also set the number of threads used for the encode in the encoding settings under Additional Options. I think "threads=n" should do it. Play with that number to see the effect on CPU usage. This is simpler than setting the affinity every time a new encoder process is spawned because it can be saved in your preset. It may also help x264 split up the work more effectively given the reduced number of available threads. I'm not sure if it will adapt to an adjusted affinity mid-encode. It may continue to use the same number of threads on fewer cores, which would unnecessarily impact performance.

Even with an encode running you should still be able to use your system for simple tasks without reducing the number of threads. I believe the encoding process runs at a Below Normal priority, so it should yield resources to almost any other process as needed. You could set it even lower in the options.