DVD ripping, fan speed control, etc.

[Ar-Pharazon]

A couple questions for the experts, for the most part related to the same activities.
I've been ripping many a DVD to .wmv format lately. Not the absolute best format, but I can view on any computer, including at work, where there's only Windows Media Player.
Firstly, while ripping M*A*S*H episodes, one or more of the fans would automatically go high speed during the ripping and slow down between each "title", but while ripping Futurama eps, the fan speeds remain unchanged.
This leads to the more concerning thing. During a long period of ripping Futurama eps, I got a BSOD "memory dump" type error, I couldn't see all the info before it restarted Windows, but it might have been heat related, especially due to the fan speed issue.
So now I run NVIDIA system monitor during the ripping process, and it shows temp.of CPUs (quad) no higher than 80 degrees C, which isn't supposed to be too high. And I haven't had another BSOD, yet.
I've also tried SpeedFan concurrently with the NVIDIA system monitor, and it showed pretty much the same temp, but I haven't been able to get SpeedFan to change the actual fan speed.

So the first question is, have any of you used SpeedFan, or another such app to control fan speed and/or monitor temps and what not. SpeedFan seems kinda primitive UI wise, but is supposed to be good.

Second question, related to file size after ripping. The live action M*A*S*H eps are roughly twice the size as the Futurama eps, though roughly the same length (give or take a few minutes). Any ideas why this is? Has it got something to do with "live" vs. animated?

 

[FalTorPan]

Second question, related to file size after ripping. The live action M*A*S*H eps are roughly twice the size as the Futurama eps, though roughly the same length (give or take a few minutes). Any ideas why this is? Has it got something to do with "live" vs. animated?

Indirectly, yes. Generally speaking video compression algorithms work best when the video contains large fields of continuous color across a single frame -- and across multiple frames. Animations tend to fit this pattern better than live-action TV shows.

 

[USS KG5]

^^^^

What he said. It pretty much explains the difference in work your PC happens to be doing.

As for the BSOD, given as your CPU was getting up to fairly high temperatures I imagine this would be the cause. Have you whipped the case off and checked your CPU fan is working correctly and you have clear air-flow through the case?

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Fans are working OK. Front & back case fans, plus the CPU fan mounted on the heat dissipating fins. The side panel has an open grille where the CPU heat sink/fins are for extra ventilation.
As I said, I don't know why the speed ramped up for the earlier rips but not the ongoing ones, and SpeedFan hasn't been any help so far.
I've seen differing opinion as to what is a safe upper temperature for a CPU, but I would like to keep it as low as possible.

Another mystery (to me) is why all 4 of the quad processors run at 60%+ during this process. I'd always thought they weren't all used unless multi-tasking. I also see this in NVIDIA system monitor.

 

[ATimson]

Another mystery (to me) is why all 4 of the quad processors run at 60%+ during this process. I'd always thought they weren't all used unless multi-tasking. I also see this in NVIDIA system monitor.

Assuming that you're talking about the encoding, and not just ripping: most encoders nowadays are multithreaded, meaning that if you have multiple processors, they'll work on several of them at once and make the encode take less time.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

This is ripping episodes to .wmv format, and it always seems like it's a 1:1 time ratio (takes exactly the length of the episode to rip). As opposed to DVD to DVD copying, which goes much quicker with the apps I use (both Magic products).