It is a known fact that encoding with WMV9 codec is very slow compared to the encoding time with WMV8.
One practical example is mentioned below:
The movie National Security was encoded to WMV7, WMV8 and WMV9.
A video bit rate of 936 kbps 2-pass VBR and Windows Media Audio 9 Professional 192 kbps, 48 kHz, 5.1 channel 24 bit 2-pass VBR was used for all the sessions.
Encoding times are as follows.
The encoding was done in a Pentium® 4 3.00 GHz PC
Content duration: 00:01:24:44 (dd:hh:mm:ss)
| Video Codec | Session Duration (dd:hh:mm:ss) |
|---|---|
| WMV9 | 00:15:46:47 |
| WMV8 | 00:02:45:20 |
| WMV7 | 00:01:54:06 |
If you need encoding to be done faster, go with WMV8 codec, you will not be frustrated with the results.