[HELP] FFmpeg x264 not fully utilizing the CPU

[Selur]

Seeing as you replaced it with "q", I guess I've never seen it used in FFmpeg commands before. I read this and tested the answer. It was true: the argument "q" gets ignored in libx264.

Needs to be probably cq or qp then.

Not sure what you mean by that. I believe an mkv with a cover would mean an empty video inside the mkv, just some cover and the audio? Well, the video needs to have the picture displayed constantly while the video is played back, so just a cover won't do.

Confused. Why is there a delay if you only use one image?

If possible, I'd still like them used.

try changing the threads in the x264 options, but my guess is that there is simply not much to do for motion estimation etc. if the input doesn't change.
Probably better simply run multiple encodes in parallel.

Cu Selur