[Wylug-help] Video Encoding/Transcoding Hardware

[John Hodrien]

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005, Dave Fisher wrote:

> Mostly, the problem is the time required on fairly basic consumer PCs,
> but I am also experiencing occasional errors.

> I'm not entirely sure whether the errors are only ocurring when
> decoding for display, but one thing is undoubtedly clear: my current kit
> doesn't have the umph I would like.

Burn it to a DVD and play it on a consumer player to make sure that's it's an
encoding problem (but I'd bet my money at that end).

> Would there be much merit in investigating dedicated hardware encoders?

I'm not sure, I don't have experience with them I'm afraid.

> If so, do you have any recommendations?
>
> What sort of system/components should I be looking at to hit a plausible
> price/performance sweetspot for video encoding (I doubt if I can afford
> the kind of kit that professional studios use)?

> Multi-processor boards?  Dual Core processors?  64-Bit? A cluster of
> less powerful (but cheaper) boxes?  Disk speeds/types? Buses/bandwidth?
> Memory types/sizes.

The only time I've done any video encoding I found my Dual channel DDR 400 AMD
2700+ was entirely CPU limited.  Clustering is a good option if you've got
spare machines already, but I guess is highly dependent on what software
you're using.  If you're talking multiple processing cores, I can tell you
that the AMD dual core chips are absolute belters, but do come with a price
tag to match.

Take a look at tomshardware and look for their CPU review for what you've
already got, and compare it with the more recent stuff:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/08/01/dual/page10.html

jh

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