How can I use multiple PC's to edit/process large files ?

[MadMatty]

I have 3 PC' on a 100Mbit network I would like to use all 3 to process large files, ie convert to VCD or or SVCD or DVD or DIVX formats. Is there any way I can use something like FlaskMPG or VirtualDub to do this. if not is there any software that can ?



TIA Matty

[khp]

No, you can't have multiple PC's working on the same video concurrently.

OK that's not entirely true, vidomi supports this. But it works by splitting the source into smaller chunks before conversion takes place. IMHO this is an abomination.

You might ask, 'Why not have one PC doing source decoding, and pass the decoded frames to another PC doing preprocessing and finally pass the preprocessed frames to a third PC doing encoding.'

The problem with this setup, is that uncompressed video is very bandwith heavy, you'll need a 1GB network for this to work at a reasonable speed. And of course there is no software that supports this.

[MadMatty]

oh popo, well it was worth a try since I have them just sat there doing nothing most of the time.....

will just have to work on 3 videos at a time instead

Thanks for your reply.

BTW do you know if there is good editing software for multithreading on dual processor PC (thats my next step)?

Regards Matty

[khp]

For DVD->DivX conversion, the Avisynth->Virtualdub method will work on two CPUs, one doing decoding and preprocessing (in avisynth), the other doing encoding (in virtualdub).

The easiest way to run this kind of conversion is to use GKnot.

http://gknot.doom9.net

But for general video editing, you should not expect to see much multi processor support.

[MadMatty]

Thanks, just going to look now, (1 am should be going to bed but it's only work tomorow).