Multiple Servers

[mrwolf]

Ok, just point me to the right FAQ if you can and spare me the "search the forums" comments. Try Googling "law" and see what you come up with I can't seem to find what I'm looking for because there is too much information.

My primary server is a P4-3GHz w/ 2GB RAM and has three DirecTV STBs connected. When I try to convert a video it drags it to its knees. I have a another server on my network that is a XEON 2.8GHz and is doing only file storage and is used very little. I'm hoping I can use it to do the video conversions 24/7. It is running Windows 2003 server, but since it's not going to be using a tuner card or remote control, I don't think the OS would matter.

Can this be done?

[rlvogel322]

Yes, look at EvilPenguin's Video Tools.

You can use Dirmon on the machine you want to do all the converting.

[mikesm]

Originally Posted by rlvogel322

Yes, look at EvilPenguin's Video Tools.

You can use Dirmon on the machine you want to do all the converting.

That only works if you are using sageMC.

[davephan]

I used to use multiple computers with SageTV, offloading the MPEG2 to Xvid AVI transcoding to other computers, with standard definition. I used the Roxy99 video transcoding process on a couple other computers, using DIRMON2.

It was hard to for the other computers to keep up with the new video files being created since the dedicated video transcoding computers were older and slower than my main faster computer that I use with SageTV. At one point, I had three older computers working on transcoding the video files, and still could not keep up.

If a faster computer was used for transcoding the video, then I think offloading the video transcoding would have been successful. After offloading transcoding to other computers for several months, my opinion is that it isn't worth doing because of the power costs to run all those other computers.

When I replaced my main system with a dual-core E6850 3.0 gig CPU, after my old Athlon XP 2800+ system board died, offloading transcoding was not necessary. The dual-core E6850 can easily keep up with transcoding at the same time as recording programs and watching other compressed video programs on my MVP. There difference between the Athlon XP 2800+ and E6850 is very drastic.

You might also consider the QX9650 quad-core 3.0 CPU. The QX9650 costs about $1060, which is pretty expensive for a CPU, but the performance is very good from the reviews, especially if they overclock it using water cooling or the expensive, but excellent phase cooling.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115034

I haven't switched to HD yet, so I cannot tell you from personal experience how the E6850 performs transcoding HD and watching compressed HD streams.

I don't overclock my E6850, and I never have any problems with the system choking. I can transcode SD video at any time, without scheduling the task for off hours.

So, my recommendation is to save your money for a faster dual-core or quad-core computer, and replace your SageTV computer.


Dave