Hardware issues

[eran]

Hi,

I have few questions regarding the flix Engine

Does the Flix engine utilizes Hyperthreading and Multiple CPU's on the machine? What difference in performance can I expect from 2 or 4 CPU's ?

Are there any recommendations for hardware config ?

Is there a performance difference between the Linux & the Win versions ?

Will the Linux version support the wmv format in the future ?
Does the flix engine supports all Codecs installed on the machine for a certain file format ? for example divX & old versions of avi for the .avi file format ?

Is there a documentation available with reference of the COM object ?

Thanks
Eran

[Nyst]

The hardware recommended varies by the engine`s application and the content it needs to work on.

Generally its 3G+ CPU for long& hard operations and anything less. 1G RAM seems to be enough in any case but depens on the application / technology that you use the engine with - PHP/VB/....

What are the properties of the work that you wish to use it for?:cool:

[eran]

The engine is supposed to be used for encoding previously compressed content in all file formats & Codecs. The max. file size is <100Mb.

The scale of work can be quite significant. The intended application is for a Video Sharing community where all uploaded content is encoded to the FLV V8 format.

Assuming we're using the Win platform, will multiple CPU's & HyperThreading/DualCore will provide better performance?

Can you address the other issues in the first post as well?

Thanks

[Nyst]

Well im not of On2`s staff so I can`t reply on the "Linux/WMV" question.

About the COM object: It seems that it is best to use the engine as a COM object in any type of application. That way it seems to use 100% of the CPU. If your content doesnt require frequent or per-task settings changes than I suggest to just load them with the profile file ("flx" extension).

Its easier to use their precompiled encoder application "flixcmd.exe" with opening a process for it in scripting languages, only in this case its process will take only 50% of the available CPU power.

An HT-enhanced application should use both "fake" CPU`s and an application with the engine as a COM object seems to be performance-wise a better solution.

Note: Running two encoding processes on one maschine in parallel seems to result in some sound corruption some times:cool:

[jklett]

I would love to get an answer to the dual CPUs vs. single CPU vs. dual core question. I'm going to order a new server to run another Flix Engine on, and would like to get the best bang for the buck.

Anyone from On2 out there that can provide an answer?

[jlon2]

Hi, everybody.

Does the Flix engine utilizes Hyperthreading and Multiple CPU's on the machine? What difference in performance can I expect from 2 or 4 CPU's ?
We have no specific optimizations targeting multiple CPU environments. The
encoding server is multithreaded so in that case we are at the mercy of the
scheduler.

Is there a performance difference between the Linux & the Win versions ?
Not for Flash 8/VP6. H.263 is much faster in Linux.

Will the Linux version support the wmv format in the future ?
It already does.

Does the flix engine supports all Codecs installed on the machine for a certain file format ? for example divX & old versions of avi for the .avi file format ?
If the host machine can decode the file & it is in a supported container format, Flix can encode it.

[steve]

Note: Running two encoding processes on one maschine in parallel seems to result in some sound corruption some times:cool:

when running two encoding processes on the same machine, i've also been seeing entire frames or portions of frames bounce between the two encoded videos. in my observations, the only way to saturate the cpus on my dual proc machine is to run two encoders concurrently, so it's rather unfortunate that the resulting videos are unusable.

does anyone know whether the flix sdk (the directshow filter) falls prey to the same problem?