H.264 and MPEG4 Cluster and/or Hardware Encoding

ben.lastname

I have used DIVX encoder, canopus, and videora to encode different videos into H.264 video format. Currently I have been using a single pass at 600 kbps. I am currently encoding at about 1/3 real time. I would like to do doube pass at real time or better. I am well aware there are a couple tweaks I can make: increase ram and use HDs on separate IDE channels etc but I don't think it's going to help THAT much.

The two solutions I could think of were to either use software that uses clustering. I personally would like this solution because I have SEVERAL computers laying around. From what I understand about clustering (which isn't much) clusters are better at taking several small files as opposed to one big file. Hardware would be acceptable but I can't seem to find anybody that makes anything for H.264.

Any help would be appreciated!

psycosquirrel

Actually, the increased RAM can make huge differences if you are maxing out your RAM. Also, faster RAM will make a signifigant difference if your cpu can take a greater speed than you are already doing. To encode in real time would be difficult without high-end hardware...

jayandsilo

why would you want to encode in real time anyway

ganesh

Ben, Now this is an interesting topic!

If you are ready to wait for a few months (say, till Christmas), there are going to be gadgets selling in the market for around $150 (which will go down eventually) which can perform H.264 encoding in real time at even HD resolutions (bit-rates upto 20 MBps, limited only by access time to storage media).

It is perfectly acceptable if you want to encode in real time! Why, as a consumer, if you are capturing footage on a camcorder, you might want to store it in H.264 format even as you record your video, instead of undertaking the process of transferring the uncompressed video from your camcorder to the PC, and then compressing it to burn it on to a DVD and so on.

Of course, a chip / system capable of doing the latter task requires only peripheral adjustment to do the task that Ben needs.