Recommendations

[tejon]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking to move my mvp server onto a spare computer, so when I'm playing video games on my main pc, and downstairs decides to watch an xvid via the mvp ffmpeg doesnt cause my games to slow right down

I'd like to know what sort of hardware specifications, perticulary the CPU to go for when looking for a box to do the ffmpeg conversion - basically what can I get away with and keep my budget down.

At the moment Im running the mvp server software on my main pc with has an AMD 64 4000 cpu that wizzes through your standard xvid/divx hdtv rip 40min (400mb) in about 10min, which is overkill.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Cheers

Ben

[Spartan]

I just got done transcoding a 40 min HD avi using trans2mvp.bat (which can be found in this forum and uses ffmpeg) and it took roughly 30 minutes. My system specs are below.

Note that I have no idea how the ffmpeg flags (padding, etc) affect the transcoding time...

[scott]

I run an MVP off of a dell 4100 - a 1.0 ghz (maybe even celeron, I'm not sure) machine with 512 mb memory, running XP. I got the machine because a co-worker was tossing it about two years ago.

The MVP hardware encoding really off-loads alot of horsepower requirement from the PC, so it'd probably be worthwhile to try just about anything in the neighborhood of the above spec for a MVP server.

Note that the machine (which sits in the basement, in the kid's playroom) also pulls double duty by also playing GBPVR thought the computer's 19" vga monitor. In this case, it is doing all the decoding on the back of the 1 Ghz processor - and that works fine. Bump-free, perfectly watchable TV...