[MPlayer-dev-eng] SMP and mencoder

[German Gomez Garcia]

	Hello,

	I've beeing using transcode regulary to encode, but now I decide
to give mencoder a try, and well, in fact, I'm currently testing both
encoders for speed, capabilities, easy of use for the novice (both long
command-lines so ... ;-), etc. I own a dual Thunderbird 1.4Ghz and well,
I know that a good test should include also some P4 machine but my budget
is limited.

	The problem is that I feel that mencoder is in disadvantage here,
as it isn't parallized at all, while transcode using several programs for
each task (demuxing, decoding, encoding audio, encoding video, etc), has
a real advantage running in SMP configurations. In fact I don't know if
it is fair to compare both programs in this platform, but somebody could
argue the same if I were to run it on an uniproccesor system, as transcode
advantage would turn in real disadvantage. Anyway as I have a SMP system
I would like to know if there is any possibility of making mencoder
take advantage of dual processor configuration. As far as I have look
through the code, well .. it seems quite linear, so no parallel anything,
but I wonder if it would be interesting to parallelize some routines
so they work in different threads (decoding/postproccessing/encoding),
I've searched the mailing list for info on it, and found nothing but
some flaming about threading, modularizing, etc. I'm not talking about
making it fully modular or fully multithreaded, just the most demanding
parts that could be run in parallel to really improving speed on SMP.

	I'll keep you informed on the progress of the tests (but as I'm
writing this email it seems that transcode is fastest (43fps transcode
33fps mencoder) but it is using 100% of my CPU power, while mencoder
only use 50%, jeje, need to think on it :-)

	Best regards and happy coding,

	- german

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