[MPlayer-users] mencoder performance

[Corey Hickey]

Bokor Norbert wrote:
> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> 
>>15 fps also with lavc...
>>(-ovc lavc -lavcopts 
>>vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1500:vhq:v4mv:vpass=1:keyint=50)
>>xvid was :
>>(-ovc xvid -xvidencopts bitrate=1500:me_quality=6:4mv:pass=1)
> 
> 
> hm. while mencoder is running, see 'top' output, but to tell you the
> truth I don't think it will show anything usefeul. but maybe...
> if you and your friend used the same compiling options for
> mplayer, I have no more idea...
> 

There are a couple things I can think of:

1. On one of the machines, compile mplayer with --enable-static passed
to configure. This will build a self-contained, statically-linked
binary. Copy the new mencoder file to each machine.

2. Boot each machine off of a bootable floppy or CD such as Knoppix
(whichever you use, make it the same for both). Also, make sure it
doesn't start X11 (Knoppix has an option for this, but I don't remember
what).

3. Mount whatever filesystem is necessary, and run the statically-linked
mencoder.
$ mencoder somefile.avi <whatever options> -o /dev/null
Try to minimize the amount of disk activity necessary. In particular,
don't encode straight off of a DVD; that will intruduce more variables
to your test. Hard disks are usually fast enough to not be the limiting
factor, so use -dumpstream to copy the DVD track to disk first if you
haven't already.

...there's probably more, but that should give you a reasonable start.

-Corey