A Distributed DivX Ripper?

RJ asks: "I know much about Java/C++ and sockets programming and I'd like to use this knowledge to build a distributed program to rip a DVD into DivX. It will work by breaking the job into chunks, sending chunks to other computers to encode, then patching it back together. Despite my searching efforts, I have been unable to find a decent resource to teach me how to program the DivX core to encode mpeg2 and re-join parts. I'm hoping that some readers of slashdot can point me in the right direction?"

Comments

Distributed encoding...

[karnal]

I've tried to do something similar before -- namely, breaking up .wav files so that I could distribute the pieces to other machines to encode.

I ran into a snag.

It seems the encoder I was using at the time (bladeenc) was inserting silence at the end of each mp3, to keep it to spec. What I can imagine is that even with DVD encoding, you'd need a "master" that would give out file chunks to the worker bees. But -- it would have to be intelligent enough to know when you wanted a new keyframe, and split up the .avi / .vob in that sense.

In other words, you may as well just build one heck of a fast machine, and try to get 30-40fps encoding out of it, rather than try to put together something to distribute it and encode it. That's my 2 cents, and I may be wrong....

Re:why use sockets ?

[benjamindees]

As the author of Transcode explained to me, using a binary Divx encoder with PVM/MPI/Mosix is impossible. I don't know what state open source Divx encoders are in, but I agree this would be a much better solution than chopping up a DVD and encoding all the pieces separately.