Distributive Rendering - Final Cut Studio

[JeDiBoYTJ]

I just heard that Final Cut Studio includes a way to do "Distributive Rendering" in Compressor, whereas you connect 2 or more computers through ethernet or whatever and it renders using all the machines power thats on the network... Can someone explain to me the easiest way to do this? lets just say I want to connect two PBs and harness both the machines powers to render. thanks in advance!

 

[strydr]

I just heard that Final Cut Studio includes a way to do "Distributive Rendering" in Compressor, whereas you connect 2 or more computers through ethernet or whatever and it renders using all the machines power thats on the network... Can someone explain to me the easiest way to do this? lets just say I want to connect two PBs and harness both the machines powers to render. thanks in advance!

I believe this is through Xgrid. http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/xgrid/
I'm not sure, but I think you need a OSX Server to complete this setup. I really want to use this feature, but I do not have a App to try.

 

[JeDiBoYTJ]

i used XGrid (I believe thats what it was) at my old high school. I connected 4 1ghz eMacs together, and got a total of a 4ghz cluster running... the only problem is that it doesn't work with everything... only things that require scientific calculations...

I'll give it a try and see if Compressor notices the cluster, but I'm interested in hearing others responses to this subject.

 

[strydr]

me too, I've always wanted to use xGrid, I just never had a App to try. I have the hardware for it, but the only really CPU intensive Apps I use are FFMPEGX, and Cubase, and I don't think they will ever take advantage of this feature.

 

[Rod Rod]

It's got nothing to do with Xgrid. It's got to do with Apple Qmaster. Install Apple Qmaster on each of your machines. Connect them with each other (on the same network even). Read the Help file one or two times. It's not that hard. I can walk you through it, but it'd just amount to a re-write of the help file / how-to PDF that comes with the program.

 

[strydr]

thanks Rod Rod,
now to learn FCP, so I can try this..
(haha)

 

[robx2]

My understanding is that you'll need legit copies of Compressor for each machine. Is that correct? Anybody running Qmaster successfully to do encodes?

 

[Rod Rod]

My understanding is that you'll need legit copies of Compressor for each machine. Is that correct? Anybody running Qmaster successfully to do encodes?

DVD Studio Pro (and I'm pretty reasonably sure Compressor) comes with Apple Qmaster, which you're free to legitimately install on as many machines as you wish on your local network. It's on some sort of "Extras" folder in the installer DVD.

strydr: you're welcome. FCP seems to have a steep learning curve but once you learn the very basics you'll find it's easy to get started.

 

[JeDiBoYTJ]

sweet... I believe QMaster is already installed on my computer... now all I gotta do is get ahold of my friends powerbook and see if it works. i'll look through the manuals/pdfs too, thanks Rod Rod.