MM2 and Networks

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

I did an overnight test of Movie Maker's 'network awareness' and it worked
great.

My laptop is my primary movie making computer. It had 9 GB free and I
rendered a 12.9 GB DV-AVI file.

I tie into my home network with a wireless connection. By putting the source
files, the project file, MM2's temporary files, and the saved DV-AVI movie
all on the hard drive of one of my desktop computers, I was able to use the
laptop to make the project and save the one hour movie without using any of
it's free disk space. The render took 14 hours.

It was a test for a section of the book I'm working on.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..

 

[Bob [MVP]]

A couple questions, just out of curiosity...

What kind of wireless network are you using?

How long do you think it would have taken
to render your movie if you had been using
the hard drive in your laptop, instead of
a networked drive?

--
-Bob
____________________________
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Media Center Edition
www.microsoft.com/ehome

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Hi Bob,

It's a standard Linksys router/switch - model BEFW11S4 - 802.11b (not a g
system)

The laptop is 2.4 Ghz and the CPU was chugging along at about 85% during the
rendering. Normally a local rendering would be going at 100% and limited by
the CPU. In this case it was limited by network bandwidth.

85% seems pretty high, so enough data was flowing into the CPU to keep it
running that high. If a local rendering used 100%, then the savings in time
would only be a few hours of the total.

Two advantages at running at 85% are: I could do other things with the
computer while the rendering was happening, and the CPU is running a bit
cooler than it runs at 100%. I haven't had the CPU on this laptop overheat,
but I've known others to do it during rendering.

--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..

 

[PapaJohn \(MVP\)]

Bob,

I'm checking it further by doing a local rendering, using the newer, faster
computer whose hard drive I used when doing last nights rendering.

It's brand new 3.2 Ghz computer. It's interesting that the CPU is running at
just over 50%. It's only 10 percent rendered by at the rate it's going,
it'll take 4 hours in total... versus the 14 hours over the network (but
using the 2.4 Ghz laptop).

If I extrapolate that info, the laptop working locally would take between 4
and 6 hours instead of the 14 hours it took over the network.
--
PapaJohn

Movie Maker 2 - www.papajohn.org
Photo Story 2 - www.photostory.papajohn.org

..

 

[PapaJohn]

Another note about the test. The drive I was using on the other computer
wasn't mapped with a drive letter... I accessed it via My Network Places.

Some software can only use other drives if they are mapped with a drive
letter. Movie Maker 2 works fine without them.
--
PapaJohn
Movie Maker 2: www.papajohn.org
PhotoStory 2: www.photostory.papajohn.org
..
..

 

[John Kelly]

Hello papajohn,

One of your fellow mvp's who has tried to defend you has eventually realised
that you are hopelesly WRONG...here is what Dana says....

According to J. Bollinger, Institut Fur Computer Systeme, Zurich,
"Applications that can deal with changes in the network environment are
called network-aware. A network-aware application attempts to adjust its
resource demands in response to network performance variations."

By this definition, MM certainly is not network aware.

Tim O'Reilly, at http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3422, postulates that
there are more than a handful of criteria that define "network awareness".

MM doesn't seem to meet any of them.

Comments?

How did you like the new 403 ?

John Kelly